WOOFSTOCK GREETS ALL FURRY FRIENDS
CHICO » About a thousand people and their fur babies joined Butte Humane Society on Saturday to celebrate their fourlegged friends, listen to live music, eat local food and drink local beer. Hosting five food vendors, six food trucks and 20 marketplace vendors, Butte Humane Society welcomed Chico to its new home on Garner Lane in a festival fashion.
Sitting right on site where music could be heard for acres, the new site for the local animal shelter and nonprofit stood at 25,000 acres. The music festival that welcomed animal lovers gave guests not only a chance to be introduced to the new building, but also raised money for the cause.
Before the building could exist, Butte Humane Society raised $8 Million in four years, said Butte Humane Society Executive Director Katrina Woodcox.
“We worked really hard with a lot of people and none of this would have been possible without our donors, businesses, grants and individuals,” said Woodcox. “And every penny that gets donated here today will go to our cause.”
Fundraising initially began in 2018 until the Camp Fire moved Butte Humane Society’s course.
“Once we got through the Camp Fire and we finally got our fundraising legs back up again, then COVID hit so it was really challenging,” said Woodcox. “We’re still not done fundraising yet. We opened our new building with a mortgage essentially, but you can tell by the people here that people really love what we’re doing.”
The festival hosted five local bands including Brittany & The Blisstones, Ivy Flats, Tripple Tree, Big Mo and the Full Moon Band and the Low Flying Birds.
While Big Mo and the Full
Moon Band played through their set, Rick Ingalls and his six-year-old dog, Luca were cooling down after spending hours at the festival.
“She got knocked out as soon as she got here — she’s just a princess like that,” said Ingalls. “But it’s nice that they built this here — the weathers perfect, the food is good and I’m seeing everyone that I haven’t seen in years. I wonder how they got all the dogs to behave together though.”
Traveling across the tenacre field, Marty Simpson, complete with a firefighter costume and a dog mask, was passing out magnets with the North Valley Animal Disaster Group information on it.
Pam Hospers and Beckee Mathison, volunteers at North Valley Animal Disaster Group were teaching guests about disaster preparedness during an evacuation.
The organization put out resources such as sheltering and evacuation assistance during disasters such as the Oroville Dam Crisis, Camp Fire and North Complex Fires.
“It’s amazing the number of people who come up to us and tell us that we helped them out,” said Hospers, “We even had one come find us just now.”
The organization also was educating guests on how to plan a disaster kit for animals and what to do in the case of having to leave behind livestock.
“They stress people, but nobody talks about your animals,” said Mathison. “I think you should have a picture of your pet always but one of you with them so we can verify that they are really yours.”