“I’m not here” says Sharon Harmon, leaving Oregon Humane after 36 years

Harmon raised more money than 121 years of her Oregon Humane Society predecessors––and did much more with it

PORTLAND,  Oregon––More than 250 people on April 24,  2025 crowded into the Governor Ballroom at the 116-year-old Sentinel Hotel in downtown Portland,  Oregon to sing the praises of Sharon Harmon,  66,  retiring after 36 years at the Oregon Humane Society.

Harmon started as the Oregon Humane Society operations director in 1989,  becoming president and chief executive in 1998.

Interim successors

Announcing her impending retirement in February 2025,  Harmon had already introduced as her interim successors co-presidents Jessica Carl,  “chief culture and people officer,”  and Stephen Kochis,  chief medical officer.  A permanent successor is to be named later.

Harmon herself,  rarely inclined to seek the spotlight,  only appeared on stage toward the very end of the ceremony,  to say “I’m not here,”  and accept a plaque including a montage of her law enforcement badges,  presented by Oregon Humane Society chief of law enforcement Chris Allori.

Harmon the rest of the time sat quietly at a table among the audience with her husband Gary Kish,  Oregon Humane Society vice president for legacy gifts and strategic initiatives,  and Humane Colorado president Apryl Steele,  DVM.

The Denver connection

Steele,  44,  1,250 miles from home in Denver,  is a longtime close friend of Harmon and fellow advocate of the “responsible sheltering” philosophy of animal shelter management,  articulated in 2019 by Steele and Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region president Jan McHugh-Smith,  66,  in response to catastrophic failures of “no kill” sheltering.

(See “No-kill” debacle: will Pueblo bring “responsible sheltering” into vogue?)

During the early years of the “no kill movement,”  beginning with the first national “No Kill Conference” in 1995,  Harmon and McHugh-Smith were among the shelter directors who brought population control killing in their respective communities down the most and the fastest,  chiefly by promoting and providing affordable,  accessible spay/neuter of dogs and cats.

What “responsible sheltering” is

But after the “no kill movement” fell under the influence of the “we can save them all” crowd,  including Maddie’s Fund and the Best Friends Animal Society,  Steele,  McHugh-Smith,  and Harmon,  along with former Denver Dumb Friends League president Robert “Bob” Rohde,  were among the few who stood up to say,  “No,  we cannot responsibly save dangerous animals,  or irrecoverably sick and/or injured animals,”  certainly not by transporting them hundreds or even thousands of miles to place them in inadequately screened homes where the animals would only suffer.”

Steele in attending Harmon’s retirement ceremony also returned a gesture of diplomatic respect expressed by Harmon herself in attending the 2018 retirement of Rohde after 45 years at the Denver Dumb Friends League,  41 of them heading the organization.

(See Retired: Bob Rohde personified “your Dumb Friends” for 45 years.)

Steele recently renamed the Denver Dumb Friends League “Humane Colorado.”  That was controversial,  and remains so,  but not nearly so potentially controversial as much that Harmon did,  quietly sidestepping generations of mudslinging critics who mostly managed to hit themselves.

Inherited cadre of critics

The Oregon Humane Society,  the flagship humane organization in the Pacific Northwest,  now claims an annual income of nearly $30 million a year,  with assets of more than $100 million.

But the Oregon Humane Society before Harmon had less than a fifth of the income,  half the assets,  and a cadre of critics,  including Joan Dahlgren Meisenholder, (1927-2006?),  who sporadically published an underground newspaper called Sizzle,  attacking both Oregon Humane and Multnomah County Animal Control;  Roger Troen (1931-2008),  a job printer who in 1988 became the first person convicted of “Animal Liberation Front” activity;  a couple of lawyers who more-or-less made careers of advocating for dangerous dogs;  and the National Animal Interest Alliance,  founded in 1991 by Portland dog breeder Patti Strand.

Up-and-down history

The Oregon Humane Society also had a very long up-and-down history,  not all of it centered on animals.

Founded by Dr. Thomas Lamb Elliot on November 17, 1868,  though not formally incorporated until 1880,  the Oregon Humane Society is only eight months younger than the San Francisco SPCA,  which was the first in the western U.S.

Only the American SPCA (1866) and Massachusetts SPCA (1868) are older in continuous operation under their original names.

The Oregon Humane Society soon added child protection services to the original mandate,  and was the official state child protection agency from 1881 to 1933.

Humane education was put into the Oregon Humane Society mission statement in 1882.

Humane education remained the primary focus of the Oregon Humane Society in 1955,  when it posthumously published The Lawyer & The Tramp:  Advice to Young Teachers,  by Caroline Clyde Holly (1866-1943),  apparently through the influence of her daughter Helen Holly Douglas (1887-1954),  a Coos River High School teacher who died a year before the book appeared.

Caroline “Carrie” Clyde Holly,  one of the first women elected to the Colorado legislature,  served only one term,  but led a successful effort to raise the age of consent for young women from 16 to 18,  a cause then taken up by early feminist organizations nationwide.

“A horrible place”

The initial mission of the Oregon Humane Society was protecting draft horses.

The Oregon Humane Society took over animal control duties for the city of Portland and Multnomah County in 1916.

The first Oregon Humane Society animal shelter,  opened in 1918 and soon outgrown,  stood on the same property that the current Oregon Humane Society shelter occupies today.

The Works Progress Administration replaced the original shelter as a job creation project in 1939.  Remembered by Harmon as  “A horrible place,”  the 1939 shelter was still nationally regarded as a good example of shelter design as recently as 1963,  when it was favorably mentioned in The Quality of Mercy,   by William Alan Swallow,  then considered the definitive history of the humane movement.

(It was nothing of the sort.  See How “Quality of Mercy” Swallowed the humane movement (part 1) and How “Quality of Mercy” Swallowed the humane movement (part 2)

Built for 4,000 animals a year,  took in 55,000

The initial design specifications called for the 1939 Oregon Humane Society shelter to employ 12 workers,  handling 4,000 animals per year.

By 1973 the Oregon Humane Society received 55,000 animals per year.

Giving up the Portland and Multnomah County animal control contracts gradually brought the Oregon Humane Society intake volume down to about 15,000 animals per year,  handled by 48 employees and 600 volunteers.

But total Portland and Multnomah County animal shelter dog and cat intakes rose to 116,490 by 1991,  of whom 79,713 dogs and cats were killed,  a ratio of about 130 to 140 per 1,000 human residents of the service area.

The national average was then circa 115 per 1,000,  but many cities with lower killing rates did not even try to pick up feral cats.

Spay/neuter pushed the numbers down

Pet sterilization was promoted successfully enough that by 1993 the Portland/Multnomah rate of shelter killing was down to 22.7 per 1,000 human residents.

Harmon believed the Portland/Multnomah County community,  with Oregon Humane Society leadership,  could do much better.

Introducing early-age sterilization and support of volunteers doing neuter/return feral cat control,  Harmon as operations director helped to cut the community animal killing ratio in half during her first decade at the Oregon Humane Society.

By 2013 the Portland/Multnomah County community animal killing ratio was down to 1.8 animals killed per 1,000 human residents,  and the Oregon Humane Society itself was in effect a no-kill shelter,  though Harmon refrained from claiming “no kill” status in acknowledgment of euthanizing some animals when appropriate and necessary.

Money from Maddie’s Fund

The Animal Shelter Alliance of Portland,  formed by Harmon in 2006 in partnership with six other local shelters had by 2013 cut the number of dogs and cats killed within their jurisdictions from 18,000 to 6,000 in 2012,  winning a proportionally divided grant of $1 million from Maddie’s Fund to continue their efforts.

The Oregon Humane Society received $470,000.

Meanwhile,  Harmon in 1993 initiated planning and fundraising to replace the 1939-vintage shelter.  This had to be accomplished without a shutdown,  necessitating a modular approach to construction.

Work began in February 1999.  The new dog housing was completed in November 1999.

Built in stages

The 1939 shelter was then partially demolished while the rest of the new shelter was built.  The last of the old shelter came down after the new offices,  cat facilities,  euthanasia room,  and receiving areas were completed.

Harmon included all of the now widely emulated key ideas,  floor plans,  photos,  and history of the rebuilding in a free downloadable PDF file entitled “Oregon Humane Society New Shelter Project 2000,”  just a point-and-click away for anyone with a web browser at https://www.oregonhumane.org/wp-content/uploads/shelter.pdf.

Floor plan

Features of the Oregon Humane Society design begin with an unusually efficient floor plan.

The traffic flow moves entirely from left to right,  from separate receiving stations for dogs and cats,  through separate holding areas for quarantined animals,  animals needing veterinary care,  and holds for rehoming.

Never is there need to take unfamiliar dogs and cats past each other.

Animals pass the entrance to the lightly used euthanasia room as they leave the receiving area,  on their way to be housed in other wings of the building.  If they sense the presence of the euthanasia room at all,  they sense that they are being taken away from it.  Animals arriving for euthanasia do not pass those in care.  Rarely is there need to take animals to be euthanized back past others still in care.

Rabbits

Animals offered for adoption rotate toward the lobby,  enjoying ever more attractive and comfortable surroundings as they clear health and behavioral checks.  Those at the shelter longest are displayed most prominently,  giving them the best chance to be the next animals to find homes.

Possibly the most active rabbit adoption center in the U.S. is just off the lobby.  Access to it is arranged so that the rabbits have little if any awareness of proximity to cats and dogs.

The Oregon Humane Society added an Animal Medical Learning Center in 2007, and a $38 million adjacent “New Road Ahead” four-acre satellite campus in 2022,  including a community veterinary Hospital, a behavior and rescue center,  and an animal crimes forensic center,  described in Harmon’s retirement announcement as “the only one of its kind on the West Coast and a critical resource for helping law enforcement build strong cases against those charged with animal abuse and neglect.”

(See The Oregon Humane Society: more than 11,000 adoptions for sixth year in a row.)

“Influenced nearly every animal protection bill”

“Since 1991,”   Oregon Humane Society chief of law enforcement Chris Allori recited during his plaque presentation,  “Harmon has influenced nearly every animal protection bill in Oregon, including recognition of animals as individual victims of crimes, with a designated animal crimes prosecutor embedded in the Department of Justice.

“Sharon also introduced stiff penalties for animal cruelty and a prohibition of ownership for animal abusers,”  Allori said,  and “established the Oregon Humane Society as the sole humane law enforcement authority in the state,  with full police powers under the Oregon State Police.”

Allori,  himself a former 26-year Oregon State Police officer,  explained the necessity of having a single state humane law enforcement authority to avoid conflicts of jurisdiction.

Inglish case proved point

Among the memorable animal cruelty cases that Harmon brought to court were the January 2013 arrest of Alicia M. Inglish,  then 24,  who ran an entity called Willamette Animal Rescue in Salem,  Oregon.

Recounted Noelle Crombie of the Oregonian,  “Marion County sheriff’s officials arrested Inglish on 120 accusations of second-degree animal neglect,  a class B misdemeanor,  and tampering with evidence.

“Inglish has been the subject of many previous complaints from people who adopted animals through her group,”  Crombie wrote.

“Inglish’s animals were kept at a Brooks warehouse.  Police encountered 149 dogs,  some of them starving.  Others’ eyes were sealed  shut with bodily fluids.  Their cages weren’t lined with bedding.  As many as five dogs were kept in kennels designed for one.  The stench was overwhelming.  Waste ran down from one crate perched atop many others, to pool on the concrete floor.”

New law was in effect by year’s end

The Inglish case furnished the evidence Harmon needed to persuade the Oregon legislature to substantially strengthen Oregon law applicable in mass neglect cases.

Reported Steven Dubois of Associated Press in December 2013,  “Catherine Ann Setere,  66,  an Akita breeder who had 118 dogs and 21 horses seized by authorities,  was arraigned on felonies instead of misdemeanors Monday because of the recent passage of Oregon Senate Bill 6,  a law championed by the Oregon Humane Society and others that toughened the penalty for neglect offenses involving 10 or more animals.”

Convicted on 43 counts,  Setere continued appeals at least until 2020,  but the conviction held up,  as did many others during Harmon’s tenure,  including some that confronted unique defenses.

(See Stepping in poop without a warrant: Oregon Supreme Court rules.)

“Sick bastard!”

Harmon also “linked animal cruelty,  domestic violence and child abuse under the Oregon law providing for enhanced sentencing in recognizing the behavior is the same and often the crimes happen in the same relationship,”  Allori described.

Among the first cases coming up under that legislation was that of one Joshua Brian Woltmon, then 27,  of Medford in Jackson County.

Woltmon in May 2017 was,  while on probation for possession of methedrine,  charged with sexual assault of an animal,  public indecency,  menacing,  and disorderly conduct.

Woltmon allegedly “unlawfully and for the purpose of arousing and gratifying the sexual desire of a person [touched or contacted] the sex organs of a chicken.”

He pleaded guilty. ·

“When I was pushing for criminalizing sexual assault of animals,”  said Harmon,  “I was thinking about the women and kids who are often concurrent victims.  Never did I think of this.  One sick bastard indeed!”

Hen caging

To that point Harmon had addressed issues involving chickens chiefly by winning passage of a law to require egg producers to fully transition to enriched colony caging by 2026.

Implementing the law was threatened by a “cage free” initiative that the Humane Society of the U.S. in 2011 briefly petitioned to put on the 2012 Oregon state ballot.

Petitioning for the ballot initiative was suspended,  however,  as result of a Humane Society of the U.S. agreement with United Egg Producers to seek a single national standard for hen caging.  The agreement expired in 2016 with no such standard advancing in Congress.

Disaster relief

Also under Harmon the Oregon Humane Society developed and often deployed an animal disaster relief team,  active in response to crises including Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana in 2005,  tropical storm Harvey in Texas in 2017,  the Maui wildfires in Hawaii in 2023,  and the Los Angeles area wildfires in California in 2024.

Among Harmon’s later accomplishments was arranging a 2022 merger with the Willamette Humane Society in Salem,  founded in 1968, giving the Oregon Humane Society a full-time presence in the Oregon state capital.

Harmon confirmed to ANIMALS 24-7 an Oregon Humane Society media statement that,  “After retirement, she plans to work on conservation and wildlife advocacy,  pursuing master naturalist certification and helping other non-profits realize their potential.”

“It has been the honor of my life to lead the Oregon Humane Society,”  Harmon concluded.

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