One summer 20 years ago, a group of friends from Minnesota made a Big Sky Country visit. We hung around Bozeman and Hyalite for a few days before a trip up to Glacier and Flathead. While driving down Willson Avenue, an older man in a beat-up truck passed us; he had a Blue Heeler on the front seat. A block later, a Golden Retriever zoomed around a short-fenced yard. Next, we stopped for a woman and a terrier navigating a crosswalk. Two blocks after, an MSU student jogged down the sidewalk with a German shepherd.

One of the North Star staters shouted, “Everybody in Bozeman has a dog!” My reply: “Pretty much.” (Back then, every other newcomer had a black lab named Bridger or Madison along with a pair of Carhartt pants sans rips or stains. Locals usually settled on lab names like Bomber or Bosco.) During that visit, and others, they were surprised by the number of pets in Bozeman, as well as the number of horses, llamas, and alpacas in the valley.

In much of the country, a colloquial phrase for describing a large crowd of people is “everybody and their mother.” In contrast, Montanans grow up saying, “everybody and their dog.” People here truly love their pets.

This isn’t just anecdotal. Statistics from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) show that Idaho is the top state for dog ownership, with 58% of households. Montana is #2, with 52% of families having at least one canine member. (The average here is 2 dogs, the highest in the nation.) Top pet-owning states overall are Wyoming (72% of homes), West Virginia, Nebraska, Vermont (also top for cats, at 45%; MT is 23%) and Idaho. Strangely, another neighboring state, South Dakota, has one of the lowest pet-ownership levels. 46% of households there include at least one animal —Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Illinois are also at the bottom— while it’s fully 62% in Montana. The rate in Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley is likely even higher, perhaps 70% or more.


A Great Need
All of these dogs and cats lead to some unfortunate escapes and unplanned puppies and kittens. Who comes to the rescue? Local shelters. In the 1960s, the need for a shelter in Bozeman was recognized and discussed. The Humane Society of Gallatin Valley (HSGV) was incorporated in 1973. They opened their first shelter in 1975, leasing the land from the City of Bozeman for just $1 per year.

This shelter, just west of the East Gallatin River near the corner of N. Rouse and Griffin, was primarily built by volunteers. During its first years, the executive director (ED) also acted as caretaker and lived in an apartment on-site. In the late 80s, Pierce Trailers donated a unit for the caretaker/ED. This enabled staff and volunteers to move the cats into the former apartment, giving them an area separate from the dogs.

By 1999, the Bozeman shelter was a noisy jumble of buildings and walkways. Gray paint and gray metal. I had several friends volunteer there, and remember the outdoor kennels for most of the dogs. The HSGV was well-known in the community for its open-door and no-kill policies and friendly people. The HSGV also held contracts with the City of Bozeman, Gallatin County, and West Yellowstone to house stray and impounded animals. As Bozeman grew, it was painfully obvious that more space was needed.

The Universe provides. In the early 2000s, a group of community members were given a land donation off East Cameron Bridge Road. This group formed a non-profit, The Animal Services Center Inc., with a goal of creating a new shelter. In March 2004, after much discussion and input from the community, the Humane Society of Gallatin Valley and The Animal Services Center voted to merge and create a new non-profit, Heart of the Valley Humane Society. This is now Heart of the Valley Inc., or HOV for short. The merger was even celebrated with humorous dog and cat marriages. The location on Rouse updated its signage, calling the Bozeman location Heart of the Valley.

At this time, it was clear that the existing shelter was overcrowded and needed repairs. Upgrade or start fresh? The choice was clear. HOV’s board of directors raised $4 million to build a new shelter and $1 million for an endowment. In October 2007, just three and a half years after the merger, HOV moved into the new facility. One happy animal, a dog named Puma, also made the move.

Doggone Good
The numbers surrounding HOV are impressive, even mind-blowing.The modern shelter is a state-of-the-art facility of almost 20,000 ft2. It has indoor housing for all animals, a veterinary clinic, and conference rooms. HOV has cared for over 3,000 pets a year for the last 18 years, for a total approaching 60,000 animals at the new location. The former shelter had a smaller capacity, around 750 – 1,500 animals yearly. That fast napkin math yields at least 40,000 animals cared for between the early 1970s and early 2000s. Put it together, and that’s 100,000 dogs and cats in half a century. That’s enough to put a furry backside in every seat of the Rose Bowl or Wembley Stadium and still have more than 10,000 parked on the field. (Granted, it would be 50k cats darting around bleachers and 50k dogs frolicking on the green.) It’s also enough to give a pet to every household in Minneapolis.

Currently, there are 500 volunteers at HOV, who put in over 20,000 hours a year. In 2025, 3,800 pets were successfully adopted. Each year, the shelter performs over 2,000 surgeries, mainly spaying and neutering. Mahatma Gandhi opined several times that you can tell much about a country by the way it treats animals. Perhaps the most impressive stat about HOV is that it has a save rate of 96%, the percentage who live to see another year; only 4% are euthanized, reluctantly, because they are sick beyond care. And, just 11 days is the average time living at the shelter before adoption or reuniting. That’s only one and a half weeks before going home with a human family, which is remarkable. Marla Caulk, HOV’s ED, says that’s a statistic volunteers and staff are rightfully proud of. They work with heart, truly loving their jobs.

There are going on 100 amazing non-profits in Bozeman and our valley. This attests to the can-do attitude and community spirit here, its hearts and minds. Heart of the Valley is one of the key organizations out of the bunch. It’s appropriately named, working so hard to help people and their non-human companions.

It’s worth mentioning the shelter’s name is fitting in another way. It’s near the actual “heart” of our valley. This is usually calculated to be near Cameron Bridge Road, just west or east of the Gallatin River. (Gallatin River Lodge and Cameron Bridge itself are both good contenders.) Differences lie in how you measure the valley, spanning from near Bozeman Pass to the Gallatin River north of Manhattan, and from the Bridger foothills to Gallatin Gateway and just above the Madison Buffalo Jump (below the jump is the Madison Valley; two valleys terraced side-by-side is one hallmark of Montana geography). HOV cares for animals from these 800 square miles and beyond.

What’s in a Name
There’s a common misunderstanding that ends up hurting animal shelters. Many people assume HOV and other local shelters around Montana and the nation are under the “American Humane Society” or the “Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).” The first was founded in Cleveland, OH, in 1877. Last year, it changed its name to the Humane Society of America. The second split from the first in 1954. It too has recently changed its name to Humane World for Animals.

The confusion lies in names coincidentally having “humane society” in common. People donate money to these organizations assuming funds go to their local shelter. That’s not the case. Instead, Heart of the Valley is a completely independent non-profit, relying on its own donations. HOV has a friendly relationship with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), which offers grants to local shelters by application and need. However, the operating costs of HOV are met by local donations. The Humane Society of America and Humane World for Animals are worthwhile organizations, but do not oversee or fund our local shelter.

To donate to HOV, please visit their website, www.heartofthevalleyshelter.org. There are also remarkable adoption stories and applications for volunteers. Note also that HOV’s biggest event is in a few months’ time. The Dog Ball is in May, held at MSU Campus. This is a pawz-itively fun fundraising gala with a silent auction, live auction, dinner, music, and dancing. 2026’s theme is, “A Galaxy Fur, Fur Away.” (Chewy may or may not attend.) Details to come, also at HOV’s website.