17 North Beach Street
Nantucket, MA 02554
(508) 228-1515
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Jessica Sosebee marks the ten-year anniversary of Nantucket Island Safe Harbor for Animals.
Euthanizing healthy puppies and kittens was not a task Jessica Sosebee anticipated when she decided to work for the advocacy of animals, but that is exactly what she found herself doing while managing a local animal shelter in the rural town of Starkville, Mississippi, as a twenty-three year-old graduate student. “It was horrific, and it changed my life,” recalls Sosebee, the executive director of Nantucket Island Safe Harbor for Animals (NiSHA), of that single year of experience—only one because it was all she could emotionally withstand. “Seeing that volume of animals come in every day with a very low amount of good, adoptable, loving homes was just devastating.”
Upon returning to her home of Nantucket and touring what was then the local Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) shelter, Sosebee was told it had been over six months since they last had a dog for adoption, and the kennel was typically empty. “At that point I just thought, we’ve got thousands of healthy, friendly, sweet, loving animals down south that are being euthanized every day, so that’s when we started transporting them to Nantucket.”
Today, approximately seventy dogs a year, or about six litters of puppies, affectionately referred to as “Mississippi Mutts,” nearly all of which are vetted, housebroken and socialized, are delivered into the loving and eager arms of the Nantucket community. The project quickly became so popular and in demand that even President Joe Biden’s late son Beau Biden once made a family member of one—and there is a photo of the former stray boarding Air Force Two for his flight home with his new family. The Mississippi rescue project has since been delegated to volunteer and Nantucket native Lori Smith, who, according to Sosebee, “has put in thousands of hours over the years.”
But this work is all due in large part to Sosebee, who in contrast hardly gives herself a pat on the back for the effort. “In the past few years, I’ve realized we’re not getting anywhere,” she says matter-of-factly. “It’s a Band-Aid. Nothing’s changing.” This is why Sosebee and her staff at NiSHA have started a grant that will help fund no-cost spaying and neutering in the rural towns from where the rescues are made. “I think it’s our responsibility on the receiving end to start making some changes,” she explains. “Eventually all of us want to be out of work—that’s the goal.”
Currently, Sosebee’s work is not limited just to her responsibilities at NiSHA. She also serves as district leader for the Ninth Congressional District of Massachusetts as an advocate for all animal related legislation affecting the Cape and Islands. Her leadership on- and off-island was not by design.
Eleven years ago, in the fall of 2011 and amidst a global recession, Sosebee and her co-workers employed by the MSPCA were given just three months’ notice that the organization would be closing the doors on its island location indefinitely. With the desperate need for an on-island animal shelter, Sosebee recruited fellow staff and local volunteers to quickly form NiSHA, a nonprofit animal welfare organization that opened to the public on the very day the MSPCA closed, January 1, 2012, requiring no animals to be relocated or turned away. Today, with Sosebee at the helm, NiSHA is celebrating its tenth year of service to the community and its many accomplishments. But the organization is also highlighting the struggles it still faces and its future aspirations.
“NiSHA has really evolved,” Sosebee explains. “We started off in a very reactive way, but now we are fully staffed and we have several community outreach programs, including humane education in schools, visits to Our Island Home, elderly assistance, a pet food pantry and more. Adoptions are just one small piece of what we are doing.” And, as Sosebee explains, all of these programs are completely dependent on financial donations. “We are very proud that we are an open-door policy in the sense that we never turn away an animal—or a person that needs help with their animal. There is no judgment, no matter what the circumstances. Really, we’re an animal welfare resource center.”
A much-anticipated and key component of the organization’s fundraising is its annual gala held every summer under the tent at Bartlett’s Farm, this year on Friday, August 5th. “This year, our theme is ‘There’s no place like home,’ and we will have live entertainment, dancing and, of course, the ever-popular doggy fashion show,” Sosebee says. In addition to funding programs that would serve the island community, the organization also hopes to obtain a permanent home on Nantucket as well.
“What people may not understand is that we are tenants in the Offshore Animal Hospital [located at the same address on Crooked Lane] and we are not affiliated with them, although we do have an excellent working relationship,” she says. “But we really do need a facility that will adequately let us provide the services that we are providing, like space for kids to come visit and have classes onsite, dog training and more. Currently, it’s not a good working environment for our staff and also not a great animal space. We definitely need a new home.”
In addition to financial donations, Sosebee explains that volunteers are always welcome, in the form of fostering animals, walking dogs and assisting the elderly with their animal needs. “We’ve tested what Nantucket needs, and there are a lot of needs,” she says. In her personal time, Sosebee loves walking with her own Mississippi rescue, Freja, exploring the thousands of acres of conservation land on this beautiful island she proudly calls home. “I feel really fortunate to do what I do here on Nantucket,” Sosebee says. “The community is extremely receptive and animal-loving already. People here really love their animals; they are their best friends, and they want to do the best thing for them.”
To learn more about NiSHA or to make a donation, visit nishanimals.org.
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