Humane Society Lands New Leader Ninth Director In Nine Years Brings Fund-Raising Skills From Wishing Star

Doug Raper was looking for a job. The Spokane Humane Society was looking for a miracle worker. It was a perfect match.

Raper, former executive director of Spokane’s Wishing Star Foundation, took over as head of the Humane Society this week.

Humane Society officials hope Raper can use the coordination and fund-raising skills he learned at Wishing Star to pull their organization out of a morass that threatened to destroy it earlier this year.

“We’re real happy to have him,” said David A. Carter, vice president of the Humane Society’s board of directors. “The combination of his experience and connections in the community are just what we were looking for.”

Raper, 48, spent eight years at Wishing Star, a nonprofit organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses.

He earned a reputation as a dedicated worker with keen fund-raising skills, said John Baker, president of the Wishing Star governing board.

Under Raper’s guidance, the organization prospered, adding chapters across the Inland Northwest, Baker said.

“He was the glue that held it all together,” Baker said. “We were sorry to see him go.”

Raper quit earlier this year to take a job at a Boise radio station. He had spent 22 years in broadcasting - at stations in southern Idaho and Eastern Washington - before going to Wishing Star.

Just before starting the Boise job, he decided that it wasn’t for him, but Wishing Star had already hired his replacement.

“So I called over here to see if this position was still open,” said Raper, who is married and has three children. “It was.”

Raper is the ninth director in nine years at the nonprofit animal-welfare organization. He said he plans to make fund raising and community relations his top priorities.

“I feel it’s a good cause and one that certainly needs to be supported,” said the Greenacres resident, who owns two dogs, two cats and three horses.

The previous full-time director, Susan Canterbury, was fired in December 1997 after only five months on the job.

Her dismissal sparked a year of tumult at the 101-year-old society.

A half-dozen shelter workers quit to protest Canterbury’s firing, and two longtime directors were voted off the board by upset members.

Raper said he was aware of the controversy but feels that’s all passed now. “If I was real concerned, I never would have taken the job,” he said.

Carter said Humane Society officials hope the new management team of Raper and Diane Rasmussen, who will be in charge of animal care and shelter operations, will pull the organization through.

Rasmussen has been involved with the Humane Society in a variety of functions for 16 years.

“We sure think they’re going to be a good team, and that’s a relief to the rest of us,” Carter said. “For a long time, it’s been a whole lot of negative. Now, we’re hoping for some positive.”