Wisconsin pet sanctuary becomes emergency shelter during deadly cold snap

When overnight temperatures hit -19°F in Green Bay this week, the local homeless shelters filled up fast. People with nowhere else to go started getting turned away into weather that could kill them in hours.

That's when Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary made a quiet decision: open the doors to humans too.

The sanctuary normally exists for cats — animals that need specialized care, rescue from difficult situations. But Elizabeth Feldhausen, the founder, got a call from someone in the city's social services department. The warming shelters were packed. People were being sent back out into the cold. So Feldhausen told her team to let anyone who needed it come inside.

"We are a safe haven for everyone who needs a place," said Joe Becker, the board president. "It's getting cold out there. A cat will warm your heart and your lap, too. Come on in and warm up. All are welcome."

A local pastor and her husband volunteered to stay overnight and supervise. They set up couches, made space, and watched as people came in from the street — people who, in that weather, were genuinely at risk of dying if they stayed outside.

This kind of cold is the dangerous kind. Wind chill can drop the real-feel temperature even lower. Hypothermia sets in fast. Becker put it plainly: "The chances of freezing to death in these temperatures is not small. This is legitimately dangerous weather."

Safe Haven runs on community donations and goodwill. Normally, the only rules are simple: be kind to other people, be kind to the cats. This week, those rules held, and the sanctuary became exactly what its name suggests — a safe place when nowhere else had room.

The cold snap is moving through the region, but the question lingers: what happens when the weather warms up and the overflow shelters close? For now, Safe Haven is doing what small organizations do best — seeing a need and filling it, one person, one couch, one night at a time.