A Dream Realized: Shelter Nearly Done: Facility Has Space for 130 Animals, Spay-Neuter Clinic

Oct 14, 04:40 AM

Current Headlines: By Hannah Mitchell, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Oct. 14--HICKORY -- After three years of raising money and many more years of wishing and hoping, the Humane Society of Catawba County is nearly ready to open a new no-kill animal shelter.

The new facility, in Fairgrove Business Park off U.S. 70, will replace the society's makeshift shelter, where dogs shiver in unheated pens in the winter and staff swelter in uninsulated metal buildings during the summer.

State agriculture officials weren't going to renew the society's license for the current shelter if it didn't build a new one.

The society tentatively plans a November opening, though it hasn't yet set a date.

An architect who specializes in animal shelters designed the shelter based on a similar facility in Maryland.

The society has raised $2.5 million to build and equip the shelter but still needs another $500,000 to acquire more supplies for its spay-neuter clinic. It leases the land for the new shelter at a low cost.

Despite that gap, Executive Director Jane Earnest was excited last week as she surveyed the nearly complete shelter and talked about how it will further the society's mission of saving stray and discarded pets.

"It's a dream come true," Earnest said, gesturing to the shelter's many features, her watch with a cat's face flashing in the gloom as workers hammered and sawed. "It has all these wonderful features that are going to last."

No-kill shelters only take in as many pets as they adopt out so that they don't run out of space. By contrast, most shelters run by county governments, including Catawba, euthanize unclaimed animals and those that aren't adopted to make space for the new ones they take in.

Besides the fact that the new shelter will do just that -- adequately shelter dogs and cats -- it will hold 130 animals, about twice the number that the current one can, meaning the society can take more animals from the county's shelter.

The 14,000-square-foot shelter will also have a service designed to reduce the number of unwanted animals: the spay-neuter clinic.

All pets that the society adopts out are spayed or neutered before their new owners take them home, and the society already transports dogs and cats to an Asheville clinic every week for the surgery.

But it's only able to take about 40 each trip, Earnest said. With its own clinic with a full-time veterinarian, it will spay or neuter at least 150 animals a week. The facility will accept animals from seven surrounding counties.

The shelter's education room will show children videos about responsible pet care and offer day camp programs and training classes. Earnest believes such programs will increase adoptions.

She said the shelter's design makes it a model animal shelter.

Separate heating and air units filter odors and viruses to minimize the spread of illnesses and to make the shelter more inviting for animals, staff and visitors. Ditto for Plexiglas-enclosed cat condos.

Special brick on the building's facade won't absorb moisture, for the times that shelter dogs being walked by volunteers mark their territory on it.

An Eagle Scout candidate plans to build a trail through the woods next to the shelter for walking dogs. It will be skirted by dogwoods and cattails.

How You Can Help

--Donations can be mailed to Humane Society of Catawba County, P.O. Box 63, Hickory, NC 28603.

--The society needs more foster homes for young kittens or dogs recovering from surgery. Call the society at 828-327-3878.

Hannah Mitchell: 828-324-0055

-----

To see more of The Charlotte Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.charlotte.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.