Few officials disagree that the Cass County Animal Shelter fails to meet the needs of the dogs and cats brought there daily.

“It needs to be better. It has to be better,” said Kim Kesler, director of the animal shelter. “The things I see out here are heartbreaking.”

Many of the animals at the shelter are strays that have either never had a home or been dumped or abandoned by their owners. Others are pets picked up by animal control.

“People need to know what we deal with every day,” said Kesler, who is also the president of the Cass County Humane Society.

The building needs to be larger to accommodate a proper layout of dog kennels and specialized rooms. Some issues present dangers to the public.

“We don’t have a section for bite cases to be out of public view like they should be,” Kesler said. “That’s dangerous for the public and our staff.”

According to Kesler, air quality in the current facility is poor, as is sanitation. She says the drainage system for urine runoff was not properly installed. The floor was supposed to slightly tilt so the urine drains off.

“It doesn’t. It stays right on their kennel,” Kesler said.

The dogs spend the night without human supervision and many have to sleep in their own waste until morning.

Another problem is the lack of dividers between dog kennels. A disease brought in by one dog can easily be spread to others. An outbreak of parvo, for example, results in all dogs being destroyed, something that has happened, Kesler said.

All the windows leak. The phone outlet is frozen in the mornings because of moisture getting inside. The walls are not insulated and cold winds cut right through, which causes the heat to run constantly and rack up outrageous gas bills. The concrete is ice cold so it must be covered with blankets. There is no room for a washer and dryer. As a result the soiled blankets are just thrown away. A single wall unit battles the heat of summer. Kesler says it is often too hot for animals that cannot cool themselves.

Rampant loud echoes drown out conversation. Once one dog starts, normally at the sight of someone walking through the door, the others follow in a barking, yelping free-for-all. Kesler said the noise bouncing around the space between the ground and tall ceiling can be frightening.

“It does scare some people,” Kesler said. “It’s intimidating.”

Comfort level is an important factor to adoption. Kesler says she has seen people leave without a pet because they could not take the noise.

The building was originally built for the highway department as sign storage. It was meant to be temporary after the former facility closed in late 2001. As the first employee at the current facility, Kesler heard the promise: “I was told we will have a brand new building in two years.”

After working there six years, Kesler knows firsthand that Cass County still needs a new animal shelter.

“If we can get a better facility, there’s more things that we can do for the pet population, and we’re not going to have to euthanize nearly as much,” Kesler said.

In 2007, approximately 700 of the 1,000 cats and dogs that entered the animal shelter were destroyed. Kesler said the rate for euthanasia has increased 20 percent each year over the last six years.

County officials have made progress in solving the issue. In 2006, a special committee was formed by the county commissioners to undertake the animal shelter issue. In 2007, the county allocated $7,000 to develop a design, estimate the cost and make recommendations for funding. In January, the committee, consisting of commissioners, county council members, city officials, representatives from the Humane Society and A Cause for Paws, released its findings.

In a design by Grinsfelder Associates Architects out of Fort Wayne, the plans detail an 8,000-square-foot structure on property now owned by the Humane Society at Holland and Water streets.

Compared to the current facility — two rows of dog kennels, a room for cats, a closet for storage and an office — the features of the proposed shelter far outnumber those of the current shelter.

The plans call for a garage, an emergency room, a room for dangerous dogs, separate rooms for feral and adaptable cats, a section for dog kennels, a laundry room/food prep room, adoption interaction rooms, storage, a viewing area, a large multi-purpose/education area, offices and a lobby.

The new facility has a $1.4 million price tag, though, something that halted progress on the project. Because of that cost, Commissioner Dave Arnold became one of the project’s biggest opponents.

“I can’t support it,” Arnold said.

He says he is not against building an animal shelter. His concern is the taxpayers and the budget.

“The taxpayers can’t afford this right here,” Arnold said. “Cass County’s got a crunch and the people who voted for me, if I voted in favor of this, they would want to kill me, and you know, I couldn’t blame them.”

The county is expecting cuts of between $3 to 5 million in the 2009 budget and many people in Cass County cannot pay more taxes to make up the difference in addition to the animal shelter bill.

“We’ve got to tighten our belt up, but we need to tighten up now,” Arnold said. “We can’t wait until then to do it.”

In January, Arnold voted against passing the new animal shelter proposal along to the county council with a positive recommendation. The council has yet to take action on the proposal.

The committee did suggest the city and county jointly operate the shelter and that funds come from both public and private sources. Arnold supports that approach.

“I really think there is alternative funding out there that can be got,” he said. “There are a lot of people I think would give pretty good donations, but somebody’s got to go out and beat the bushes.”

Commissioner Dick Rusk, head of the animal shelter committee, said he wants the shelter to become a reality, so he is seeking ways to finance the facility.

“I am talking with the county attorney about how to handle and account for possible donations,” Rusk said.

Once a fund is established, information on how to contribute will be published in the newspaper.

Kevin Lilly can be reached at (574) 732-5117, or via e-mail at kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com



Up for adoption

To view the many cats and dogs in the Cass County Animal Shelter adoption program, call (574) 739-1179 for directions or take Ind. 17 north from Logansport to the highway department and look for the white sign on the left.