Construction begins on new animal shelter

Aaron Clemens

Tuesday, June 6, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

How to help

Those interested in volunteering at the animal shelter or being a foster family can call 384-3333. The shelter is open seven days a week, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Construction has begun on the $3.4 million Lied Animal Shelter. The Animal Foundation hopes that after the new shelter's Christmas Eve opening, Las Vegas will become the national model for a no-kill animal control policy.

"We want to show how people can do this for any city shelter," said foundation President Mary Herro, who has also served as director of the shelter for 12 years. A successful pet adoption program coupled with population control can make the difference between killing animals or finding them happy homes, she said.

The issue extends beyond the pet-loving community because a no-kill policy that emphasizes adoption saves tax money in the long run, she said.

"Unwanted pets is one taxpayer problem that is very easy to identify and solve," Herro said. "The first component is to spay and neuter."

It's cheaper to market the adoption of spayed or neutered animals, as the foundation does regularly through the shelter and PetSmart, she said, than it is to leave would-be pet owners to buy fertile animals who can contribute to the stray population.

The formula has worked in Las Vegas, where the nonprofit Animal Foundation runs the animal shelter for the city.

The foundation euthanized only 33 percent of its population -- about 5,886 animals last year, most of them diseased or vicious. That compares with a national kill rate of 63 percent. The adoption rate in Las Vegas is 44 percent compared with 20 percent nationwide.

The current one-story, 7,500-square-foot shelter at 700 N. Mojave Road was built in 1977. It will be replaced by a 31,000-square-foot facility just across the street.

The new design creates a park environment vastly different from the old dingy and crowded facility. Outdoor dog runs with indoor access now hold up to five animals apiece while cat cages are stacked high in the halls. Last year 923 of the 1,548 adoptable cats put to sleep died from a respiratory epidemic preventable by proper ventilation.

The new shelter will provide each animal its own cage or dog run. It will feature cheery, modern colors.

"We want people to not mind taking their kids here on a Sunday afternoon," Herro said.

Herro hopes adoptions -- costing from nothing up to $100 for popular purebreds -- will increase with the new plan, including an adjacent park for people to play and bond with potential pets. The inside of the facility will also seem more welcoming with trees and a high ceiling to quiet barking echoes.

Currently the city shelter lives with crowding, because officials don't want to put animals to sleep after just one to five days as shelters do in other parts of the country. In places with such a limited holding time, lost animals are often killed before the owner gets back from vacation or has a chance to look at the shelter, Herro said.

Animal Foundation officials think they can find a home for every adoptable animal when they can hold animals for 30 days. Their adoption numbers show great improvement. After they got the city contract for animal control, annual pound adoptions jumped from 1,500 to 9,000 in just three years.

The new shelter was made possible by a $2 million donation from the Lied Foundation, $500,000 from an anonymous donor who loves her poodles, the foundation's board of directors and the community support of many kind people in the Las Vegas Valley, Herro said.