New shelter will give cats, dogs more space

TEXAS CITY — The opening of Galveston County’s Animal Resource Center, often referred to as the animal shelter, is about a year away, but its manager already is envisioning the day when animals won’t be in jail-like cages and will have some room to roam.

Construction on the $4 million to $5 million animal resource center, which will be built on land next to the Joe Vickery animal shelter in Texas City, should begin in June. County architect Dudley Anderson revealed the designs of the project at a meeting of the Texas City planning commission Monday. 

“I am impressed,” Kim Schoolcraft, the animal resource center’s manager, said. “It will be cleaner, safer and not look like a stark row of jail cells.” 

And not nearly as crowded.  

The 140 animals that occupy the shelter now have the place bursting at the seams with animals caged in every available space, including Schoolcraft’s office. The new center will have a maximum occupancy of 300 animals, with room for an education center, an isolation area for sick animals and plans to convert the Joe Vickery shelter into the center’s intake area. 

Most important, Schoolcraft said, is the new center is designed to promote adoption. 

“When you walk into the main lobby, there will be two entrances,” Schoolcraft said. “One will lead you to the education room (and) one to the adoption mall.” 

The center is designed to be a showcase for adoptable dogs and cats. The dogs deemed most adoptable will be housed in rooms where windows replace cage bars and provide access to an outdoor area to take in the sun. 

Cats will have a similar set up, only they will be housed in three different showrooms — each with a private screened-in outdoor porch. 

“This way people will look at the animals in a different way,” Schoolcraft said. “We hope it increases our adoption rate.” 

The design of the complex will include separate air systems for each section to prevent the spread of disease and an isolation area for animals that might be sick. Those animals not available for adoption will be kept in a separate area as well. 

The center will be more than housing and adopting animals, however.  

There will be an education room so that for the first time, Schoolcraft’s staff will be able to teach responsible pet ownership, pet care and basic animal obedience classes. 

The idea is to turn the whole concept at the shelter into an animal resource center, not a dog and cat warehouse, Schoolcraft said. 

“We just don’t want to warehouse animals forever,” she said. “Our goal is to make people more responsible pet owners.” 

The new center also should help boost volunteerism at the center, Schoolcraft said. 

“I can’t wait. The shelter now is so depressing,” volunteer Susan Boyd, of Dickinson, said. “Dogs go into those runs now and hardly any of them come out. And Kim has so many wonderful ideas that she will now be able to implement.” 

Because of the current layout, the non-adoptable animals are mixed with those the center is trying to find new homes. That has hurt adoption efforts and sapped volunteer morale. 

“People I know say they just can’t go back there,” Boyd said. “It is going to be so great and so inviting that people will want to go into the shelter.” 

Brian Maxwell, the county’s project director said construction on the center should start in June and the doors are scheduled to open in May 2011.

(News Media: For more information contact Kurt Koopmann, GCHD Public Information Officer, 409-938-2211 or kkoopman@gchd.org)