The city of Ames recently purchased a 6-acre property for a new animal shelter that could double the number of animals taken in while providing more space for individual cats, dogs and exotic pets.
Staff say the larger space will also help them expand other services, including caring for pets while domestic abuse survivors find new housing, and easing shelter capacity issues in the region.
The $7.5 million project involves extensive renovations of a former child care center onsite and building a separate annex for dogs over the next two years.
On Friday, the city launched a fundraising campaign for the remaining $1.5 million. City council members, staff and volunteers met at the current Ames Animal Shelter to kick off the campaign.
“The building that we are standing in front of was built in 1994 and has experienced a few updates. But at 3,500 square feet of space, I think we can all agree that it is not quite adequate and no longer meeting our needs,” said city council member Amber Corrieri.
Animal impound numbers at the no-kill shelter have ticked up alongside the city's population growth, according to Ron Edwards, Ames Animal Shelter and Animal Control Supervisor. But he said his team has also seen an increase in dogs and cats that have not been spayed or neutered, resulting in more puppies and kittens.
Edwards said last year the facility served approximately 900 cats, dogs and exotic pets, and roughly 100 wild animals.
“We are continuing to see those numbers increase. So that was really part of the focus of making sure that we had a facility that was sized right,” he said, adding that the proposed footprint for the new space is between 15,000 and 17,000 square feet.
During a tour of the current shelter, Edwards opened doors to storage rooms with dry food and donated fleece blankets stacked to the ceiling.
A small table and cabinets filled up another room used for vaccinations, deworming and flea treatments. Edwards said the new facility will include a surgery suite for operations, which will make it easier for the shelter to spay and neuter animals in their care and through free clinics.
The shelter already offers no-cost, semi-annual microchip and vaccination services to Ames residents. Edwards said vets are more willing to donate their time to these free clinics if they have the appropriate space to work.
More square footage will also make it easier to meet the best animal welfare practices, he said. Edwards walked through a narrow hallway lined with cages of guinea pigs.
“In the new shelter, we’ll have a separate room to house these types of animals,” Edwards said, adding that high foot traffic can stress guinea pigs and other exotic pets, like reptiles and birds.
In the cat adoption room, Edwards pointed to a wall of metal cages.
“We want to make sure in the new shelter environment that each cat has the equivalent to two of these spaces,” he said. “You can see some of them that have the portal there where they can go back and forth between the two. We want to make sure that each cat has a separate place to be able to lay, stretch their legs, eat their food and then a place where they have their litter box.”
Edwards said the Ames Animal Shelter is fortunate to have strong community support and high adoption rates. But the new space will better meet local needs. He hopes it will also help ease the burden on other shelters in the region.
“We’ve heard of a lot of no-kill shelters that have had to make some very difficult euthanasia decisions that they haven’t had to do in a very long time,” he said. “We have a program where we can bring the animals here to our facility, again when we have space.”
Beyond the number of cages and kennels, Edwards emphasized that staff and over 150 volunteers provide compassionate care for all beating hearts at the shelter.
