© 2024 KRCU Public Radio
90.9 Cape Girardeau | 88.9-HD Ste. Genevieve | 88.7 Poplar Bluff
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Going Public: Humane Society Of Southeast Missouri Discusses Completion Of New Facility

The Humane Society of Southeast Missouri / Facebook

The Humane Society of Southeast Missouri will open a new pet shelter located in Cape Girardeau in December of 2021.

Cindy Lange, Community Outreach Coordinator at the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri says the project has been in the works for many years.

“The current building is starting to crumble and it's hard to maintain cleanliness for the pets. We've been talking about building a new building and finally, we got a plan in place and had an architect, a team, and raised some funds,” said Lange. “We just keep moving forward and we broke ground last October, so it's really been only about a little over a year and we're getting close to opening the new building now.”

The Humane Society of Southeast Missouri / Facebook

Lange explains that in comparison, the new facility is more spacious and includes more amenities, offering a better space for the quality of living for animals.

"The kennel with have epoxy floors, which will make them safer and healthier, and then the cat areas in our current building or are the older kind of stainless steel cages, --in the new building will have some nice group cat areas and some larger enclosures so that they can stay healthier and safer too,” said Lange. “It’ll just give them a better time while they're with us waiting for their family.

The new facility also includes new ventilation systems which will help keep pets safe from health risks.

“This new building will have a recirculating air system kind of like a medical facility might have. So it will just give us the ability to keep some upper respiratory things out of the new building,” said Lange. “The building will also have a quarantine area so that we can temporarily house stray pets that we don't know all of their medical history, so it gives us that ability to keep those brand new to the shelter a little bit separate from those that are ready to be adopted out.”

Lange also mentioned that the facility’s spaciousness will also be beneficial to the work of volunteers.

“Another thing that's really exciting is the new Community Room which will be able to have events in there for staff training, volunteer training, and we even talked about having kids birthday parties, --maybe adult birthday parties--, in our current building, we have nowhere at all to meet for anything in a group, so the new lobby will be welcoming and a lot more open and the current building is really tiny,” said Lange.

In addition to the events that will be held there, community members can look forward to added interactive features at the shelter, such as grooming stations and bathing stations.

During their move, The Humane Society is also asking community members for donations and additional funding.

Beginning Nov. 1 and running through Jan. 31, 2022, the shelter is presenting a Matching Gift Challenge that will match donor dollars up to their $250,000 goal, generating $500,000 for the building fund.

So far 70% of the total cost of the new Adoption Center has been raised.

The shelter has also supplied an Amazon wish list for donors to see specific items in need.

“We always accept donations at the door of kitten food, puppy food, dog food, and especially right now it's gearing up to be colder, so we accept towels, blankets, especially for the dogs in the kennels right now, and we also have an Amazon Wish-list for donations'' said Lange.

The shelter is expected to open mid December.

“You know it couldn't couldn't be more exciting, and the community has been so positive and so supportive. We're almost there!” said Lange.