The new Sedalia Animal Shelter has its first occupants, as the shelter staff and volunteers moved the animals and equipment over Tuesday.
Both the old shelter, on West Main Street, and the new shelter, at 2420 South New York Avenue, are closed to the public for a few days as staff gets everything in the right place in their new home. In the meantime, Animal Control is still on duty. The new shelter will open its doors at 11 a.m. Friday, ready for the public to visit the many adoptable pets inside.
“Pretty much everything is moved over. Maintenance is gong to bring one more trip, which will be finished (Tuesday) afternoon, bringing a few more cat cages over,” Shelter Manager Andrea Martin said Tuesday afternoon in the new shelter’s lobby. “So far it’s been good, we’ve had a lot of help, a lot of support. We’ve had a (Sedalia Police Department) commander out here, maintenance has helped us, street and alley’s pitched in. It’s been a citywide effort. We had some volunteers out, which has been nice.”
The new shelter can house about 47 dogs and as of Tuesday morning it can house 65 cats. Martin said they have been bringing over additional cat cages, so eventually the shelter will be able to accommodate almost 100 cats.
“The old shelter was 30 dog kennels and 32 cat cages, so the cat cages is where we’ll see the significant difference,” Martin said. “The dogs, though, there’s not a lot more, but what’s good about this is we have four separate areas, where (on Main Street) it was basically one long area. It was divided by doors but air supply was the same.
“Here we have adoptables, healthy dogs in one section. Holding is in another section, pets that are picked up by Animal Control or the public and brought in. We know they’re healthy, but they have to wait five days to make sure an owner doesn’t claim them. Then we have the quarantine room, which is for either aggressive animals or sick animals. All those three are on different air supplies, then the indoor/outdoor cages, which we have six of them.”
The new shelter includes an exam room and a grooming station, two areas that didn’t exist at the old shelter.
The little amenities at the new shelter will make a big difference, such having six computers instead of two, and a new dishwasher, something the old shelter didn’t have.
“Before we basically had a bathtub that we did all of our dishes in so now we have this really nice dishwasher, we’ll sanitize everything. It’ll be so nice,” Martin said.
Animal Control officers will also be able to complete reports in an office at the shelter rather than going back to the police station, making the process more efficient, Martin said.
The old shelter will remain city-owned but will be seldom used. Martin said it will be used as backfill if they ever encounter an extreme case the new shelter can’t handle, such as a hoarding situation.
The road to a new Sedalia Animal Shelter began Oct. 22, 2014, almost exactly two years ago, with the groundbreaking of the building, donated to the City of Sedalia by the Heckart Family Foundation. Martin said when she woke up Tuesday morning, she thought “it’s finally here.”
“I just can’t express how awesome it is that we’re out here,” Martin said. “It’s been a long road, hopefully learning a lot along the way, hopefully we learn a lot moving forward. Just the support of the community has been outstanding.”
The Sedalia Animal Shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 660-826-5816.
Shelter Manager Andrea Martin said this furry friend was the first dog to come in the new shelter Tuesday morning, along with a few cats.
