No-Kill Pet Adoption Center to Open in Laurens Co. This Summer
Laurens County Humane Society Assistant Director Brooke Spatta projects construction will wrap up in late April or early May. Laurens County Humane Society Assistant Director Brooke Spatta projects construction will wrap up in late April or early May.
LAURENS COUNTY, S.C. –
For the Laurens County Humane Society, the racket of hammers and saws is the sound of a dream nearly 20 years in the making.
The organization is constructing its very own no-kill pet adoption center to help take some of the pressure off Laurens County Animal Control.
Laurens County Humane Society Assistant Director Brooke Spatta projects construction will wrap up in late April or early May.
The humane society has been helping out animal control behind the scenes for a long time.
In August, its volunteers helped the county find homes for more than 100 dogs seized from a Laurens County house.
Laurens County Animal Control took in about 1,300 last year.
Nearly half were put down because there wasn’t enough space.
“They’re overrun. They do not have a facility that can manage the number of animals,” said Spatta.
The new adoption center will be the only one in the county where people can adopt cats. Laurens County Animal Control does not take in cats.
“People basically don’t know what to do with cats that they find or when they have litters of kittens under their house,” said Spatta.
She said the new 2,200-square-foot space is a good start, but it’s not enough — only about a quarter of what they actually need.
“We’ve used all of our funds to build this, in hopes that by building it we’ll be able to attract the attention of donors to keep it going. It’s a risk, but if we didn’t do it now, it would never get done,” said Spatta.
That’s why she said they’ve built on just one of the five acres of land donated to them. That way they can keep growing if enough donations come in.
The humane society is selling engraved bricks for the building’s front porch to help bring in donations.
Laurens County doesn’t have the only animal control getting outside help. Since November 2011, stray and surrendered animals in Spartanburg County have been transported to Greenville County. So far, Spartanburg County has transported more than 13,600 animals there.
– Jenna Troum
(Original story ran on http://www.wspa.com/story/27965074/no-kill-pet-adoption-center-to-open-in-laurens-co-this-summer)