About 100 animals were transported from the former Peterborough Humane Society shelter on Lansdowne Street East on Tuesday to the new Peterborough Animal Care Center located at 1999 Technology Dr. in the city’s southeast end.
This new Peterborough Animal Care Center is a $12.5-million project that has been planned for the last decade.
“So, we just have a little construction finishing up here. They’re almost done the inside and then outside construction, like landscaping, will be continuing into the spring,” said Kassie Graham, the agency’s marketing and communications co-ordinator. “Then we’ll have a big grand opening for the public in the spring.”
The new center is 24,000 square feet, four times larger than the previous animal shelter, executive director Shawn Morey explained. This allows for an animal adoption and education centre, accessible spay and neuter clinic and provincial dog rehabilitation to operate in the same facility, he said.
“The size and absolute change in what we’re doing in animal welfare is big here,” Morey said. “We’ve got three operations under one roof.”
The center will also sport the largest dog suites in Canada, roughly twice the size of former animal shelter’s suites, to give them the best temporary home possible, he said.
“We now have double the amount of cat spaces and 28 dog suites, not including the dog rehab facility,” Graham said. “The previous location had roughly the same amount of dog spaces, but since we’re able to spay and neuter our own animals, we’re hoping to get them adopted faster.”
The new location will also be more accessible to people, encourage quicker adoption, she said.
“We’re totally about being open to the public. We have many more glass enclosures, so people can come see the animals and really feel invited in,” Graham said.
The city and the Ontario SPCA and Humane Society donated to the new centre, but most of the funding came from public donations, Morey explained.
“It takes a community to build something like this,” he said.
The Lansdowne Street East location has been sold off and sale proceeds will also go toward the construction costs.
The transportation of animals to the new facility coincided with Betty White Day, which was established on the late actress’s birthday, to honor her decades of animal activism.
“Betty White really cared about animal rights, and we saw such an amazing outreach last year, raising over $20,000 in one day,” Graham said. “It was just phenomenal to see that community love, and so we’re doing it again this year, celebrating her big day by moving.”
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