Click on any of the pictures below to see a larger version.
Current Facility
Built in the mid-70s, the current shelter was never intended for use as a haven for animals. The only reason it was the least bit acceptable to BFHS was due to the fact that Meadows Hills Veterinary Center started in this location.
Size alone is more than enough to justify getting out of this shelter. BFHS has a large backlog of animals awaiting surrender, since many families who can no longer keep their pet do not want to risk euthanasia by using other facilities. For many who will not or cannot wait, abandonment , albeit illegal, becomes the fate of hundreds of pets every year in the Tri-Cities area.
In addition to cramped spaces, the building is very inefficient. The puppy pens are concrete block cubicles with no drains, making sanitation difficult. The large dog pens are in the draftiest part of the building and are not conducive to comfortable viewing by potential adopters. Ventilation is not designed to prevent the spread of disease and heating and AC bills are very high for a building of this size (about 3700 sq ft.) Traffic between the isolation and medical rooms and other parts of the building make disease prevention extremely difficult.
Cleaning and preparing the shelter every day means not opening the shelter to the public until noon. Over the years, BFHS could have had as many as 10-20% more adoptions had visitors not been turned away. On busy days, parking is also problematic, a situation not realized until the Sonic Drive-In was built next door.
Having no open property also means exercising dogs on the back streets, where traffic and a lack of grassy areas makes a canine constitutional less than fully effective.
Size alone is more than enough to justify getting out of this shelter. BFHS has a large backlog of animals awaiting surrender, since many families who can no longer keep their pet do not want to risk euthanasia by using other facilities. For many who will not or cannot wait, abandonment , albeit illegal, becomes the fate of hundreds of pets every year in the Tri-Cities area.
In addition to cramped spaces, the building is very inefficient. The puppy pens are concrete block cubicles with no drains, making sanitation difficult. The large dog pens are in the draftiest part of the building and are not conducive to comfortable viewing by potential adopters. Ventilation is not designed to prevent the spread of disease and heating and AC bills are very high for a building of this size (about 3700 sq ft.) Traffic between the isolation and medical rooms and other parts of the building make disease prevention extremely difficult.
Cleaning and preparing the shelter every day means not opening the shelter to the public until noon. Over the years, BFHS could have had as many as 10-20% more adoptions had visitors not been turned away. On busy days, parking is also problematic, a situation not realized until the Sonic Drive-In was built next door.
Having no open property also means exercising dogs on the back streets, where traffic and a lack of grassy areas makes a canine constitutional less than fully effective.
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Copyright ©2009
Benton Franklin Humane Society
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New Shelter Campaign
Benton Franklin Humane Society
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