New Aiken SPCA uses innovative designs for shelter
By BARBARA NELSON
Aiken SPCA president
Do you want to adopt a shelter animal but find yourself unable to make the trip to the facility because you feel bad seeing them confined behind chain linked fenced kennels surrounded by gray concrete walls that echo with the sounds of barking dogs?
Have you ever wondered if there is a better way? Well, there is, and the new Aiken SPCA to be built on Willow Run Road will be it.
Innovative shelter architects and building product manufacturers are teaming up with shelter professionals to design and construct cageless facilities aimed at improving the physical health and behavior skills to the homeless animals that are up for adoption. Really good facilities, like the new SPCA will be, are also educational and offer job opportunity.
The building is animal centric, meaning that the pets have views to the outside world, while staff and support are in the interior. Adoption floor dogs and puppies will live in suites with doors, window light and piped in classical music, comforted by beds, special toys for mental stimulation, frequent exercise and human socialization. Dogs will go out for daily exercise, agility and training to prevent the development of depression and behavioral problems.
Adoption floor sociable cats will live in colonies of 10 to 12 individuals in large rooms with lounging areas along walls, ceiling and floors. They will be able to walk through a cat door to the outside porches that face visitors arriving at the front doors. People will enter the colonies and interact with cats so they can have a chance to observe behavior. Cats that prefer only a companion or two share space in glass-walled mini colonies with plenty of interactive toys. Kittens have separate space across the lobby hall in their own spacious mini-colonies.
The new center is designed with state-of-the-art ventilation systems that pull in 100 percent fresh outside air that is exchanged 12 to 15 times per hour, virtually eliminating disease transmission and odors. This reduces medical costs for treating sickness, reduces euthanasia rates and vastly improves the health and well being of people working and visiting the facility.
In dog adoption, pets are paired up in 8′ x 8′ glassed suites with beds raised off the floor and are walked three times a day by trained volunteers who teach all sorts of good skills. In a short period of time, the animals are housetrained and may even know some basic obedience commands, which increases their chances of adoption and decreases the chances they will be returned.
The new building has room for volunteer training, lockers and cleaning up. All of this makes for happy people who want to spend more time at the shelter or dog park and who feel good about spreading the word about the fun and good work they are doing. An animal shelter doesn’t have to be a sad place to go; instead it can be the highlight of the day and a place for the community to meet, take classes and visit with others as well as the animals.
New shelters designed and built like the future Aiken SPCA become community destinations and learning centers that offer pet therapy training, obedience classes, job training and science education for school age children interested in the life sciences.
In fact, the Regional Spay and Neuter Clinic has purposely been designed to encourage visitors to observe preparation and surgery through glass windows, making education one of the important elements and functions of this new facility.
Want to learn how you can help with this project?
Call the shelter at 648-6864 and ask to speak with Executive Director Gary Willoughby.
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