TX: Sanger improves animal shelter

Sanger improves animal shelter

08:18 AM CDT on Friday, November 5, 2010
By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe / Staff Writer


The animal shelter in Sanger conducted an open house Thursday after undergoing a renovation that cost approximately $20,000.

SANGER — Residents stopped by on the way home from work Thursday to see improvements the city has made to its animal shelter, but it was the animals that stole the show.

One pit bull terrier sat obediently in his kennel, hoping to score a treat from passersby. Three other dogs — two more pit bulls and a Labrador mix — barked across the room at each other.

A 10-week-old silver tabby kitten was adopted a few minutes after city employees opened the gate to welcome visitors. Another cat, a lynx point Siamese, scowled in the corner of its cage.

MaKayla Dodson, 12, said she was ready for the responsibility of providing a safe place for the kitten to sleep, giving it plenty of food and water, and — after a pause to think — cleaning its litter box.

Would the kitten get along with the family cat?

“That’s a good question,” MaKayla said.

City Manager Mike Brice pointed out new fencing and insulation, repairs to the electrical, heating and cooling systems, eight new kennels for dogs, 11 new cages for cats in a separate room, and a separate building for euthanasia.

All the repairs and improvements, which cost about $20,000, help bring the city into compliance with state laws governing animal shelters. But the City Council understands that more is needed, Brice said.

“They know the long-term solution is a new shelter,” he said, adding that cities aren’t able to build new buildings in six months.

Sanger’s shelter sits beside the city’s water treatment plant and, while open to the public during business hours Monday through Thursday and Friday mornings, visitors must call the police department to be let in.

Interest in the shelter began this summer after the city euthanized Kenzy, a golden retriever who was picked up by a stranger and taken to the Sanger pound while her owners, Sam and Kelli Alexander, were on vacation.

The couple’s complaints about the shelter operations touched off controversy, and interest in the welfare of animals picked up by the city has remained keen.

Members of the newly appointed animal welfare board visited the facility, too.

Sanger veterinarian Lee Goodman studied the floor and the drainage system in his pass through the renovated building.

He said the board would be looking at shelter policies and procedures in the coming months.

“A lot of this is defined by the state,” Goodman said. “We’ll be getting guidance from a lot of those materials as we hammer out what our best policies are going to be.”

The board meets again on Wednesday.

City records obtained Thursday afternoon showed that, since August, Sanger animal control officers have picked up 17 cats, including the two still in residence, and 32 dogs, including the four present Thursday.

One injured cat was transferred from the shelter to local veterinarian Lynn Stuckey for care.

Twelve more cats, including some kittens, were transferred to another local veterinarian, Shellie Wallace, for care and placement, the city’s records show.

The other cat went to Noah’s Ark, a private animal adoption facility in Gainesville, along with 16 dogs.

Five dogs were reclaimed by their owners, two were adopted and two were transferred to Denton’s shelter.

With four dogs remaining in the shelter, the fates of three other dogs that were listed on the master log were not immediately clear.

Reached by phone Thursday night, Brice said the city had not euthanized any animals since August, including the two that were transferred to Denton’s shelter.

“We told them, if they weren’t adopted to call us and we’d come get them,” Brice said.

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