All going “purr-fect” at new St. Thomas animal shelter

After officially opening to the public just over a month ago, the staff and animals at St. Thomas’s new animal services facility have settled in quite well.

The modern designed space, located at 325 Bill Martyn Parkway in south St. Thomas, opened its doors on July 23, replacing a significantly smaller and older building on Burwell Road.

“Imagine moving while you’re working. You can’t take any time off,” said Laura Keates, the animal shelter’s coordinator. She and Mike Elliott, one of the city’s by-law and animal control officers, worked to make the transition to the new space as seamless as possible.

“The logistics of moving 20-something animals, we didn’t just pack them in boxes and seal them with tape, you know, that’s a lot of back and forth,” said Mr. Elliott.

The new space, according to Ms. Keates, was planned for about a decade, and officially broke ground in March of last year.

Mr. Elliott said the old shelter, built in 1970, was meant to be a temporary space, but staff “made do with it for a long time.”

“The city of St. Thomas is growing, Aylmer is growing, the counties are growing. And with that, the populations and the demands are growing. We were just too small to accommodate the current demands,” he said.

Animal services, which is city-run by paid staff and volunteers, offers a large variety of services, including pet adoptions, impoundment and care of stray animals and wildlife control.

The new shelter has many improved and larger amenities, including a dedicated cat space, a dog intake area, large windows and better ventilation. Mr. Elliott said the cat room is able to accommodate about 42 cats, tripling their capacity. The space for dogs also doubled.

“We’re really excited with the new building because ultimately, what it does is allows us to improve the conditions for the animals,” Mr. Elliott said. “The reality is this is a dog jail. But we really want it to be as much of a dog hotel as possible.”

In the planning process, Mr. Elliott said he and Ms. Keates toured several shelters, taking ideas to help them build the St. Thomas shelter.

Mr. Elliott said one new spaces still under construction is a decorated cat room, where people looking to adopt a cat could have an area furnished like a room, to bond with the animals before adoption.

Community reception has been overwhelmingly positive, Mr. Elliott said. Not just in visits to the shelter, but also attending shelter-ran events.

“St. Thomas really is a dog and cat-loving town for sure,” he chucked.

The new shelter was made possible by support from city council and fundraising, including a $1-million donation by Sara Teare, founder of 1Password.

Mr. Elliott said a memorial garden will be built on the northeast corner of the property, named in memory of Ms. Teare’s family dog, Daisy. “They’ve certainly earned it,” he said.

Other future amenities planned for the shelter included large, fenced-in, off-leash dog parks that will be monitored by staff and outdoor coin-operated dog washing stations.

“Dogs and cats, dogs certainly more than cats… They’re domesticated animals,” said Mr. Elliott. “They’re not wild. You don’t find dogs in the wild. Wild dogs are wolves. While we obviously are fighting, you know, to reduce homelessness populations with people, that includes dogs as well.

“We think that dogs and cats are deserving of dignity and proper homes. And we want to make sure they’re spayed and neutered to reduce these populations of stray animals, minimize suffering for them and ideally, hopefully, turn some of these uncut gems into wonderful family members,” he closed.

Photo: St. Thomas By-Law and Animal Control Officer Mike Elliott held up two kittens, named Polly and Barbie, in the cat room of the new St. Thomas aqnimal shelter. (AE/Hayden King)

by Hayden King, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter