A year and a half after the Evanston Animal Shelter Association closed the doors to its original shelter at 2310 Oakton Street, a Congresswoman, county board president and other elected officials visited for a dog bone treat-cutting ceremony, as opposed to the more traditional ribbon cutting that launches new offerings, on Wednesday as shelter leaders prepare to open their newly-designed facility.
The new space, which will kick off with a grand opening the weekend of Oct. 12 and Oct. 13, is twice the size of the original shelter, which opened in 1973, officials say.
According to the City of Evanston’s Project Manager/Architect, Shane Cary, the 8,800-square-foot shelter can accommodate up to 20 dogs and 40 cats. He said the space was designed to keep pets calm and at ease, facilitating their better moods and thus making them more adoptable. The facility also has amenities for Evanston pet owners to get assistance with pet food and emergency custodial assistance if they need a pet temporarily cared for.
“I have pictured this day in my head 1,000 times, and it was never better than it is right now,” said Vicky Pasenko, executive director of the Evanston Animal Shelter Association.
“After five years of planning, almost two years of surviving in temporary facilities, we are coming home,” she said. During the time that the previous shelter was closed and the new one was being built, the shelter placed its cats near a church on South Boulevard and its dogs at a former recycling center at 2222 Oakton Street.
Before the old shelter was closed, Pasenko said the facility had major problems with its HVAC system and did not have separate spaces for cats and dogs, making them agitated. The new facility has two gathering spaces for cats, or cat colonies. A room adjacent to the cat colonies is for solitary cats, who may have a tough time socializing with other cats, Cary said.
Dogs will be held in kennels in separate rooms from the cats. The distance between them and the structure of the building will help create a calming experience for the cats that will be soundproof from dog barks, Cary said.
Adoption fees for dogs are $350 for puppies, $250 for adult dogs and $100 for dogs over the age of 8. Adoption fees for cats are $150 for cats under 8, and because adopters are encouraged to get more than one cat, $225 for two cats. Cats over 8 years old have an adoption fee of $75, according to Pasenko.
The new shelter also has an examination room with donated medical equipment. When the shelter opens, there won’t be immediate plans for spaying and neutering cats and dogs on site, but Pasenko said three to four veterinarians will donate their time each week to do examinations and surgeries in the near future.
The shelter also has a custodial program meant for Evanston pet owners who are going through tough times to surrender their cat or dog for up to a six-week period. The program is meant to assist pet owners who may be dealing with homelessness, domestic violence, homes badly damaged by natural disasters or other such emergencies where a pet owner might not be able to care for their pet.
“It’s heartbreaking when somebody comes in and has to surrender their animal because of some circumstance that’s beyond their control, and they love them. It’s the most heartbreaking thing that we have to deal with. So we try to not have that happen,” Pasenko said. Due to the shelter’s limitations, only Evanston residents will have access to that amenity, she said.
The shelter also has a free food pantry for dog and cat food. The pantry is run on donations made to the shelter, and typically spends between $25,000 and $30,000 each year to have pet food available for those who need it, Pasenko said.
The shelter relies heavily on volunteers, because there are only three full-time and three part-time employees, Pasenko said. The shelter is in contact with 175 volunteers and has 140 three-hour volunteer shifts each week, she said.
At the dog bone treat cutting ceremony, officials from the city of Evanston, Cook County and Congress spoke in support of the shelter.
“This is a community that is passionate about animal welfare, that is passionate about animals, and it’s a community that’s passionate about the people that do that work as well,” said Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss.
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D), whose own pet has been named the “Cutest Dog on Capitol Hill,” said “I remember this place long ago. This is such a fantastic improvement of its building, of its mission, of all that we can do for the animals in our community.”
Cook County provided $2.85 million for the construction of the new shelter with funds from the Housing Cook County’s Animals grants program.
Administrator of the Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control Mamadou Diakhate said the the department’s goal is to take animals off the street and get them into more suitable housing. “They (the animals) can get hit by cars. They can be exposed to illness, but also they could be exposed to bites themselves, or exposed to people that come to interact with them on bites,” he said.
The Evanston Animal Shelter building is owned by the city of Evanston and run by the Evanston Animal Shelter Association. The total construction cost of the building was $7.2 million. According to Brittany Kirk, president of the Evanston Animal Shelter Association, the shelter runs on a $450,000 annual budget, raising $350,000 from donations annually and receiving $100,000 from the city of Evanston.
