Private boarding a boon to animal shelter

By Leneen Robb - Staff Reporter

The City of Coquitlam's animal shelter earned $34,275 in revenue through the private rental of kennel space for dogs last year, enabling the facility to look at upgrades such as improved digs for rabbits and other small animals.

The shelter is now in its fourth year of operation, but the private boarding kennel service did not begin until late January 2004.

The $34,275 in revenue earned from boarding last year is equivalent to 1,714 "dog nights" at the facility, according to a year-end report from shelter manager Andrea McDonald.

The shelter, already regarded as among the best facilities of its kind in North America, now has an expanded outdoor cat room to accommodate the increasing number of cats housed there.

"The outdoor enclosure has proven to be popular year-round with both the cats and the public, so Plexiglas was added to the southern side of the enclosure to provide more protection during inclement weather," McDonald wrote.

As well, plans are in place to expand the space at the rear of the shelter's administrative building to allow for more storage, increased laundry facilities and small animal accommodation.

The shelter's volunteer program is also being upgraded, with staff working on setting up a tracking system for volunteer hours, maintaining a database of volunteers and beginning a program designed to raise awareness of the shelter in the community, through portable pet adoption centres and school and community presentations.

The facility - which drew criticism from some in its early days for having heated kennel floors and other cutting-edge features - continues to operate within budget.

But, like most shelters, it also continues to receive increasing numbers of animals. Last year, the shelter received 856 animals - up eight per cent from 2003 and 16 per cent from 2002.

Five hundred of those animals were dogs, while 297 were cats, 17 were birds, 36 were rabbits and six were "other."

A high number of dogs - 82 per cent - were reclaimed by their owners.

Cats didn't fare so well. Only nine per cent of all cats were reclaimed by their owners - a rate the shelter maintains is higher than average.

Many pets whose owners did not bail them out found other homes, however.

The shelter's overall adoption rate was 76 per cent.

Besides receiving animals, the shelter maintains a lost-and-found database, which contains details of all animals reported missing or located.

"Through this service, the shelter played a role in reuniting an additional 231 lost pets with their owners in 2004, without the animals coming into the shelter," McDonald wrote.

posted on 03/02/2005