Winnipeg Free Press
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/story/4062853p-4666357c.html
WFP Live videoHumane society unveils new digs
$13-M facility eight years in the making
Tue Oct 23 2007
By Joe Paraskevas
ON a small, ceramic plaque, embedded in a stone wall that leads into the new headquarters of the Winnipeg Humane Society, there is an inscription.
The words suggest what the gleaming, $13-million structure might mean to this city's residents.
"We can judge a person's heart by their treatment of creatures," the 10-centimetre plaque reads.
The Winnipeg Humane Society's new home, with its angled wooden roof, countless windows and skylights, high ceilings, wide corridors and intricate system of rooms, promises to make this city's animal shelter "the most distinctive humane society in Canada," executive director Vicki Burns said Monday.
The official public opening, which takes place Thursday at 12:30 p.m., brings to an end an eight-year fundraising and construction effort that drew donations from thousands of Winnipeggers.
Anyone who donated $250 toward construction of the new shelter can decorate a plaque on the wall leading in to the facility. In fact, hundreds of painted plaques make a colourful line in the grey wall -- many from families remembering their former pets.
"This really was a public campaign," said Burns, as she led advance tours through the facility. "We had little kids, instead of getting presents, they asked people to bring money and they donated money to the humane society."
The society also received $1 million each from the provincial and federal governments.
Located on Hurst Way, just east of the intersection of Wilkes Avenue and Waverley Street in the city's south end, the new building will do more than house homeless and lost animals, Burns said.
Included in the building are locker-rooms and boardrooms for the 115-person staff, a classroom for animal-care programs, and more space for the society's veterinary surgeries.
Visitors looking for a pet to adopt can view the animals in large, bright rooms. Even the rooms where dogs and cats stay before moving to the public viewing rooms are better lit and ventilated than in the shelter's former facility on Kent Street, Burns said, adding officials want to reduce the spread of upper respiratory viruses which can be deadly to animals.
The new facility even received a LEED designation -- for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is recognized for its environmentally-sustainable architecture and heating and cooling systems. A pond behind the building is fed by water drained from the rest of the property. Rainwater goes to underground holding tanks where it is then used to flush toilets in the facility. Groundwater also helps heat and cool the building.
The humane society now takes in about 9,000 animals annually -- mostly dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters and gerbils. The society's former headquarters was built to accept about one-third of that total, Burns said.
In the humane society's former home, veterinarians would perform about 4,000 spay and neuter surgeries each year on dogs, cats and rabbits. In the new facility, humane society officials hope to increase that number to about 6,000, while offering the service to families who can't afford to spay or neuter their pets at other veterinary clinics.
The move to the new facility ends the humane society's 39 years at its Kent Street building that had become known for its cramped spaces and crowded kennels. Staff were often overcome by the smell of animal waste and had to wear earplugs to protect themselves from the sound of barking dogs, Burns said.
"A lot of people would say to me, 'I just can't come to the humane society because it makes me feel so sad,'" she remembered. "I'm hoping people don't say that to me here."
joe.paraskevas@freepress.mb.ca
Humane society facts
WHAT: The new Winnipeg Humane Society
WHERE: 45 Hurst Way
HOW MUCH: The facility cost $13 million to build and was paid for through eight years of fundraising, with the provincial and federal governments contributing $1 million each.
OPENS: Thursday, with public unveiling at 12:30 p.m.
WHAT'S DIFFERENT: There's more space to house animals, and more space for surgeries. Boardrooms and locker-rooms are available for staff, and a classroom has been created for animal-care programs.
GOING GREEN: The new facility is equipped with a number of environmentally-friendly features.
-- Vicki Burns
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