Creating a place to live that's fit for animals

If someone with the real estate acumen of Donald Trump is looking for a project in Southeast Missouri -- and it wouldn't hurt if the person has Trump's money-making talent -- please direct the individual to the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri.

Humane Society staff and board members have lost track of how long they've been planning to build a new shelter. Shelter manager Chuck Stucker sighed, thought about it, and said, "A long time."

The board of directors has considered a new shelter building, but for all its fund-raising efforts -- and those are plentiful and imaginative -- there's only enough to keep the current shelter running and, so far, within regulations regarding animal shelters.

The present shelter at 2536 Boutin Drive, where the Humane Society moved in 1978, is now too small for the number of animals who have to stay there. David Roth, a local lawyer and president of the Humane Society's board of directors, said the shelter is not large enough for the people who want to get to know a dog or cat before taking it home.

And it's not nearly large enough for the staff who need to counsel with prospective pet owners to make sure their choice is a good fit. Shelters need to have an exercise room for the pets to play in. Volunteers now take dogs outside one or two at a time to run in a fenced area. There's only one rest room for the staff and for the public to use, Roth said, and it's not much larger than a cat's litter box.

"The way it's set up it doesn't meet today's standards," Stucker said. "There are certain parameters an animal care facility has to follow."

Animal shelters need to segregate sick animals so they don't infect the healthy ones. There's no room for that, Roth said.

Stucker said that shelters need to have climate control to keep the cats and dogs --and humans -- comfortable. The unusually cool summer temperatures recently made it possible to cool the dog pens with fans, but when it gets above 84 degrees in the summer, regulations require that the air conditioner has to come on.

"That makes for a heck of an electric bill," Stucker said. "Heating and cooling costs just kill us."

In winter, the dog runs have to be closed to keep the dogs warm. Closing the outdoor runs means extra cleaning and sanitizing on the inside. Even in ideal weather conditions, having open dog runs also makes it easier for thieves to break in and steal dogs -- especially popular breeds like pit bulls.

"We're burglarized every year," Roth said.

Nearly all of the pens in the dog area are full, some with several dogs because there aren't enough pens to give them more space. Cats, who aren't as social as dogs, have to share cage space with other cats. A new, larger facility would make it easier not only to accommodate more animals, Roth said, but "it would make it easier for the animals so we can keep them longer and increase the adoption rate."

Stucker concurs.

"What we need is a new facility that will make it more animal friendly," he said. "Humane societies have different needs than housing kennels. We do different things. We house animals sometimes for a long period of time."

The animals are kept there as long as possible to give them every chance of being adopted. But there are only so many loving homes, and way too many creatures in need of them.

So far this year 1,563 dogs and 1,289 cats have come to stay at the shelter, Stucker said. This year, the adoption rate is higher than last year's, up by 7 percent, Stucker said. The adoption rate is around 28 percent of the total population. Those are good figures, shelter staff say. The numbers could be better, but they have been worse, so the staff is holding on to what positives it can.

"We always strive to do better," Stucker said.

The board of directors works hard at raising money, but there isn't enough left over to consider a new shelter, or even adding to the present one. At the last board meeting, board member Mary Stuart ticked off a list of fund-raising efforts the shelter participates in: grants to buy software to keep shelter records, a link to a coffee vendor on the shelter's Web site that donates a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the gourmet coffee to the humane society. There are photo contests, events in city parks and mobile adoption units that take potential pets to the people.

Innovative fund raisers, along with adoption fees, donations and bequests, donations of food and supplies, and fees from neighboring communities for animal control efforts bring in about $250,000 a year to run the shelter, Roth said.

"At the end of the year, expenses are just about equal to income," he said.

Roth said it costs about $8 to $10 to care for one animal on a daily basis.

"Your animals at home don't have to have paid help waiting on them," he said. "We have to pay staff to clean kennels, feed and water dogs and cats. You pay your utility bill at home, but you don't think about extra utility costs for the dog."

In addition to a Donald Trump type, the society could also use someone like Bob Barker, host of the game show "The Price is Right." According to Stucker, Barker is a well-known animal lover who makes generous donations to the shelter in Springfield, Mo. The local shelter has benefited from well-known Missourians who have donated toward fundraisers, he said, but "it would be nice to have a benefactor," he said.

For more information about the shelter, visit its Web site at www.semopets.org.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160