Hound dogs and their feline friends are moving out of the heartbreak hotel and into the city’s brand new Animal Care and Control Centre.
Keith Scott, co-ordinator of the centre, said the new facility at 13550–163 Street will improve the care provided to more than 8,000 lost pets each year.
“This is really going to enable us to provide improved care for the animals as well as providing the areas that we really need for the citizens and pet owners coming in and dealing with them and public education,” Scott said. “This has provided that extra bit of space for everybody.”
The new Animal Care and Control Centre (ACC) is five times bigger than the old facility, near the Yellowhead and 125 Street, and cost $13.2 million to build.
“It brings both the animal services area and the animal care and control officers together under one roof,” Scott said. “So we’re providing a nice, integrated system under one roof for everybody.”
The other benefit to the new facility is its location. The centre shares a parking lot with the Edmonton Humane Society, and a spokesperson for the Society said it couldn’t be happier to have their new neighbours.
“We’re just so thrilled that they took the offer in the first place,” Shawna Randolph said.
“We’re independent, established organizations, not affiliated with each other, but work together on a regular basis. We take the animals that they deem adoptable and find them homes, that’s our working agreement.”
Randolph said the two organizations being side-by-side will centralize animal care services for the city of Edmonton.
Pets are making the move from the old facility to the new one over the weekend. The public should now visit the new centre for animal services.
