 |
|
Article Archive > All creatures great and small All creatures great and small EATONTOWN - There are a couple of changes at the site of the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Some big, some small. All good. Following the five-year, $6.4 million renovation that was officially opened during an afternoon ceremony Thursday, you might notice the distinct lack of metal cages, the absence of cramped quarters and the dearth of chain link fences. And you'll undoubtedly notice that the cats, some 500 of them, are not stacked in cages atop one another three high in seemingly every available space, as it once was at the Wall Street shelter. But what you might not notice, at least not right away, is the calm. Scads of cats - some in glass gazebos replete with faux trees that double as giant scratching posts - are sleeping peacefully. Dogs - some large, some small - are lounging on beds or, for some, on couches. Even the rabbits - which have their own, segregated section - are dreaming little bunny dreams. There is a calm in the air. Every being inside the 64-year-old shelter seems to feel it. "It's making such a difference for all the dogs and cats here," said Ursula Goetz, the SPCA's executive director. "And that's really why we wanted to build a facility like this. You can just see how all the animals are so much happier and relaxed." The new facility, which will hold a Community Day on Saturday to introduce the newly redesigned property to the public, took cues from nearly every successful animal shelter in the country and cobbled together the best ideas during its renovation, Goetz said. "It's state of the art," said Victor "Buddy" Amato, the SPCA's chief law enforcement officer. "I don't think there's anything like it in the country." There are no cages in the new facility. Dogs ready for adoption are kept in glass rooms called "doggie digs." Two of the rooms are decked out to resemble living rooms, complete with end tables, lamps, televisions and couches. Cats share their spacious glass gazebos with a dozen or so others. Some line the walls in their own smaller glass enclosures. For the first time in its history, Goetz said, sick, surrendered and lost animals have their own section, separate from the adoptable pets. "This is a tremendous achievement," she said. "That is how you keep all the animals healthier." Thursday's ceremony for donors was attended by state, county and local officials, among them state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos, R-Monmouth, who said that his family had already adopted a pet - a cat named Buddy - from the new facility. "I'm ready to move in," said Eatontown Mayor Gerald J. Tarantolo, who spoke briefly at the event. |