As the Animal Refuge League has expanded from a shelter that served only dogs in the 1960s to one that also serves cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, gerbils and hamsters, its building on Stroudwater Street has started to get a little cramped.
The organization is now watching as Sandy River Health System, the operators of the Springbrook nursing home, try to get approval from the city for 200 retirement homes that would be built on land now owned by the Animal Refuge League. The proceeds from the sale would help the League build a new, more modern shelter.
Sandy River has an option to purchase 53 acres of the Animal Refuge League’s land that was recently rezoned by the Westbrook City Council. Sandy River is expected to submit an application for subdivision approval this spring.
The sale will likely go through at the end of this year, according to Daniel Maguire of Sandy River Health Systems. “It may take the rest of this year to get permits in place” for building the new retirement community, he said. “We hope to break ground either very late this year or early next spring.”
Animal Rescue League officials declined to say how much Sandy River has offered for the land, but they did say while the price was less than the $5 million it needs to build a new shelter, the money would go a long way toward a new building.
“This is something that, while we didn’t go out and seek it, gives us a pretty unique opportunity to take a big step towards something that’s pretty important for our mission,” said Dan Rosenthal, vice president of the Animal Refuge League’s board of directors. “And our mission is to take care of the animals that come into our care.”
An opportunity
The sale will leave the Animal Refuge League with a significant amount of land. The league plans to keep 27 of the 80 acres it now owns. That land contains five miles of walking trails that will continue to be available to the public.
Skip King, secretary of the league’s board, said the organization has been planning a campaign to raise the rest of the money for a new shelter since it was approached by Sandy River about a year and a half ago.
After Sandy River approached the Animal Refuge League, according to King, the organization realized “this might be an opportunity to get started raising the capital necessary to build a shelter that would take better care of the animals and better care of the communities we serve. We’ve been aware that we’ve needed a new shelter for a very long time. So we looked at it.”
Over the course of seven months, the league considered the pros and cons of selling the land and arrived at the conclusion that the sale would be a good thing for the organization. “The project as presented to us by Sandy River was one of the reasons that a lot of us felt OK about moving in this direction,” said King.
Animal Refuge League Executive Director Dee Pecoraro said the shelter was not designed to hold cats and small animals, which was not as much of a concern when the shelter was built. But that lack of space has presented a major problem as the shelter has grown over the years.
Cramped quarters
Pecoraro said the problems include a limited space for grooming and veterinary services for dogs and small animals like rabbits, gerbils and hamsters. The shelter also has little space in its cat isolation area and for taking care of cats with upper respiratory infections, a common problem for cats, whose immune systems typically weaken after 48 hours of being in a shelter.
In addition, Pecoraro said the shelter has a lack of proper air circulation, which contributes to respiratory illnesses; a general lack of space for cats; and cramped quarantine areas, which are necessary for shelter personnel to isolate sick cats from healthy ones.
The shelter also has space in an old house next to its building, which has been converted into offices and a medical area for cats. According to Pecoraro, the building is not structurally sound, though the shelter has been attempting to make repairs. “We just shored up one of the primary pillars of the foundation,” she said.
While the shelter receives money from contracts with the towns and cities it serves, Pecoraro said the money does not cover the shelter’s expenses.
Lucky to have donors
The rest of the league’s money comes through adoption fees and donors. Adoption fees for dogs range from $110 to $150. The adoption fee is $75 for cats, $15 for rabbits, and $7.50 for gerbils.
However, with each animal’s stay at the shelter averaging 14-days, the cost for caring for the animals outweighs the adoption fees. It costs the shelter $113 for rabbits, $118 for cats, and $212 for dogs for an average stay, and that’s if there are no extenuating medical circumstances like infections, fleas and intestinal troubles, which are common for animals being brought into the shelter.
Additionally, the number of animals the shelter cares for is rising as well. In 2005, the shelter took in 4,305 animals – 984 more than ever before. Of those, 1,775 were cats.
As for donors, Pecoraro said “it’s similar to most nonprofits in that a lot of people don’t realize that we sustain all of the costs of living raises just like a business. What you consider fixed costs go up. On the flip side, donors, as generous as they are, don’t always think – they’ve been writing the check for $20 for 5 years, but the $20 has less mileage as those other costs keep creeping up. It’s getting harder.”
Sitting inside the shelter’s offices, Rosenthal said while it was hard to sell a large portion of the league’s land, the money from the sale will go a long way to ensuring the Animal Rescue League can continue its work.
“Setting aside the idea of $5 million for a new shelter, we’ve got major operating expenses, and we’re lucky we have the donors that we have,” he said. “We wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t consider the things that are available to us to try to raise more money that don’t jeopardize our mission.”
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