The current Ottawa Humane Society building was designed to accommodate 2,500 animals a year, but it now houses more than 11,000 annually. Overcrowding has forced some animals to be stored in cluttered closets and dirty wash stations.
Feces and urine float through the watery gutters lining the eroding cages of the Ottawa Humane Society’s dog runs. In the stray cat ward, cages filled with two to three cats are stacked on top of one another, spilling out into the hallways and filling closets – the meows from the distressed animals are deafening.
In 1968, the shelter on Champagne Avenue. was built to accommodate 2,500 animals a year. Years later, cramped and understaffed, that very same building now houses over 11,000 animals a year.
That could all change soon.
At the end of March, the humane society officially launched its Breaking Ground campaign at the fifth annual FurBall Gala fundraising event.
Laureen Harper, the prime minister’s wife and a shelter volunteer, led a champagne toast to celebrate the news.
With the help of donations, fundraising, and a $1.8 million contribution from the City of Ottawa, the campaign for the construction of a new building is picking up speed.
“The bottom line is we’re a 1968 building providing a 2009 service,” says Bruce Roney, the executive director of the Ottawa Humane Society. “The building needed to be replaced 20 years ago because maintenance costs are very high and it’s literally falling apart.”
In comparison to other big city shelters across Canada, Ottawa’s humane society doesn’t measure up. Both the Calgary and Winnipeg humane society buildings are over 40,000 square feet and house about 10,000 animals.
Ottawa’s current building is 15,000 square feet.
Pauline Neilsen is the adoptions supervisor at the Ottawa Humane Society and works closely with the animals. When asked about the state of the shelter, Neilsen laughed out of desperation. “It’s an overcrowding situation, and it creates more stress for both the people and animals.”
The new proposed building will be located between Riverside Road and Merivale Road, and is said to go up by spring 2011.
To replace the wall-to-wall cage rooms, the new design will have what is called a “cat habitat,” an open-concept area where cats and kittens up for adoption will have room to roam. This will reduce stress which will in turn decrease illnesses. The cats will have space to be cats, says Roney.
“The most important thing that’s going to be available is isolation space. If we have an outbreak of [disease], through isolation we can contain that,” says Roney. “And we’d like to have glass instead of bars. If you use glass you can separate the public from the animals, the sounds, and the smells.”
Along with its more sanitary structure and improved ventilation system, the new building will have an in-house veterinary clinic, and a multi-purpose classroom for veterinary workshops for Algonquin College students in training.
The humane society’s construction will adhere to strict Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, also known as LEED.
The shelter will encourage non-motorized methods of travel to and from the site, and use of a reduced water consumption system, renewable energy such as solar heating, and renewable construction materials.
The total cost of the new building will be $12.5 million.
To date, the humane society has raised $2.1 million through public support.
Roney says the fate of the humane society’s new building depends on the people who are supporting the project.
“When people come through with their pledges and gifts, that will make this happen.”