Eau Claire animal shelter plans bigger building
May 19—EAU CLAIRE — The Eau Claire County Humane Association has been quietly securing $5.6 million in donations since mid-2021, but now it's starting a community fundraiser to raise the remaining $900,000 needed to build a new shelter.
On Wednesday evening, the local organization launched its "Be the Voice" capital campaign to get that last piece of funding for its new $6.5 million facility.
"Overall, the new shelter will be built the right way with a better environment that will lead to happier, more adoptable animals," Jeff Stepanek, veterinarian at The Ark Animal Hospital and co-chair of the fundraising campaign, said in a news release.
The organization's home for over 25 years has been the 5,800-square-foot shelter at 3900 Old Town Hall Road in the town of Washington, just south of Eau Claire city limits. At the same 15-acre site, the new facility will be built next to the current shelter. After construction of the new building is complete — slated for a spring 2024 opening — the old shelter will be razed and replaced with parking.
At over 12,000 square feet — more than double the size of the current shelter — the new building will include larger kennels for the animals, better ventilation, lighting, plumbing and other features.
"The really big focus is to make it more of a nicer place for the animals to live while they're here," Shelley Janke, executive director of the association, said in a phone interview with the Leader-Telegram.
Currently the shelter has its cages in rooms without natural light, but the new facility will have plenty of windows to let sunlight in plus more outdoor exercise yards for dogs to play.
An on-site veterinary clinic is included in the building, which will allow the shelter to spay and neuter pets as well as take care of other routine medical needs for the animals. The association currently brings its animals to area veterinary clinics for those services, so the in-house office would cut down on transportation and the organization intends to eventually hire a part-time veterinarian to treat animals there, Janke said.
Unlike the current shelter, the new one will have a conference room intended to host demonstrations for school field trips and other groups coming to learn more about the association's work with animals.
A pantry with pet food and supplies for people who cannot afford them will also be larger in the new shelter.
While this is the start of the public campaign to raise money for the new shelter, the association has been asking prominent local donors and foundations for contributions since July, Janke said.
The biggest contribution was $1.5 million from L.E. Phillips Family Foundation, followed by $500,000 each from PESI and John and Cathie Knowlton. Just over 140 donors have contributed to raise the $5.6 million put toward the new building to date.
"We did that in a few short months," Janke said.
She's hoping that momentum, aided by PESI agreeing to put $150,000 toward matching the early donors in the public campaign, will keep going.
The new shelter is currently in the design phase, but Janke said the project may start this fall with site work. Construction of the new building is slated to begin in spring 2023 and open a year later.
