Humane Society of Greater Lafayette breaks ground on $6.5 million shelter
LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A new $6.5 million animal shelter came closer to fruition Tuesday as officials throughout Tippecanoe County celebrated the project's ground-breaking.
Tippecanoe County's newest animal shelter, Humane Society for Greater Lafayette, was announced in May 2022, when the cities of Lafayette and West Lafayette and the Tippecanoe County government announced that they would be ending their contracts with Almost Home Humane Society and Crystal Creek Kennels, and instead opted to create a new and larger animal shelter to service all three communities.
The three local governments committed around $6.5 million, which will fund the construction of a 17,000-square-foot facility.
The shelter is intended to be a no-kill facility with 67 indoor and outdoor dog runs, 157 two-compartment cat kennels, as well as several other animal-related services — animal control, dog play areas, medical suite, spay and neuter services and an educational room aimed to provide lessons to both workers and the public.
“This really is a special day," said Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski. "This is a really important project for our community, it’s another wonderful example of collaboration between Lafayette, West Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, people in the animal world, (and) Purdue University.”
“I’m so proud to be from this community where people continually worked together to get good things done for the community, even when they are difficult.”
With the announcement of the shelter's on-campus medical suite, Dr. Willie M. Reed, from Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, spoke about the university's partnership with the shelter.
In 2009, the College of Veterinary Medicine created a program aimed at teaching students the nuances of shelter animal medicine. With the creation of this new shelter, the college will expand its program to allow students from the college to aid shelter veterinarians with surgeries and general care of the animals.
“They described this project to me, and I thought to myself, we have to be part of this. A university with a college of veterinary medicine in this community, and there’s a new animal shelter, how could we not be a part of it,” Reed said.
“Our students are going to come here, they are going to practice shelter medicine with our facility, they’re going to enhance their surgical skills, they’re going to prepare these animals for adoption, they’re going to find wonderful homes and the veterinarians in our communities are going to take care of them.”
Tippecanoe County Commissioner Tom Murtaugh announced that the Wabash manufacturing company donated around $100,000 in materials to the shelter, specifically DuraPlate, which is an engineered steel and plastic composite material.
Murtaugh explained that the material would be used to create the shelter’s dog run and cat facilities.
Murtaugh also announced that the three governments were working together to create a unified animal control ordinance, in the hopes of making the enforcement of animal control decisions more consistent across the county.
As of now, this project is expected to be finished by the summer of 2024.
Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Humane Society of Greater Lafayette breaks ground on $6.5M shelter
