Thu 3/7 @ 10:30AM
A “game changer” is how Friends of the Cleveland Kennel executive director Becca Britton describes the brand-new Cleveland Animal Care & Control (CACC) building, located at 9203 Detroit Ave. in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.
CACC’s ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Thu 3/7 @ 10:30am, with kennel tours being offered March 8-10 at the new Cleveland venue.
“The new kennel is huge for the city and its residents,” Britton said. “It’s been a long time coming. They’ve been talking about doing this kennel for over 15 years. This is huge for the treatment of the animals.
“The other piece of it is to increase adoptions. It’s hard to adopt animals out of the old kennel building because of the way it’s set up: There are no meet-and-greet rooms, everyone had to go outside and the building just smelled horrible. It’s not very people-friendly.”
The former kennel, which was located on West 7th Street near Tremont Park, opened more than 40 years ago with stacked cages in close quarters. The estimated $6.2 million CACC, which is formerly an aluminum foundry site, provides a new home for Cleveland’s dog adoption program.
Britton said the 15,587-square-foot public facility, which was designed by Richard L. Bowen + Associates, features various modern kennel elements. Its innovative design approach incorporates current best practices — flexibility, efficiency, use of natural light, fresh air, indoor/outdoor connections, staff/volunteer convenience — into a one-of-a-kind kennel facility.
Highlights include individual ventilated and drained animal cages providing a safe and clean healthy environment. The innovative floor plan also features 10 separate pods with 10 animal cages to provide flexibility in housing animals, ample natural light, adjacent cleaning facilities and secure outdoor space.
In addition, there are four individual large, fenced outdoor play areas with generous space to promote off-leash play, as well as indoor meet-and-greet rooms for potential adopters and a conference room.
While Friends of the Cleveland Kennel doesn’t run the kennel, Britton said the nonprofit funds the adoption program, which includes covering the cost of medical needs, enrichment programs and supplies.
“We hope the opening of the new kennel leads to even more dogs getting adopted and more dogs basically as a whole getting out of the kennel,” Britton said. “There are so many dogs who are getting sick at the old kennel, which led to more difficulty transferring those animals to other rescues and shelters. This is going to be a gamechanger.”