New Iredell animal shelter to open Monday

The floors aren’t quite finished and the final touches are taking place all over the building, but Iredell County Animal Services staff members are busy moving furniture and boxes into the new facility at 430 Bristol Drive.

The animal shelter will open for business on Monday in its new location, so this week, the staff is moving supplies, furniture and, by late in the week, animals from the shelter on Twin Oaks Road to Bristol Drive.

The staff will be moving about 40 dogs and cats. A pot-bellied pig will have to stay at the old facility until the barn is completed, said Iredell County Animal Services Director Chris Royal. She said the staff will go back and forth to take care of the pig until the barn is completed and the pig can be moved. She said she hopes that will take place in a matter of days after the new shelter opens.

She said it’s been a lot of work so far this week, but she and her staff are thrilled with the move.

“It’s been a long, drawn-out process (to build the new shelter) but we wanted to get everything right,” she said.

Royal said the new facility will give them more room to operate, and she’s glad to be moving into a building specially designed for sheltering animals.

The facility on Twin Oaks was meant to be a short-term solution and animal control has been housed in that building since the mid-1990s. Upgrading it to meet state standards, Royal said, would have cost more than building the $2 million shelter on Bristol Drive.

“We are so excited,” she said.

The shelter includes many green features, including a lot of natural lighting.

Animal Control Officer Randy Grannaman said that will benefit the dogs at the facility.

“There will be natural light and a better surface for the dogs to be on,” he said.

Royal said the shelter will include a covered drive-through area for the monthly rabies clinics. “That way the vets won’t get wet and the people bringing their animals won’t get wet,” she said.

There are a number of features in the new building that were not present in the Twin Oaks location, she said.

One of the newer features will be a room to allow prospective adopters and the animal to get acquainted. The only place potential adopters could get to know an animal at the Twin Oaks facility was in front of the cage or outside.

There is an adoption area, which includes the get-acquainted room and a lobby.

The runs where the adoptable dogs will be housed are twice the size of the one at Twin Oaks, she said. The shelter will be able to have 23 dogs in its adoptions area.

There are also more than 40 runs for stray dogs or those not ready for adoption, she said. There are two quarantine areas for bite cases or sick animals, and there is a separate area to bring animals for rabies shots, she said. “We can keep sick animals away from our other dogs,” she said.

There is also a large area for cats, as well as an area to isolate sick cats.

The shelter also includes an office area for staff members, a kitchen, a conference room, the euthanasia area, a washing/grooming room and a shower area for employees who might meet up with a skunk during their work day.

Royal said she’s pleased with the way the new facility has turned out. “We visited a number of shelters, and looked at a lot of different ideas. We took the ones we liked and included them into the design,” she said. 

The new shelter will open on Monday but a formal dedication and open house is planned for 2-4 p.m. July 17.

Royal said a number of volunteers have donated the refreshments for the open house but anyone wanting to donate snacks can still do so. 

She said she hopes citizens will turn out to see the new shelter. “We are very pleased with this,” she said.