- September 6, 2024
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Manatee County continues to invest in animal welfare facilities, and the locations have been determined by circumstance, with nothing planned at this time for East County.
“If we had a magic wand and could’ve picked where we wanted (a facility), it probably would have been in East County as it was determined,” said Sarah Brown, the deputy director of community and veterans services. “However, when the gift of the Bishop Animal Shelter came up, it kind of changed priorities.”
In March 2022, Manatee County took over operations of the Bishop Animal Shelter from the Bishop Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Manatee County. The donation was estimated at $18 million. The $6 million that was budgeted by the county to build a shelter on State Road 64 across from Haile Middle School was reallocated to the Bishop Animal Shelter for additional upgrades, which total $12,050,000.
Brown said the county's Animal Welfare department has two main priorities. The first is to move the dogs at the Palmetto Dog Adoption Center into the Bishop Animal Shelter. The second is to open a new resource center that aims to help prevent pets from being surrendered to shelters.
The resource center came about after other plans for an empty building at 401 17th Ave. W., fell through. Brown said the building needs work, but the center could provide veterinary care, food and training resources to the community by January.
East County might still be in the plans for a facility that would offer adoption services. While Commissioner George Kruse said he doesn’t envision a facility on the scale of the Bishop Animal Shelter in East County anytime soon, something smaller is still a possibility.
“I’m working on trying to get some sort of pseudo, a couple thousand square feet adoption center where people can drop off or adopt dogs,” Kruse said. “We can be cycling dogs, so we can get different dogs out there to be seen by the East County people.”
With or without a county facility in East County, residents still see dogs that are surrendered to the county because Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue and the Humane Society at Lakewood Ranch are both county partners.
“Nate’s typically has one of their cottages dedicated to just our animals,” Brown said.
The Bishop Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Manatee County donated the Bishop Animal Shelter, located at 5718 21st Ave. W., to Manatee County in December 2021. The 25,000-square-foot facility came with 14.47 acres and was valued at $18 million.
The dog kennels were in bad shape when the county took over, and the plans were revised a few times. Now that a final plan is in place, Manatee County staff members are pushing to get the renovation done as soon as possible.
““We’re moving into the design development phase," Brown said. "That’s typically a 60-day turnaround. We’re aiming for a 45-day turnaround to keep expediting this project.”
The prefab kennels are put together off site and take about 12 weeks to assemble. The goal is to have the kennels installed by the end of the year, but Brown said it might not happen until early 2025.
Once installed, the dogs being sheltered in Palmetto will be moved to Bishop. The Palmetto Adoption Center will then be permanently closed. Kruse said there currently are no plans for the Palmetto location outside of never housing animals again.
“It’s a terrible, terrible building,” Kruse said. “We’re endlessly putting money into renovating and fixing that place up to the barest minimum level to allow the dogs some level of comfort as we work on getting them out.”
Brown agreed the location is terrible. Kruse noted that the shelter is next to railroad tracks while Brown said residents living on the south side of the county don’t want to drive over the river.
“We know traffic can be very congested throughout the county,” Brown said. “I think the decision and thought process prior to Bishop was that East County made the most sense because that’s where everyone is going and where the biggest amount of growth is.”
There are 72 dogs in the Palmetto location now, which is near its capacity. Moving the dogs at Bishop will mean that facility will be housing approximately 125 dogs. Brown said that number is the “sweet spot.”
Bishop also has room for cats, rabbits and other animals, but how many depends on the size of the animals. The shelter was able to accommodate over 100 rabbits that were seized during a hoarding investigation in March.
The majority of surrendered cats are kept at the Cat Town Adoption Center at 216 6th Ave. E.
Kruse said the currently empty building that will serve as the resource center was initially purchased by Scott Hopes to provide daycare for county employees’ children. After a more recent idea to use the building for staff offices was nixed, County Administrator Charlie Bishop approached Brown.
“For the past few years, I’ve been trying to pitch the idea of a resource center,” Brown said. “Nationally, adoptions continue to decline. We’re seeing that trend as expenses get higher. It’s been a tough time for people and their pets.”
The resource center will offer support to people in the hope that owners can keep their pets versus surrendering them. Brown said it’s simply not feasible for the county to adopt its way out of the pet overpopulation crisis, and many times people just need a little bit of help.
The 3,600-square-foot resource center, which will cost about $1.3 million to open, will feature a food bank, indoor and outdoor training areas, a surgical suite and adoption offices.
The majority of veterinary services will be wellness care, such as vaccines and medications. The county was offering free mobile vaccination clinics, but found it difficult to keep people and pets waiting outside for long periods of time. With an office, people can make appointments and sit in a waiting room.
Brown said at least a third of the animals that come into the shelter are heartworm positive, and the treatments are expensive.
“If we can find a way to be able to help people treat their pets, that will be less of a burden on the shelters in our community,” Brown said. “And then people get to keep their pets, and that’s a beautiful thing.”
There will be some, but not a lot of adoptions at the center. One of the bigger focuses will be on training because it’s a major problem Animal Welfare staff is seeing in the community. It’s also another solvable problem.
Pet owners can receive some basic training at either a low cost or for free to work through their pet's problem behaviors, so they can keep them.
There will be case managers on site that can talk through the issues owners are having and offer solutions.
“We want people to be able to keep their pets,” Brown said. “We’re hoping this will at least make a small dent in our community.”
