TAMPA, Fla. — Stray and surrendered animals in Tampa will soon have a much nicer place to get help.
The Humane Society of Tampa Bay is planning to build a brand new shelter, nicer than their current arrangement, and with much more capacity to help animals in need.
The non-profit, based in West Tampa, long outgrew their 60-year-old main building; it operates intake and surgeries in a small side building and houses management offices and training exercises from trailers on their campus.
Many of the animals today are housed in areas without air conditioning, kept cool with plug-in fans.
So the Humane Society of Tampa Bay is still fundraising for a new, 42,000-square foot multi-level facility, but when it's complete, they will be able to help over 10,000 animals every year, which is about 2,000 more per year than they can help today.
They've also designed a strategy to stay operational while building the new facility.
"We're going to limit operations somewhat during construction," explains CEO Sherry Silk, "but we're still going to be able to do intake of animals and adoptions. That was the really challenging part, to stay operational."
Silk says the new facility will also have a nursery for new mothers and their underage litters, as well as a proper isolation area for sick animals.
To see the progress of their fundraising efforts, and to contribute, click HERE.
The shelter will be called the DeBartolo Family Animal Shelter because the family donated much of the nearly $9 million that's already been raised; the total cost of the shelter construction will be about $11 million. The design plans were donated by a local architect.
Construction at the shelter on Armenia Avenue is planned to begin in early 2019.
