It’s the mission of the Idaho Humane Society to find pets new homes. Now, the non-profit is getting a new home of their own. This as crews broke ground on their new facility on Tuesday off of Overland Road.
The Idaho Humane Society’s new home will be almost double in size and address a lot of the concerns and needs of the animals from outdoor space to treatment and recovery areas.
“It's going to make us a lot more successful and this facility will also be a lot more welcoming to the public,” Idaho Humane Society CEO Dr. Jeff Rosenthal said.
Front and center at Tuesday’s ceremony was 11-year-old Kate Davis-Munger. Munger has spent three of her summers raising money for the humane society.
“Kind of excited. I feel good being part of something big like this. So yeah, helping out all the animals is fun,” Munger said.
Munger sets up a stand outside her home and sells snow cones, cookies, and water, which has raised more than $300 for the new facility.
“We all love animals. So we were all really excited that we could actually help them,” Munger said.
The new, nearly $15 million, facility will include an outdoor park, noise-controlled housing, and larger kennels.
“Many of the animals we used to not be able to save, we now have the ability to save, and these are the animals with the special needs, the behavioral issues, the medical issues, the starvation cases, the abuse cases," Dr. Rosenthal said. "Those animals were not saved in the past, but now we save them and we need a different facility that really nurtures them."
The last time the Idaho Humane Society upgraded their facility, Boise was about half the size, and they had about half the amount of employees.
“We had about 45 employees and now we have 102, and we have about 900 volunteers that come and go,” Dr. Rosenthal said.
The new facility also allows the humane society to expand their partnership with Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
“We're going to double the number of students we can train in our facility with this new facility,” Dr. Rosenthal said.
The facility will also double the amount of exam rooms available for low-income residents and their animals.
“The veterinary hospital is terribly undersized for the volume of work that we're trying to accomplish. For folks that really have nowhere else to turn to for help,” Dr. Rosenthal said.
The Idaho Humane Society is still about $4 million short of their goal. However, Dr. Rosenthal said that shortfall is closing rapidly. Construction is set to be completed by fall of 2018.