A new $4 million, no-kill pet center, years in the making, will open in the Harbison area this month.
It’s welcome news for animal advocates, considering the problem of unwanted and abandoned pets in Richland and Lexington counties.
“There were 21,000 homeless pets in the Midlands last year and over 18,000 were euthanized,” said Denise Wilkinson, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Pawmetto Lifeline, whose organization will run the facility.
Pawmetto Lifeline expects their new no kill pet center, a two-story, 27,000 square foot facility on Bower Parkway to be completed by Jan. 25
- c. aluka berry /calukaberry@thestate.com
Windows look out onto Bower Parkway at the new Pawmetto Lifeline. The no kill shelter expects their two-story, 27,000 square foot facility on Bower Parkway to be completed by Jan. 25
- c. aluka berry /caluka berry@thestate.com
Magnum Drywall's George Best uses a lazer to get measurements in order to build a knee wall in the activity center at the new no-kill shelter, Pawmetto Lifeline. The activity room is where dogs will be able to interact with potential owners. The shelter expects their two-story, 27,000 square foot facility on Bower Parkway to be completed by Jan. 25.
- c. aluka berry /caluka berry@thestate.com
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Richland and Lexington counties contributed $1.5 million each to help build the facility, Wilkinson said.
Lexington County also donated the 7.5-acre site off Bower Parkway for the facility, which is scheduled to open Jan. 25. The center will lease the land at $1 a year for 20 years.
One of the center’s goals is to get as many animals out of county-run shelters as possible. She said that could save taxpayers money in the long run.
The center will be able to handle about 2,000 animals a year in adoptions, and spay and neuter about 17,000, Wilkinson said. With the help of partner organizations, the center plans to place about 3,500 additional animals, bringing the total adoptions the center hopes to arrange to 5,500 a year.
“If we can get a balance between supply and demand for pets, at that point the counties will not be receiving as many homeless pets as they are now,” she said. “So over the years, that’s going to allow them to save millions of dollars.”
Services at the 27,000-square-foot center will include adoption, spaying and neutering, and education and outreach. Low-cost, or in some cases free, medical services for the pets of low-income families also will be offered, Wilkinson said.
In addition to funding from the counties, the center received private donations, including a $1.5 million gift from Austin and Lane Meyer of Forest Acres. The new facility, Meyer Finlay Pet Adoption Center, is named for the couple and Austin Meyer’s grandmother Claudia Finlay, a longtime volunteer for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Deloris Mungo, Pawmetto Lifeline’s board president, said she does not think the new facility, which will join two other area no-kill shelters when it opens, will compete for funding and other resources.
“Each of the organizations are trying to save animal lives in their own way,” Mungo said. “The more animal lives saved the better.
“The other nonprofits can use our spay and neuter facility so it will bring everyone together in a beautiful way,” she said. “We’re all working together toward a common cause.”
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