The Oak Ridge Animal Shelter has temporarily reduced its adoption fee from $110 to $45 so air conditioning units and new insulation can be installed. Puppies are pictured above in the front kennel area of the animal shelter.
The Oak Ridge Animal Shelter has temporarily cut its adoption fee by more than 50 percent—from $110 to $45—so air-conditioning units and new insulation can be installed in a rear kennel area.
“We can’t have the animals in here when we re-apply the insulation,” said Julie Armes, Oak Ridge Animal Shelter supervisor.
The rear kennel area has 40 dog runs, but it has never had air-conditioning. Temperatures there can exceed 90 degrees. Although the shelter hasn’t had any heat fatalities, Armes said the heat is hard on cats and short-nosed dogs, such as pugs.
She said the shelter, located on Belgrade Road in east Oak Ridge, is losing money on the reduced fee, but the goal is to have as many animals as possible adopted before the old insulation is torn out and the new insulation blown in.
City employees expect the work to be done soon, although a date hasn’t been set.
The shelter now uses a half-dozen large fans, including giant ones that inject a spray mist, to cool the rear kennel area. Armes said she has put ice in dog water bowls to help them stay cool.
“It was hot back there,” she said.
Summer Hensley, left, and Sam Hensley look at a cat in the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter.
She said animals that haven’t been adopted by the time the air-conditioning units are installed will go to Little Lake Pet Lodge in Marlow at a reduced rate of $10 per day per animal. Some smaller cats and dogs will be able to stay at the shelter.
Armes vowed to do her best to keep the animals from suffering a worse fate.
“I’ll put them in my office if I have to,” she said.
During a tour Tuesday, the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter had about 33 dogs in the rear kennel area, three full puppy cages in the front of the shelter, and about 25 full cat cages.
Armes said the two new two-ton air-conditioning units will be installed at a cost of $16,214, including labor but not insulation. It will cost $12,500 to remove the old insulation and add the new. The shelter hopes to use prisoner labor to help with the work, and that could save about $4,200, Armes said.
Pictured above at the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter are Abram Hensley, left, Sam Hensley, Kyra Hensley, James McFadden, and Dalys Hensley. McFadden was looking for a cat to adopt.
The shelter serves about 3,900 animals each year, including from Oak Ridge, Anderson County, and Clinton.
The adoption fee was lowered Aug. 1, and Armes said she isn’t sure how long it will stay reduced. The fee covers a spaying or neutering, a microchip, nail trim, de-wormer, flea and tick drops, and rabies and booster vaccines.
The reduced fee has been advertised on Facebook, at veterinary clinics, and through word-of-mouth advertising. There has been more recent interest in adoptions, although Armes said she isn’t sure how many have been adopted.
“We’ve been so busy,” she said.
More pictures will be added later.
Oak Ridge resident Joel McKaig, who was checking on an application to volunteer at the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter, holds a kitten.
Susie Williams Taylor says
This article makes me want to go and get all the pets. Hopefully, they’ll get forever homes soon!
johnhuotari says
I certainly hope so. There were a few that I would be tempted to adopt, but we’ve already got more pets than we can afford.