New building to go to the dogs, and cats, as Humane Society's new shelter

The Whatcom Humane Society will combine its two shelter operations under one roof in a new building on Division Street by July of this year, according to Sarah Hansen, animal care supervisor at the Baker Creek Shelter.

Hansen said the new building will replace two facilities – the Williamson Way Shelter and the Baker Creek Shelter – which are poorly equipped, in need of repairs and expensive to operate.

“Having two buildings and working out of two buildings (in different locations) is very expensive and a pain,” Hansen said. Additionally, Hansen said the lack of space at the two shelters is a major problem when taking in new animals and trying to avoid euthanizing animals that have not been adopted.

“Once an animal goes up for adoption here, it stays up as long as they’re healthy and we have the space, space being the biggest issue,” Hansen said.

The 18,000-square-foot facility, which is currently under construction, will relieve space, drainage and ventilation issues faced at the current shelters – which will close down once the Humane Society moves into the new building – and will have a larger veterinary and surgical area as well as in-house x-ray systems, Hansen said. The lack of x-ray facilities at the current shelters is a major problem when diagnosing injuries to animals, she said.

The shelter will also have a cat colony room, where well-adjusted cats can play together in a large room rather than stay in cages; an indoor-outdoor puppy area, so puppies can have protected outdoor space; and outdoor dog areas with space for dogs to run. The facility will include a large outdoor area where volunteers can walk and play with dogs.

The Whatcom Humane Society reports that it serves over 5,000 animals each year.

Construction of the building, at 2172 Division St., is on schedule to be completed by June 1, according to Ken Pike, jobsite superintendent for The Franklin Corporation, the company handling construction.

Construction began shortly after the 12-acre property was purchased with a donation in December 2011, according to Laura Clark, director of the Whatcom Humane Society. Tax documents list the sale price at $1.5 million.

The design of the facility was a collaborative effort between the city of Bellingham, the Whatcom Humane Society and people at the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine/Shelter Design, Clark said.

Though the Humane Society has been in need of a new facility for years, Clark said the lack of resources was what held it back.

Hansen, who has worked at the Baker Creek Shelter for five years, said she has been hearing about a new facility since she started but had never seen it materialize.

“Even two years ago, when they said we were getting a new building, I didn’t believe it was really happening,” Hansen said.

One of the major issues at the existing shelters is drainage, Hansen said. The current drains are small and the screens don’t properly stop hair from getting into them, she said. As a result, the Baker Creek Shelter uses a chemical drain cleaner regularly to deal with the clogs from hair and other things getting into the drains, Hansen said.

“Three years ago, we had water backed up in all the dog kennels,” Hansen said. The drains at the new facility have been designed to keep hair and everything else that isn’t liquid out of the drains, she said.

The Baker Creek Shelter, Hansen said, was not designed properly as an animal shelter facility.

“It wasn’t built by anyone who knew what they were doing,” she said.

Hansen said the new facility will address all of the issues facing the current facilities, but at a substantial financial cost.

She said that construction costs for the month of February alone had exceeded $250,000 and they expected costs for March to be higher.

Funding for the project has come largely from donations, including an anonymous donor from the community who agreed to match donations up to $1 million. The Human Society website currently shows donations totalling $800,213 but the deadline for donations that will be matched is April 15.

Hansen said the Humane Society will need to continue fundraising after moving into the new facility in June or July of this year, as the initial operating costs coupled with residual construction costs will be much higher than current operating costs. In the long run, however, the operations costs will be much lower with all its services in one place, she said.

Beyond shelter, adoption, education and other programs, the Whatcom Humane Society has contracts to handle all the animal control services for Whatcom County and several local municipalities, including Bellingham. Animal control services will also be based out of the new, Division Street building once it is complete.

The Baker Creek Shelter, which is owned by Whatcom County and leased to the Humane Society, was formerly owned and used by Security Specialists Plus in their contracts handling animal control and work-release inmates for Whatcom County. Both of those contracts were cancelled after a controversial animal abuse case and misconduct by a SSP guard in regard to a female inmate.

The Williamson Way Shelter is owned by the Port of Bellingham and is also leased to the Humane Society. The Humane Society also operates a 10-acre horse and livestock facility in Everson.


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