Campbell County Animal Services will begin renovating its shelter at 1989 Poplar Ridge Road in Melbourne this spring.
The renovations come after changes were made to streamline animal services last year when cities decided to enter into an interlocal agreement with the county to dissolve the Northern Kentucky Animal Control Board and enter into a new deal with the Campbell County Fiscal Court to provide animal control services.
The cities of Bellevue, Cold Spring, Dayton, Fort Thomas, Highland Heights, Melbourne, Silver Grove, Southgate and Wilder are participating in the agreement.
According to Campbell County Animal Services Director Lisa Krummen, the shelter will get a new enclosed addition that will replace the existing outdoor kennels on the parking lot side of the building, among other features on the inside.
“The Animal Shelter was designed to house animals for five days and then euthanize (them,)” Krummen said. “The health and mental well-being of the animals wasn’t considered, as the animals weren’t meant to stay for more than a few days.”
The current layout of the shelter also houses cats in the lobby, which Krummen said is busy with customer traffic, ringing phones, and dogs coming through during intake, meet-and-greets, and adoptions.
“Most cats don’t handle noise and commotion well, and when cats get stressed, they get sick,” Krummen said.
She said the shelter also does not have an isolation/hospital area to quarantine sick cats away from others or house cats needing extra recovery time from surgeries. They do not have an indoor space designated for meet-and-greets with dogs other than the main lobby, which Krummen said is difficult during inclement weather.
A newly constructed addition will help to correct the flow of the building to reduce the stress of the animals, contain any illness, and create a better experience for adopters. It will include an isolation/hospital area for cats, a designated area for housing cats away from dog traffic, and private meet-and-greet rooms for adoption consultations. The addition will allow staff to reorganize the existing lobby for more efficient office space.
“We have not started the building process yet,” Krummen said. “I believe it will be in the spring. Right now, we’re finalizing building plans.”
Krummen said state law requires them to hold stray dogs for five business days, and animals of owners that surrender them legally do not have to be held. The shelter currently operates by scheduling an intake of surrenders to manage the population.
The shelter only euthanizes for medical emergencies or when the staff agrees that an animal is too dangerous to put back into the public. Krummen said they have not had to euthanize due to a lack of space since October 2016.
