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- Animal Care Society, Kentucky’s first no-kill shelter, opened a new Adoption Center and Cat Building on Feb. 20.
- This expansion is part of a multi-year plan to grow the organization and help more animals in need.
- Future plans include building new dog kennel facilities, renovating the main shelter into a community veterinary clinic, and creating a training and enrichment yard for dogs.
Animal Care Society, Kentucky’s first no-kill animal shelter, recently opened a new expansion, giving the non-profit organization more space to help pets in Louisville.
The new Adoption Center and Cat Building at 12205 Westport Road opened on Feb. 20, adjoining with the 41-year-old organizations main campus.
Jason Wetherington, the executive director of Animal Care Society, said the opportunity to purchase the land next door to the main campus and build out an expansion to extend its cat focused services “was really a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
The new adoption and cat facility was purchased in Oct. 2023 and underwent roughly a year of construction and remodeling before its grand opening. In the last year and a half, Animal Care Society has extended its services to include additional vaccine clinics, new training and behavioral programs and new collaborative relationships with other organizations.
As shelters continue to operate at full capacity and places like Louisville Metro Animal Services and other organizations in town need additional shelter support, Wetherington said this new facility will allow Animal Care Society to help the growing pet population.
“As soon as a dog or cat are adopted out, there’s a waiting list of animals waiting in the wings to come in, to be rescued,” said Wetherington.
Here’s what to know about Animal Care Society’s new Adoption Center and Cat Building:
What is the Animal Care Society Adoption Center and Cat Building?
The 5,200 square foot building, formerly known as Rudy’s Bar and Grill, will now serve as the primary entry point for all guests who enter the Animal Care Society campus.
The new facility is also a “cattery,” a housing area for cats, Wetherington said. The expansion allows the facility to double its number of cats, now able to handle roughly 100 cats at a time and save them from euthanasia.
“We have expanded our capacity for care for cats, and we have five, free roaming cat rooms where the cats can enjoy spacious accommodations and lots of enrichment activities and have some separation from the dogs on campus and enjoy a little more peace and quiet,” said Wetherington.
This move to provide more separation between dogs and cats is also considered a “best practice.”
The new facility will also allow for expanded training capabilities thanks to a new conference room, which will allow Animal Care Society to host volunteer orientations, trainings and other community focused groups.
When is Animal Care Society’s Adoption Center and Cat Building open?
Visitors looking to adopt their next furry friend can stop by Mondays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“It allows for more space for adoption counseling and reviewing medical history and records, and really ensuring that the matchmaking process of matching the right animal with the right family is given the time and space needed to walk all of our adopters through that process, because our whole heart and hope and mission is to ensure that every animal finds the right home, and every home finds the right animal,” Wetherington said of the new facility.
What’s next for Animal Care Society?
The facility expansion is one step in a multi-year plan to grow the organization, which Wetherington said has expand from a 1.25-acre campus into a roughly 5-acre campus over the last 18 months.
The next phase of the master campus plan expansion includes building new dog kennel facilities and doubling capacity for dogs from 24 kennels to around 50 kennels. The Animal Care Society has recently purchased a little more than 1 acre of land to be utilized as a training and enrichment yard for dogs.
After this expansion, the main shelter, which has been in operation since 1989, will undergo renovations and be turned into a veterinary clinic that will offer low cost spay, neuter and vaccine clinics for the community.
“It’s significantly rewarding to know that we’ve played a small part in a four-decade history of an organization that means so much to the community and the animals we serve,” Wetherington said. “This is just a new chapter in the life of our organization, of being able to save even more animals and serve even more families.”
Contact business reporter Olivia Evans at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter at @oliviamevans_.
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