Area’s largest no-kill animal shelter opening expanded facility Saturday

Published:
WINK News

Saving stray and abandoned animals in Southwest Florida just got easier, thanks to an expanded adoption center opening this weekend.

“It makes us a better community…so we don’t have cats and dogs wandering around,” said Lisa & Ted Ehrlick, volunteers with the Animal Refuge Center in SWFL.

“They don’t have to be dropped off at the side off the road! Pets do not have to be euthanized!” they added.

For the area’s largest no-kill shelter, the Animal Refuge Center often struggles with taking in medically challenged and other special needs animals that other shelters do not.

And thanks to a 67-month project, the ARC’s site for adoption is transforming into a completely new, 2,400-square-foot building with plenty of space designed for the hundreds of animals the shelter brings in each year.

“Having the Brighter Beginnings Adoption Center really has helped us increase our ability to provide services, not just to our animals, but people,” Ehrlick said.

Lisa knows firsthand how this 22-acre shelter is finding abandoned animals new homes. And she’s excited to see the new adoption center open just in time for the shelter’s 30th birthday.

“It creates a space where we can showcase our animals, where we can counsel potential adopters, do visitor training,” she said.

And also move toward a future with fewer euthanized pets.

“Hopefully one day we can be a whole no-kill Lee County,” Ehrlick said.

The ARC says it has saved the lives of 828 cats and dogs in 2017 alone. The grand opening for the new adoption center is Saturday from 2-4 p.m.

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