SOUTHINGTON — Animal shelter advocates are raising funds for glass kennel doors that they state are much safer for animals and handlers.
The Southington Dog Pound on Woodruff Street has 28 inside kennels for given up or discovered animals. Those kennels have metal cage doors which often trigger injury to frightened or disoriented animals attempting to go out.
“They get what they call kennel anxiety,” said Ann Marie Conaty, an animal control volunteer and vice president of the Friends of Southington Animal Control. “Everything’s strange for them, they’re really fearful. They’ll scratch at the doors, it scratches their paws. Some of them will get bloody noses.”
Her group wishes to change the metal doors with tempered glass. Those doors consist of water and food meals that can be changed without unlocking, making it much safer for animal control officers handling aggressive or frightened dogs.
Friends of Southington Animal Control got in touch with the J. Allen Lamb and Edward S. Pocock III Foundation about the effort. The structure rapidly accepted contribute $10,000 to the task, according to treasurer Steve Salerno.
Salerno is a retired Southington cops K9 officer. Pocock is a retired Southington cops captain while Lamb was an advocate of regional cops and cops animals.
“The dogs were always something that was really important to J. Allen,” Pocock said.
He was pleased to support Friends of Southington Animal Control. The structure’s primary work is training for cops command staff however Pocock said Conaty and Sue Zabohonski of the good friends group made an engaging case.
“After 25 years of being on the job, you have a soft spot for kids, old people and animals,” he said.
Salerno said tempered glass doors are an enhancement over the cage doors presently at the kennels.
“It was becoming a safety issue,” he said. “(Dogs) are stressed out… Sometimes they would get injured.”
Conaty said the doors cost about $1,800 each. The good friends group is wanting to raise another $10,000 to change half of the kennel doors. Her other half, a carpenter, has the ability to install them free of charge.
In addition to the doors, Conaty said her group wishes to make enhancements to the dog pound to enable it take in animals in case of an emergency situation. That would imply a generator for the building and training for volunteers to deal with great deals of animals.
“We would be able to take care of a lot of animals should the need arise in an emergency,” Conaty said.
[email protected]: @JBuchananRJ
