STARKVILLE — An Oktibbeha County Humane Society expansion under construction will bolster the organization’s spay/neuter and animal transportation services.
This week, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals announced it would provide a $900,000 grant dedicated to the expansion of OCHS’s shelter at 510 Industrial Park Road into the OCHS Animal Support Center. The total cost for the project is estimated at $1.2 million.
“The support center is not just describing a building,” OCHS Executive Director Michele Anderson said. “… We’re expanding our programming, and it’s basically going to be our campus. We’re focusing on expanding our transport capacity and tripling our spay and neuter efforts.”
Anderson said OCHS acts as a “hub” for its 17-county service area, as the humane society regularly helps other shelters in the region with animal transportation and snip and spay services.
Anderson said the grant will help with building two new facilities on the north side of the OCHS campus, including a new OCHS Snip and Spay Clinic and the VanLandingham Kennel Building, which will house the humane society’s animal transport service. She said the two new buildings will be added to the south end of the campus.
OCHS celebrated the groundbreaking for the Animal Support Center on Monday with Mayor Lynn Spruill and representatives from ASPCA. The center is expected to be open by fall.
In a press release from ASPCA, the organization estimated the new facilities will allow OCHS to grow its animal transportation service numbers from 1,800 to 3,500 annually. ASPCA also estimated the Animal Support Center will more than triple spay and neuter capacity from 2,900 to 8,800 surgeries annually.
“We’re seeing so many animals come into our shelters and so few animals getting adopted,” Anderson said. “That’s put a huge challenge on us. We realized that animal relocation is critical for providing a second chance for the animals in our care now … but the only thing that will solve the overpopulation problem is spaying and neutering.”
Anderson said conversations about expanding OCHS have been in the works for years, but financial hurdles have prevented these dreams from being realized.
“This has been a long time coming in terms of the need,” Anderson said. “We started a serious conversation last year about the challenges that we continue to face, and about how COVID … and economic challenges have set us back.”
Anderson said OCHS applied for the ASPCA’s grant last year.
In November, the humane society secured another five-year term for its lease with the city of Starkville for its shelter property on Industrial Road and Miley Drive, along with a 20-year lease for OCHS to use an adjacent two acres of municipal airport property to the north to expand its facilities and services.
“OCHS has been an incredible asset for our city and county,” Spruill wrote to The Dispatch in a text message on Wednesday. “I am so pleased that the ASPCA has recognized their value to our community through their grant. We count on them to take care of the most vulnerable creatures in our city and they step up regularly to protect them from suffering and neglect. Bringing pets into our lives makes our lives better and these folks are dedicated to doing that.”
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