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Pratt animal shelter ready for expansion

Associated Press

PRATT - The Pratt animal shelter that took in hundreds of animals after a tornado damaged nearby Greensburg last year has raised enough money to expand and improve the building.

The shelter was in need of renovation even before it was overwhelmed with 200 dogs, cats and other animals rescued from Greensburg after the May 2007 tornado. Donations helped pay for food, medical care and staff but many animals had to be housed in outdoor pens.

And that was in a building built in the 1980s with drainage problems and no way to sanitize kennels or isolate sick animals.

"Greensburg kind of pushed us over the edge," said volunteer Pratt Humane Society director Mike Hill.

A capital campaign and donations -- including pennies from schoolchildren -- raised enough money to pay for a 40-by-72-foot steel building, which should be erected and ready for interior work by mid-June.

"The plumbing's in and we're just waiting for the rain to quit so we can put the tubing down for the heated floor and pour the cement," Hill said Wednesday.

The $70,000 cash on hand will pay for the exterior construction and the interior will be finished in phases.

"We're hopeful that maybe it will generate more donations once people see we're serious and that this is going to happen," said Pam Howell, Pratt veterinarian and Humane Society board president.

The new building will have kennels for 24 dogs and more isolation and holding pens. Plans include space for about 20 cats in open housing.

The Humane Society receives about 500 animals every year at the shelter.