WHS-7-2-24-Ground-Break

Thank you to the Watertown Daily Times for featuring our shelter renovation project! To read the article, click here.

Renovation Fundraising Facebook Post (2)
Donors Sign for Furry Feud 2024 (9)
$880,000 (Instagram Post) (1)

Frequently Asked Questions

·To improve housing conditions for the animals in our care

·Improve/expand our Spay/Neuter Clinic

·Provide adequate office areas for staff to focus on tasks

·Greatly improve the sanitation and design of our dog kennels and outdoor play yards

·Add an indoor play yard so dogs can be exercised during inclement weather

This shelter renovation will include a fully renovated clinic space including a larger surgical suite, seperate recovery areas for both cats and dogs. It will also include a larger lobby, conference room, and community pet food pantry room. We are most excited for our dog spaces. This new and improved area will include a spacious indoor play yard when the weather isn't conducive to outdoor walks, kennel spaces that will not face each other and cause stress and anxiety amongst shelter dogs, as well as a seperate police quarantine kennel space with their own seperate entrance.  The only thing that virtually is not changing is our cat spaces which received new epoxy flooring earlier in 2022. 

Over the past two decades since our shelter was built, there have been many studies conducted in regards to the overall health and wellness of animals while in the care of an animal shelter. With the help of UW Shelter Medicine, we have continued to learn new ways to improve the mental health of our animals here in our care. We are currently, however, limited on the space we can fully conduct these suggestions .We are also unable to fully clean and sanitize particular spaces such as our dog kennels. Last year, we were fortunate enough to redo many of the common areas in our shelter including the cat rooms. This much needed renovation allowed us to put an epoxy coating on the floors which helps us keep the floors cleaner, more sanitized, and safer for our cats. We now must commit to our dogs. The drainage system in our dog kennel space is continually backing up and we are unable to clean the outdoor kennels during the frigid winter months. The inability to keep kennels continuously clean is an obvious concern. A new kennel space would include a new drainage system, heated floors, and an increase in space so our dogs can live here peacefully and comfortably while in our care. An indoor play area would allow our dogs the exercise they need during cold months and the redesign of the kennels themselves would ensure our shelter dogs are not facing each other, reducing stress and anxiety. Our new kennel space would include four dedicated kennels for police quarantine cases. Our two play yards would increase in size and include pea gravel to reduce the cross contamination of infectious diseases.

While construction is happening, we will be operating out of a temporary location that we will be renting from the Watertown Health Foundation out at Camp Matz in Watertown.

In addition to the updated kennel space for our dogs and a better clinic space, we also look forward to adding on a small animal room which do not currently have. When we have taken in a small animal or bird, they previously would be housed in a common hallway. This space does not obviously provide the needed accommodations to allow these animals to live peacefully within the shelter before their adoption.

We look forward to added office space for our staff as well as a community room where we can host volunteer events as well as other community outreach events.

Our newly added spay/neuter clinic has been extremely successful and with how quickly it's grown, it's become extremely urgent that we dedicate more space in the shelter to better accommodate our community members their pets, and our clinic staff. A dedicated reception area will allow for better traffic flow strictly for clinic guests. A large recovery space for both dogs and cats will allow our clinic patients the quiet space they need to recover more stress-free and comfortably.

This remodel/expansion is estimated to cost approximately $2.5 million dollars.

We are hoping to break ground in Spring 2024 and be moving back into the new facility within 6-8 months.

Maas Brothers Construction Co, Inc. from Watertown will be overseeing the construction of the project.

We have been working with Madisen Maher Architects, Inc. from Milwaukee to design the new building. They come highly recommended and have partnered with and designed several other animal shelters in Wisconsin.

We anticipate that this expanded space will create several more staff positions.

All funds raised in the Paws for a Cause Campaign will be used towards the building renovation funds and any new equipment that would be needed in the Spay/Neuter Clinic, as well as new dog kennel equipment. These funds will not being used for general operating funds.

The additional costs of utilities and staff for the new shelter will be able to come out of the money generated by our Spay/Neuter Clinic.

The Watertown Humane Society is a 501 (3) (c) charitable foundation. Any donations made to us are tax deductible. Our EIN Number is 39-1097337.