Bismarck, ND -
The Central Dakota Humane Society is excited about its land purchase at the fairgrounds. The no-kill animal shelter hopes to break ground next year.
These little guys, awaiting adoption at the Central Dakota Humane Society, aren't the only ones in line for a new home. The non profit organization housing them has purchased land for a new place of its own at the Burleigh County Fairgrounds.
"The fact that it had city sewer access was probably the biggest plus," said Sue Buchholz with the Central Dakota Humane Society.
For the last several years, the Central Dakota Humane Society has been battling problems with its septic system. Shelter manager, Sue Buchholz, says it's not uncommon for the shelter to have standing water surround it. She was hoping the city's sewer system would be extended to meet the shelter, but since there are no plans of that happening she says they had to look at other options.
"As we grow and as demands for our services grow, just probably in the last five years, we have been thinking pretty seriously we need a new location," Buchholz said.
The Central Dakota Humane Society averages between 30 and 40 adoptions a month. Because it's a no kill shelter, Buchholz says they get calls from all over the state. Although, the current shelter can't accommodate all of those requests.
"We try and handle county animals as our main priority because there aren't other resources for them, but we just have a high demand for our services, but thankfully we have a high adoption rate too, so we just keep trying to service animals that need us," said Buchholz.
Buchholz hopes to double capacity at the new shelter. Architects are drawing up plans for what the new building would look like. The Central Dakota Humane Society launched a capital campaign to raise money for the shelter. Buchholz believes it could cost between $2,000,000 and $2,500,000.
"This building should be usable. We are trying to think ahead thirty years. We've been here 15 years and that time just flew by and we've seen changes and mistakes that were made and how we can do things differently and we really want it to be not something fancy, something state of the art as far as able to provide care for animals and keep them healthy," Buchholz said.
