EVERETT — Glass-walled kitty condos, vaulted ceilings with skylights and an on-site veterinary clinic.
Those are a few highlights of Everett’s new animal shelter at Langus Riverfront Park on Smith Island.
The first animals will begin the six-mile journey from the old shelter on 36th Street to the new $6 million building on Wednesday.
“I’ll be the first to defend the old facility,” said Bud Wessman, director of Everett Animal Services. “It was a fabulous dog pound and that’s what it was meant to be. This is a humane shelter.”
One of the first things you notice about the new shelter is the front doors slide open automatically.
That’s for safety and convenience reasons. People at the old shelter struggled to open doors while carrying portable kennels with dogs and cats.
Another feature of the new shelter is separate entrances for intake — where people bring in stray and unwanted pets — and adoptions.
That helps the animal shelter staff work more efficiently and separates people who are experiencing very different emotions, shelter officials say.
Even the lobby’s cheerful color scheme, with canary yellow, mint green and cranberry red, was chosen to change the mood and feel of the shelter, Everett spokeswoman Kate Reardon said.
At about 19,000 square feet — when an extra wing is added later this year — the new animal shelter is more than double the size of the 9,000-square-foot shelter that it is replacing near 36th Street.
It’s large enough to serve the community’s sheltering needs for the next two decades, Reardon said.
The Everett shelter houses homeless or vicious animals from Everett, unincorporated Snohomish County and nine cities in the county, including Marysville, Snohomish, Mill Creek and Mukilteo.
A three-quarter-acre, fenced-off, outdoor exercise area for dogs — and several small outdoor areas for cats — also help set the new shelter apart. The old shelter had just a small concrete slab where dogs could play. Plans are in the works to create a nearby off-leash park.
The new shelter will also have outdoor kennels where outdoor dogs can live more comfortably, Wessman said. No outdoor kennels exist at the current shelter.
The old shelter in a former industrial strip along Snohomish River is being torn down to make way for the Everett Riverfront District, a proposed outdoor shopping mall and residential neighborhood east of I-5.
David Chircop: 425-339-3429, dchircop@heraldnet.com.
The new shelter
Everett is opening up a new animal shelter on Monday at 333 Smith Island Road. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for 2:30 p.m. Monday. A grand opening with dancing dogs for entertainment is planned for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 11.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
