An Animal Shelter For The 21st Century

Did you know the number of homeless pets in this country is staggering?

To empty the cages at every U.S. animal shelter, each household in the country would have to adopt six cats and two dogs, reports The Early Show resident veterinarian Debbye Turner.

Eight to ten million dogs and cats entered U.S. shelters last year. A little more than half of them were euthanized.

But not at the SPCA in Richmond, Va, which is leading the fight to make sure every homeless dog and cat has a permanent place to call home.

If there's a heaven on earth for animals, it might look something like this: plenty of comfy places to sleep, ample room to play and lots of love.

While Richmond's SPCA may look like one of the many trendy pet spas popping up around the country, it is actually an animal shelter unlike any other.

"I think this humane society defies all of their preconception about an animal shelter," says executive director Robin Robertson Starr. "It's warm and friendly and cheerful and they feel wonderful about the condition that the animals are in."

It is a far cry from the old location, which - like any other typical shelter in the country- had "a lot of chain link and cinder block.

"It's very cold and it's very unfriendly to both animals and people," says Starr.

These dreary conditions, many believe, make people less likely to adopt. "It didn't allow us to fulfill out mission very well, which is certainly to rehabilitate the sick and injured. In the new building it is so much different," Starr says. "It has music piped in, which is a stress reliever. It has bright colors, lots of natural light. It provides places for people and animals to exercise together to stay healthy," she explains.

Even the kitty condos and doggy living rooms are more than creative creature comforts. They are part of a carefully thought-out strategy.

"When we didn't provide this kind of thing, then animals died in shelters, because people found them dreadful depressing places to come to and animals got sick. We're finding it has made a huge difference in the numbers of animals that stay alive," Starr says.

Now, all the animals stay alive at Richmond's SPCA.

"We know that in the 21st century, it is very possible for communities to become no-kill and we became determined to lead this community in that direction," she notes.

Animals stay at the SPCA until they leave in the arms of a new owner, however long that takes.

"We had no spay-neuter clinic before and it is such a crucial part of our mission to be able to get at the spay neutering in this community and reduce the number of homeless animals," Starr says. It is the essence of what the shelter is all about.

Rehabilitating animals is equally important. At most shelters, unruly or unhealthy animals are euthanized. But at the SPCA, they'll stay in rehab until they're ready for adoption.

Yet some have questioned the $7 million price tag for a shelter that houses animals. But Starr says the end justifies means. Some 1,300 fewer animals The Richmond SPCA expects died in Richmond in the last year alone.

"The folks here have really supported this project because they see that it is solution-based. It is providing a real end to the problem and thy're willing to get behind that, so will they elsewhere," Starr says.

So far it's working. Four months after moving into the new facility, the shelter saw 700 animals adopted. Proof that if you build it, they will go.

In its new quarters, the new shelter expects to help 6,000 to 8,000 animals find new homes - that's twice as many as the old shelter. The organization is committed to making the entire city no-kill by 2008.