PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Pinellas County Animal Services needs your help getting dogs adopted due to the renovation project that started Monday morning.
Officials said they won’t have enough space for all 179 dogs during the year-long project.
“We are going to have to keep or manage our capacity down to bout 140 dogs,” said Doug Brightwell, the director of Animal Services.
Penny for Pinellas sales tax is funding the project, which will cost about $3.5 million. The project will add air conditioning in the kennels, strengthen the building to withstand a Category 4 hurricane, and update kennel space.
“It’s about time,” Brightwell said.
This is the building’s first renovation project since it opened in 1995.
“It’s a really exciting time for us,” Brightwell said. “The downside is we're going to lose about half our animal housing capacity for the next 8 to 9 months.”
In an effort to get the dogs adopted quickly, Animal Services has decided to waive adoption fees for dogs. And, he said, they’ve made sure all the dogs are ready for adoption.
“We’ve spayed and neutered them. We’ve microchipped them. We’ve licensed them and all that,” he said. “Registration is done for the adopter.”
The project is expected to last a year. The adoption fee waiver will last for a few months and there is no date on when it will end yet.
