PERU, N.Y. (WCAX) – Some animal shelters across New York are facing enormous new costs after the state’s new animal shelter law took effect this week.
Officials at the Elmore SPCA animal shelter in Peru say they’ve had to cut some services and will likely have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to meet new state inspection requirements.
“Our staff is a five-star staff,” said Laurie Parsons, the board president of Elmore SPCA. She says they have their work cut out for them after state officials did a recent walk-through. “There isn’t anything they found satisfactory. From kennels to drainage to flooring to you name it — having what they thought were too many animals for the space, the floor space that we have.”
The new law that took effect Monday beefs up requirements at shelters statewide, including new regulations like heated flooring, puppy and holding spaces, and intake areas.
“What we have done to address that over the period of time in preparation for this law is to eliminate some of our services, unfortunately,” Parsons said.
She says they’ve reduced the number of cats and dogs from 87 to 33, lowered the amount of municipal contracts, and no longer coordinate with local law enforcement on animal cruelty cases.
She also says they’re eyeing a three-phase expansion project that could cost over a million dollars and would include additional offices and a dog facility. However, she says their primary focus is bringing the shelter up to code for the next inspection, which could cost around $500,000.
“We know that we won’t have all of this work done, but we know what we are going to need to do. We will discuss with them what our plans are. They are going to work with us to see that the shelter stays open,” Parsons said.
She says all of their funding comes from donations, contracts and adoption fees.
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