Humane Society of the Ochocos unveiling new dog wing

Published 1:43 pm Thursday, July 17, 2025

Humane Society of the Ochocos (HSO) staff and board members, past and present, have long pined for a new facility.

Now, after more than 10 years of planning, fundraising and saving money, they have finally opened a new building and have invited the public to see it.

“It’s the new dog wing,” said HSO Board Vice President Lynn Ott. “We had three different phases planned. The first one is going to be just for the dogs.”

The new building, built on the same property, just north of the long-time shelter, is 7,000 square feet and features a sallyport for law enforcement, grooming areas, a kitchen and 43 dog kennels, nearly double the 24 kennels at the older building. 

“It’s just amazing compared to what they (the staff) have had to work with,” Ott said.

Workers broke ground on the new dog wing in March, but efforts to add a new dog wing started back in 2015. Community growth had increased the amount of animal surrenders, strays and bite holds, plus local vet shortages have created spay and neuter issues.

But capacity wasn’t the only problem.

“Our shelter was falling apart,” said HSO Shelter Manager Chanda Wallace. “We are overfull, completely doubled up on dogs in kennels.”

“The current shelter was built as a temporary shelter 30 years ago,” added HSO Board Treasurer Lori Hooper Antram. “It was never meant to be the permanent structure.”

Completion of the dog wing was made possible by volunteer support, numerous fundraisers during the past decade and community support.

“We have had grants to put in for actual plans for the shelter,” Ott said. “There have been some private community donations, large donations and some estate donations.”

To push the project across the finish line, HSO took out a loan of about $1 million.

“We were actually approved for more than that, but we didn’t take all of that,” Hooper Antram said.

To raise funds to repay the loan, HSO are allowing people to sponsor the dog kennels in the new building. Sponsorships cost $10,000 per kennel and 23 of the 43 are still available to sponsor. 

With the dogs moved to a new building, HSO staff will utilize the vacated space to make more room for cats and to expand admin space. The next two phases of the shelter project include a new cat wing and a new admin space.

Going forward, as HSO pursues these next phases, they will also focus on recruiting volunteers and fosters for their animals.

“We want to get people involved,” Ott said. “We want the community to feel welcome to come up here to help.”