Inside the Denver Municipal Animal Shelter, the cacophony of barks and meows used to be so loud that workers couldn’t hear their footsteps on the concrete floor.
Baffles on the ceiling have cut the noise, but the 30-year-old building has other problems – including no way to quarantine sick animals.
“We have the oldest animal shelter on the Front Range,” said Doug Kelley, director of Denver’s Animal Control Division.
A facility twice the size of the current one is needed, Kelley said, estimating the cost at $10 million to $14 million.
The new center would have spaces for adoptable dogs and cats, a lost-and- found section, and medical facilities.
Each pod could be quarantined in case of a contagious disease.
The shelter is being considered among a number of other infrastructure improvements by a city task force.
The task force will rank projects and figure out a way to pay for them, said Chris Henderson, the city’s chief operating officer.
The current building violates 27 municipal, state and federal standards for animal shelters.
Among the problems are a poor ventilation system, inferior flooring and inadequate dog enclosures, said Ellen Dumm, city spokeswoman.
The biggest problem, Kelley said, is not being able to quarantine sick animals.
The 15,000-square-foot shelter at 678 S. Jason St. has one sick ward, which houses only injured and extremely sick animals.
Last summer, canine influenza hit the facility, and there was no way to stop it.
“It comes through like waves,” Kelley said.
The current shelter takes in about 10,000 animals a year, including roughly 6,000 dogs and 2,000 cats, Kelley said. The shelter can hold up to 300 dogs at a time by doubling up the 150 kennels.
A third of the animals taken in by the facility are adopted or transferred out, another third are returned to their owners, and the remaining third are put to death.
About 800 of the dogs put down each year are pit bulls, which are illegal in Denver.
The shelter takes in everything – including reptiles, birds and fish. Once, nine monkeys seized during a drug bust were kept in one room, Kelley said.
The city isn’t able to take in all of the lost-and-found animals because of the lack of space.
The Dumb Friends League in Denver and other nonprofit agencies take the rest.
“We should be taking in these animals,” Kelley said. “That would allow the Dumb Friends League to open up their facility to more animals.”
A bigger facility, he said, also would mean fewer animals put to death. In 2005, for example, about 500 dogs put down were either adoptable or had a problem that could have been addressed, given the right resources, Dumm said.
“Many more could have been saved with a better shelter,” she said.
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer can be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
