Extreme shelter makeover

The Washington Animal Rescue League’s newly renovated shelter is puppy paradise. Natural light shines through skylights, flowing water calms dogs in dens with self-filling water bowls and memory-foam beds, and classical music fills the air in the animal-welfare organization’s Northwest Washington facility, which has undergone a $4 million renovation.

The WARL is calling it the world’s first cageless animal shelter. There are no metal cages or cinder blocks here. Every detail of the new facility, right down to the heated floors, is designed to make the homeless animals who stay here happier and healthier, says Scotlund Haisley, WARL’s executive director.

The theory behind the project, which will be completed this summer, is that happy, healthy animals are more likely to be adopted.

Mr. Haisley says he hopes that by becoming a model for other shelters, WARL can help increase the number of animal adoptions and decrease the number of animals who are euthanized because shelters lack the resources to care for them.

When most people think of shelters, Mr. Haisley says, they picture dark, dingy rooms crammed with cages of animals waiting to be euthanized. Usually, they are right.

This is because the architects who design animal shelters often design them with humans, not animals, in mind. While some shelters have spacious lobbies with high ceilings and TV sets to accommodate human visitors, animals still live in 2-foot-long, 2-foot-wide cages in which they sleep, eat and defecate.

“There’s no more frustrating environment for an animal than a shelter,” he says. “So why keep building them that way?”

Mr. Haisley, who has worked with animals for 16 years, set out to build a better place. He visited other shelters, veterinary offices, holistic veterinary clinics, doggy day cares and human prisons to come up with his plan to modernize WARL’s facility, which his board approved in 2004.

WARL, which is funded by donations, then began a capital campaign to raise $6 million: $4 million for renovations and $2 million to maintain the new facility. About $2 million has been raised thus far. Construction, which began in March 2005, is almost complete.

In the redesigned dog room, a central hallway now separates rows of “doggy dens” made of glass block and tempered glass. Each living space, which houses a pair of dogs, is outfitted with an elevated memory-foam mattress, self-filling water dish, individual air-circulation vents and a radio speaker emitting classical music.

“Maria Callas is a favorite,” Mr. Haisley says with a smile.

Water flows down an angled glass plane over the pens into a gutter and recirculates, creating background noise and casting reflections that dance across the walls. Flowing water also is incorporated into the nearby puppy room, which contains eight “puppy pads” for tiny dogs, and the cat room, which still is under construction.

It eventually will feature interconnected “cat condos” made of Corian — the elegant nonporous kitchen countertops made by DuPont — with litter-box rooms attached.

Although some may question the need for such amenities in an animal shelter, Mr. Haisley says these features serve a purpose. At a typical shelter, a sneeze may be a death sentence for a cat. Even if the animal has a treatable condition, Mr. Haisley says, it may be euthanized to prevent other cats from catching it. The individual air-circulation systems in each living space at WARL will prevent the spread of disease and allow animals to receive treatment.

Heated floors are good for soothing puppies. Corian is easy to clean. Water, music and light can calm nervous animals, many of whom once were abused or neglected.

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