Mahatma Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Accordingly, the recent condition of the Blackfoot Animal Shelter’s overcrowded and deteriorating condition brought action by the City of Blackfoot.
In December, the Blackfoot Animal Shelter board and city officials toured the animal shelters in Blackfoot and Pocatello to show their current need and to gather ideas for a bigger shelter. The Blackfoot shelter is 30 years old and has 2,500 square feet on 1.5 acres. It outgrew its space at least a decade ago.
Then in January its furnace died, and the city put in three new furnaces for a cost of $9,000. The city made sure the furnaces could be transferred to the new facility it was starting to plan.
Since the shelter serves all of Bingham County, Mayor Marc Carroll in February took preliminary plans to the county commissioners. The city had found six acres of city-owned land near the airport for a 5,600-square-foot building.
The estimates for the 70-foot by 80-foot metal shell with foundation, slab floor, two doors, intake garage door, power, plumbing and HVAC is about $500,000 — with in-house city construction management. By more than doubling the shelter’s space and tripling its acreage, it ensures the facility will serve the county’s needs for at least the next 10 years and have room to expand as needed.
While the commissioners had many questions in February, they haven’t pledged any financial support — other than offering a piece of land four miles out of town that didn’t have any water or sewer infrastructure, which would have increased the cost of the project substantially. Instead, the commissioners felt the individual cities within the county should step in with assistance first.
Accordingly, Carroll approached the Blackfoot City Council and it readily authorized $500,000 to get the project started. Through coming in under budget in 2022 and carefully investing the excess in 2023, the city had a reserve it could tap into for this unforeseen and unbudgeted emergency project.
The council also approved selling the current land and building which was appraised at $186,000. Neighboring business, Premier, had expressed an interest and that bid process has started. The employees of Spudnik also have significantly donated $11,397.
With all of these funding sources, why does the city need assistance from the county or the county’s other cities?
Partly because the shelter serves the whole county and logically should be supported by the whole county. Though Blackfoot city put up the money to get things moving as soon as possible, it also has other needs for that money, as any city does.
And partly because the $500,000 estimate buys only a metal shell — without offices, food and supply storage, pet shower facilities, adoption meet and greet areas, temporary animal housing units and a perimeter fence that will allow the animals outside time.
Curiously, available grants will only help with the inside construction work. Since the shelter became a non-profit organization with a separate board in 2016, it qualifies for those grants.
With the official groundbreaking on May 16, it is now actively pursuing grants and donations to turn the metal shell into a fit home for animals that need recovery and new homes.
The new facility will aid the Blackfoot Animal Shelter to fulfill its goal “to rescue, rehabilitate, and find new homes for animals in crisis.” It also works to create a community that values and nurtures healthy animal-human bonds through outreach education and affordable services.
Additionally, it can actively facilitate pet adoptions, believing with author Karen Davison, who wrote “A Dog’s Guide to Humans” that, “Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely for that one dog, the world will change forever.” Or cat, or bird, or …
For more information on adoptions — or to donate to the new shelter — call 208-785-6897 or send a check to 199 Frontage Road, Blackfoot, Idaho, 83221. Donations can also be made through Paypal or Venmo.
If you agree with Mahatma Ghandi, perhaps supporting the new animal shelter will raise the human population’s moral growth to match its physical growth in southeast Idaho. It certainly will provide greater healing and new homes for the four-legged citizens of Bingham County.
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