Welcome to the Dec. 15 issue of Shelter Scoop - news from Pima Animal Care Center

When I began working at PACC one of the challenges that became immediately clear is that because of our capacity we do not have room to address some of the cruelty and neglect issues that exist out in the community.

We have an Animal Protection Service unit that has been made aware of more than 50 hoarding situations, many of which place the animals’ lives at risk. When we know of a property housing dozens of poorly cared-for animals, we don’t have dozens of kennels to bring them to. We considered several options for standing up additional kennel space and the one that rose to the top of the list is a boarding facility run by our in-house partner Central Pet. They’re closing the boarding part of the business leaving roughly 100 kennels available.

I began talks with their ownership and we’ve signed a lease that will allow us to begin taking in animals from hoard conditions. The new facility is the Animal Restoration Kennels (ARK).

So how does one pay for the lease on a new property?

All of the people with whom I’ve shared the need have immediately understood that doing nothing was not an option.

Private donations have exceeded $60,000. Friends of PACC had a fund they were able to dip into. The Scarritt Foundation put together a $50,000 donation earmarked for operating the ARK.