Move Catawba County Animal Shelter to Hickory as Catawba County Companion Animal Center

We believe spending 3 million dollars to build a new animal shelter on the same location in the small town of Newton would be a gross misappropriation of funds.

This area of the county does not have the population to support the number of animals that a shelter for this county would need. Also, along with that the horrific euthanasia rate for animals would have no chance of improving. The adoption rate at this shelter while located in this small town of Newton has had a steady decline over the years to the point that last year 8500 animals were brought to this shelter, 1500 were either transferred to breed rescues, other types of rescues or adopted and 7000 of those animals were euthanized.

The largest city in the county, Hickory, pays Catawba County $97,000 for the use of this shelter due to the large number of animals it brings to it. The other towns in the county only pay an average of $5,000 a year for the number of animals they bring. This is strong evidence that Hickory has the population base that this shelter needs to support the number of animals at this shelter by providing them with the adopters that will give these animals homes.

In addition if this shelter were moved to Hickory it would be given a more positive and inviting name, "Catawba County Companion Animal Center." Unlike the past animal shelter this Companion Animal Center would make a commitment to become no-kill by creating a partnership with Cornell University and Maddy's Fund. This would be the first Companion Animal Center of this type in North Carolina and would be a prototype for others around the state and nation.