Franklin County now has a new temporary facility for dogs and cats until they find their forever home. The Franklin County Animal Shelter has opened its doors at a new location, 81 State Street in Rocky Mount.
The old building on Route 220 was nearly half a century old, outdated, and one-third the size of the new building. The new facility can house 26 dogs and 32 cats.
Animal Control Manager Cindy Brooks says the new building has several state-of-the-art features.
“It’s more inviting, people-friendly, new, modern. It’s all air conditioned – our older shelter was not all completely air conditioned. So I think that with the just being here, people can just come by, bring their families, bring their children on a Saturday or an evening and walk through and say hello. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to adopt a pet. They may, which is wonderful but if not, we just want them to come through here and socialize with the animals.”
“It has a modern ventilation system to where it has separate air exchanges in every single room. So it does prevent the risk of illness if there happens to be a respiratory illness spread through the building. That’s the one nice thing that it does have that natural lighting. So that’s one other thing that is a big improvement. And then, just the materials that are used to be able to sanitize and to clean faster to keep the pets healthy.”
And, she says the new center is more centrally located for county residents.
“Our older shelter was at the south side of the county. So it was quite a distance for people that lived on the opposite side of the county.”
Photos and paintings adorn the walls and welcome guests into the large lobby. Brooks says the artwork was all donated by local artists.
Dog paw prints on the floor lead to the dog room while cat paw prints lead to the cat area.
There’s also an exam room and outside exercise area. Adjacent to the dog kennel area is a meet-and-greet room for potential adopters to get to know their new pet.
Brooks says COVID-19 didn’t slow down construction on the $1.4 million dollar building.
“We were still accepting pets in. Of course, people still needed assistance during that. We just asked that it was by appointment only.”
Now you can just walk right in to the new facility. The shelter is closed Sunday and Monday and open Tuesday from 11am to 6pm, Wednesday from 11am to 4pm, Thursday from 11am to 6pm, Friday from 11am to 4pm, and Saturday from 10am to 2pm.