Issue date: 1/13/09 Section: News

Animal control officer Jason Wallace pets a border collie inside a dog run at County Animal Rescue & Education, in Charleston, on Saturday afternoon. The animal shelter is in a contest to win $1 million for renovations. When asked what he felt the money could be used for, Wallace said he would like to see a new roof put on the building, roofs installed in the dog runs, new pens for the animals and other expansions of the shelter's services. (Erin Matheny/The Daily Eastern News)

An adult cat reaches up to play with the light from a laser pointer, which volunteer Kathryn Bulber, not pictured, uses to play with the cats at County Animal Rescue & Education. Bulber said she would like to see the $1 million go toward installing better ventilation in the cat room and expanding the area the center could have to take care of the animals. (Erin Mathney/The Daily Eastern News)

A $1 million makeover of County Animal Rescue and Education would be a welcome addition to the animal shelter located on Loxa Road west of Charleston.

While communities in Coles County, including Charleston, recently approved a 50 cent increase per resident to the $1 animal control fee, the shelter would benefit from a makeover contest offered by Zootoo, an online pet community.

Animal control officer Brian Livingston said the walls of the indoor-outdoor dog runs at the facility are deteriorating and need to be replaced.

The animal shelter is looking at replacing an outside community area and replacing it with additional indoor-outdoor dog runs, he said.

The price tag to replace the concrete is $8,000, which does not include installing walls or the fencing.

Outdoor fencing is worn after years of being weathered, cleaned and dogs pushing on the gates.

Holes in the ceilings had to be repaired after an air conditioner in the attic leaked enough to cause the ceiling to cave in.

Livingston said the original suspended ceilings in the cat rooms had to be completely replaced because cats were able to climb inside of it.

Conducting office work at the facility is not easy for the staff as well.

"We have no place to store our paper work," Livingston said.

A large amount of paper work is stored in the garage, but mice have been eating the old paper, he said.

Humane traps are placed to capture some mice, but it would help if the building could be sealed.

"We can't set live traps or put poison out, because of the animals," Livingston said.

To become a semi-finalist in the contest, the animal shelter would have to finish within the top 20 in points for competing animal shelters.

To earn points, people have to register at zootoo.com and points are received for registering, writing a journal, posting pictures or videos and even adopting a pet through the Web site.

Points are collected until March 13, when the Zootoo staff tours the 20 shelters and narrows the list down to 10 finalists.

Online voters will decide the winning shelter from April 4-24.

All other 19 finalists split $195,000 with the first runner up receiving $50,000 and the second runner up receiving $25,000.

The remaining seven finalists receive $10,000 and the 10 semi-finalists receive $5,000.


Matt Hopf can be reached at 581-7942 or at mthopf@eiu.edu.

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