Backers of new animal shelter in Montville raise $4,000 at ‘pup rally’

Montville ― David Turner, one advocate for building a new $2.2 million animal shelter in town, took a bag of dog treats from his pocket Sunday and fed one to his dog ― a 12-year-old Goldendoodle named Max.

Turner, a 25-year Montville resident, said part of the reason he supports the project is because he wants to know Max would be “safe and warm” if he got loose and had to stay there for a time.

But Turner is not satisfied with the conditions at the current shelter at 225 Maple Ave. Nor were hundreds of others who on Sunday brought their dogs to Fair Oaks Community Center at 860 Old Colchester Road.

There, a “pup rally” gave their dogs the chance to socialize, and owners to get their dogs groomed, learn facts about the shelter and give donations of food ― or money for a fund for medical services ― for the town’s animals.

Becky Maurice, rally organizer and owner of local dog training and grooming business All Bright Canines, estimated they had raised more than $4,000 for the medical services, which will be provided by Norwichtown Veterinary Hospital. She said the current shelter does not have money in its budget for medical care.

The rally was organized by recently formed Montville Animal Shelter Community Team, whose goal is to get the town to build a shelter to replace the current one, which is in violation of the state Department of Agriculture’s shelter guidelines.

“Through this effort, I realized about it failing a bunch of inspections,” Turner said.

He called the situation with the current shelter “embarrassing.”

The shelter has failed for at least the last five years, with no consequences. But a new law created last year sets stricter rules that the town’s shelter must be in full compliance with by Jan. 1, 2029. And if it were inspected right now it would fail again.

“Nothing they could do to the current (shelter) could get it into compliance,” said Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, who visited the shelter on Friday.

“It’s tiny,” she said. “There’s no real place to store food or medication. It doesn’t live up to what a shelter should be.”

Cheeseman, who is also the owner of two Chesapeake Bay retrievers ages 14 and 5, is one of several local legislators who have collaborated on a request to the state’s Bond Commission to secure money for the new shelter. That bond would cover about $2 million of the shelter’s estimated $2.2 million project cost.

Cheeseman said that while it seems high, much of that cost has been driven by specifics needs in the shelter design to accommodate the new Department of Agriculture law, along with “inflation of construction costs that’s tied to COVID.”

She also pointed to other projects in southeastern Connecticut whose costs have gone up since their proposal, including a Safe Futures project for a new family justice center in Waterford.

“And the animal shelter they build will be there for decades,” Cheeseman said.

Ann Gaulin, an organizer for the rally, said she is worried that the next bond commission meeting, on May 31, will be canceled like all four of the previous meetings that have been scheduled for this year.

But Cheeseman said state officials, including the governor’s chief of staff, assured her that it will meet prior to June 30.

She added that because the towns of Bozrah and Salem and the Mohegan Tribal Nation expressed interest in using a new shelter too, the project has “exactly what the state wants, regional cooperation.”

While organizers and southeastern Connecticut legislators cross their fingers for state money, Animal Control Officer Bruce Rebelo, who replaced former ACO Christian Swanson when she left five months ago, has made an effort to make the current shelter a little more inhabitable.

“I can only do so much,” he said.

So far, Rebelo said he changed the blue tarps that have been used to protect animals from the elements, switching them out for less visible clear ones. He has also removed clutter from the top of the cages to improve airflow in the shelter, quelled the number of birds coming inside the shelter and rid the building of a desk that has now been replaced by shelves for food storage.

“For the future, we’re hoping to epoxy the floors, (with) public works fixing the cracks in the walls,” he said.

He added that the well water at the shelter, which predecessor Swanson last December had said was undrinkable, is being tested.

“It’s just a Band-Aid for right now,” Rebelo said. “Our goal is we want to pass the inspection.”

d.drainville@theday.com