Caring for homeless pets: An inside look at DuPage County’s expanded animal shelter

Approach the entrance of DuPage County’s newly expanded animal shelter, and you’ll see a series of cat condos — think feline “Brady Bunch” squares — through six, tall windows.

One little charmer stretched out his paw on a recent afternoon. Some are affectionately called “bashful buddies.” They’re in need of a loving home, and it’s hard to resist their faces from behind the glass — a kind of billboard for cat adoption facing Manchester Road in Wheaton.

“Compared to our old cat adoption room, we had no windows,” said Laura Flamion, interim administrator of DuPage County Animal Services.

Through a $14 million project, the shelter has roughly doubled in size with a 10,000-square-foot addition. The new main lobby, with its high ceilings, is bright and airy. Other areas are not necessarily what you think of when you imagine a government shelter.

A gym room off the lobby lets outgoing cats roam around freely, out of their cages. A detached “real-life room” is designed to give dogs a break from kennels and reduce stress. Creating a cozy space — like home — has been a trend in sheltering, Flamion said.

“I think we’re going to have the largest real-life room in the country,” she said. “Usually people just take like a small office and throw a chair and a table and a rug in there, but we actually have a full building separate from the shelter, which is nice because it separates that animal from the noise and smells and everything else happening.”

The shelter takes in more than 2,000 animals annually. It’s the county’s only open-admission shelter, meaning it accepts a range of pets regardless of their age, breed, medical condition or behavior.

“We have a lot of harder-to-place animals that are brought in here, surrenders that some of the other rescues in the county don’t have,” said county board member Brian Krajewski, chair of DuPage’s animal services committee. “But we’re the ones that are responsible for re-homing all those animals.”

The shelter’s live release rate has steadily increased over the last decade to 92% in 2023. Krajewski highlighted a “robust” foster program. But there was a clear lack of space in the original building across the street from the county government campus.

“Even though our capacity increases a little bit, the really big part is we no longer have animals in hallways,” Flamion said. “We have more appropriate spaces for them.”

The project

A new intake lobby is separate from the main shelter entrance to limit the spread of disease and provide more privacy.

“This will eventually be our intake counseling room,” Flamion said during a tour. “So, if somebody’s surrendering a pet, we have a quiet place to sit down with them and actually learn a little bit more about their situation and about their pet’s needs.”

The addition offers a dedicated room for rabbits, guinea pigs and other small animals. There are additional dog kennels. A large, open multipurpose room could host educational events and double as an indoor play space for dogs. It opens up to an outdoor, covered patio.

“Corporations want to do a corporate retreat for a day, come here. They can cater in lunch. But then they can walk through and see animals up for adoption, see what we do in the community,” Krajewski said.

A new garage stores a mobile vet vehicle used for microchip and vaccine clinics. The agency also offers pet CPR and first aid clinics.

“We feel strongly that providing good outreach and education to our community helps sheltering in the long run,” Flamion said. “The more we can talk about things people can do to keep their pets, to help find their pets if they lose them, start young with kids, helping them understand pet care … it just helps in the long run.”

Meanwhile, extensive work is underway to transform the original building into a veterinary suite.

“My vision would be in the next couple years, we can bring on additional vet staff and maybe offer some services for low-income residents that aren’t being met by our current businesses,” Flamion said, “because we know that vet care has also gotten very expensive.”

Funding

Officials are paying for the project with a mix of funding sources, including $500,000 contributed in fiscal 2023 from the county general fund; $591,905 in American Rescue Plan money; a $4.5 million interfund loan from the county’s general fund; $2,630,095 from the animal services reserve fund; and $5,778,000 from DuPage Animal Friends donors.

“It’s been tremendous … the amount of support we’ve gotten from volunteers and donors,” Krajewski said. “They like the mission.”

The nonprofit DuPage Animal Friends hopes to raise $6 million more to help animal services pay back that loan and rebuild a reserve fund that was used for the project.

A fundraising gala is set for April at the Lisle Sheraton. Various naming opportunities also are available in the lobby and throughout the expanded facility. A photo mural of animals that have been through the shelter will be installed in the lobby.

An opening celebration for the public is planned for June.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250101/news/caring-for-homeless-pets-an-inside-look-at-dupage-countys-expanded-animal-shelter/