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<br />So the money you asked for to build a new facility came through — now what? Along with concerns about noise reduction,
<br />waiting areas, and cleanable surfaces, you also want to make sure your new buildings are better equipped to handle
<br />security issues than the old one: The goal of any new design should be improvement. Learn form the flaws you found in
<br />the old building, and work with your architects to make sure they aren't duplicated in the new one.
<br />In California, Escondido Humane Society is recovering from the tragic fire that destroyed its old facility in January 2001.
<br />Plans for construction of a new shelter, complete with security enhancements, are underway, says Phil Morgan, the
<br />shelter's executive director. In its old building, Escondido endured the same problems found in many shelters — the
<br />building was outdated, and the lack of a sprinkler system ended up costing animals' lives.
<br />The new facilities will be far better prepared to prevent such calamities; a sprinkler system is only one of the
<br />improvements, Morgan says. "In addition, our old place was all within one building.... The new design will have more of a
<br />campus layout, with a separate animal control facility, so that if one building were to bum, the other one won't., Also in
<br />the new shelter, potential adopters will have to come and go through the front lobby, passing staff along the way; this
<br />should decrease the potential for animal theft.
<br />A safe space for veterinary supplies is another primary element of shelter design planning, says Larry Gates of Gates
<br />Hafen Cochrane, an architectural firm that has been helping organizations design new facilities for shelters for years.
<br />Installing a safe, preferably in a nondescript cabinet, is the simplest way to secure such supplies, says Gates. "Another
<br />way we handle it is with a steel roll -down grill covering the entire pharmacy wall," he says. "That has some advantages, in
<br />that when nobody's there you can just close the whole thing down so it will be secure... It tends to work better than having
<br />a pharmacy in an enclosed room, because it's more accessible during the day but totally secure at night."
<br />Nighttime security can also affect the decision to install indoor/outdoor or indoor -only runs. While indoor/outdoor runs can
<br />vide more exercise space and fresh air for dogs, some organizations are moving towards indoor -only runs, in part to
<br />Wroost
<br />security. The Capital Humane Society in Lincoln, Nebraska, found that the switch to an indoor -only facility solved
<br />many of its security problems. We used to get people who'd come to the shelter and they'd see their dog in an outside
<br />run, but they wouldn't tell anyone, "says Bob Downey, executive director. "Then at night, they'd come back and cut the
<br />fence of the run they knew their animal was in and take it. But when we went to all indoor kennels, that stopped."
<br />Some shelters have found that indoodoutdoor runs also increase burglars' ability to gain access to the rest of the facility.
<br />Many indoor/outdoor runs have doors or hatches large enough for a smaller person to fit through; if an intruder breaks
<br />though these, he can probably get into the rest of your facility from there.
<br />In transitioning shelters toward indoor -only facilities, Gates and his firm have occasionally planned only partial overhauls —
<br />a move Gates says is often more affordable than building an entirely new shelter, yet still allows the organization to fix
<br />layout problems. "If we're doing something like that, we're typically moving toward an entirely new type of 'adoption
<br />pavilion," says Gates. "In existing shelters, you kind of focus on the area the public sees, and we might put some Band-
<br />Aids on the old building, but we'll focus most of our attention into a new addition, and then the public's contact with the
<br />shelter remains mostly positive."
<br />Whatever you decide your organization needs to address, either though renovation, new construction, or something in
<br />between, you should work closely with the architects and consultants involved in the project and make sure they
<br />understand your shelter's security -related issues. They'll probably have some innovative ideas you haven't considered,
<br />and any innovation that results in increased safety is a good one.
<br />"All security concerns can and should be addressed in the design of new facilities," says Eric Blow, who has retrofitted
<br />fences and locks and added new lighting systems at Jefferson County Animal Protection in Louisville, Kentucky, where he
<br />serves as director. "Architects are much more well -versed in incorporating security measures into buildings than they are
<br />• in designing buildings for animals. The security part will be a comparative breeze for them."
<br />Animal Sheltering, July -August 2001 Issue 8
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