Blackfoot unveils new animal shelter with expanded capacity

BLACKFOOT – The Blackfoot public got its first chance to see an improved facility that will shelter stray animals.

Blackfoot Animal Shelter and Rescue held an open house Thursday afternoon, allowing community members to tour its new building at 2397 Teeples Drive. The facility has expanded capacity to shelter dogs and cats while they wait for new owners.

Thanks to the new building being nearly double the size of the old one, the animals have larger kennels, and the public has a lobby to wait in and interact with animals they could decide to adopt.

“I have been working for 20 years for this, so I am overjoyed, ecstatic. It’s a long time coming,” said Executive Director Amanda Cevering.

Mayor Marc Carroll told EastIdahoNews.com that he was happy with the open house turnout.

“We’re just real pleased with the shelter and the acceptance of everybody in Blackfoot for where we built it and what it looks like,” Carroll said.

Cevering estimates that the old shelter was taking care of around 50 animals at any given time, even though its capacity was only 35. The shelter would even take animals from out-of-state that weren’t doing well at their current shelters.

To do this, they’d have to get creative, like setting up kennels in the hallways. Unsurprisingly, she called managing that many animals at the old facility “difficult.”

“We always made do. I would not turn any animal away because of where they’d end up if they didn’t come to us,” Cevering said.

With nearly double the room, the new shelter has a little over 50 dog kennels, and a separate room that can house around 20 to 25 cats. The room holding the dog kennels has a higher ceiling than the old facility, and they have an additional quarantine room for cats.

Carroll also pointed out that the separate space will be good for the cats at the shelter.

“They were exposed to a lot of barking and a lot of commotion from the dogs, and the cats were just in constant fear because of that,” Carroll said.

In addition to Cevering, the shelter has two full-time employees and one part-time employee. In order to get everything moved to the new building, the part-time employee and one full-time employee stayed at the old building, while Cevering and the other worked on the new facility.

“We would just work from sunup to sundown, just getting things ready… There was a lot of dirt, dust, paint and things that had to be cleaned up, so it took us a long time,” Cevering said.

During this transition period, the shelter stopped accepting surrendered animals, so that they could decrease the amount of animals they had to move to the new facility. Currently, it’s sheltering around 16 large dogs and 13 small dogs.

Because of this, there’s around 35 animals on the shelter’s waitlist. Cevering said that the main reason people surrender their animals to her shelter is because of behavior issues that could be fixed through proper training.

Cevering hopes that before the shelter begins to accept surrendered animals again, most of these people reconsider.

“I realize that everybody has a busy life. We all do, but when you get an animal, they’re just like kids… Kids don’t automatically learn how not to potty in their pants. You’ve gotta teach them, (and it’s the) same with dogs,” Cevering said.

Because Cevering and two others at the shelter are certified dog trainers and animal behaviorists, they are willing to provide guidance to people who are struggling with their animals. While they don’t have an official dog training class, Cevering hopes to put one in place sometime in the future.

“If you need help with your dog, come see us. Let us try to help you before you give up on it,” Cevering said.