SARASOTA – The old adoptions center of the Humane Society of Sarasota County, in which they have operated out of since 1952, was demolished today.
Just like that, the old adoption center of the Humane Society of Sarasota County, in which they operated for nearly 70 years was demolished Wednesday morning.
The demolition is part of an 8.5 million expansion and renovation project.
Senior Director of Philanthropy, Autumn Steiner says it is both exciting and bittersweet for everyone but the building has served its use.
“Now it is being demolished so that we can make way for the bigger and better future,” said Senior Director of Philanthropy, Autumn Steiner.
The Humane Society was able to purchase the land from the city of Sarasota.
“We had three buildings to start, and two of those are being demolished,” said Steiner. “So the first is the one here, and then in a few months the education center will follow.”
In its place will go a multipurpose center for adoptions, cat housing, all of their events, and training classes.
“And then our dog side, which is still here will still stay here, is just being upgraded and expanded,” said Steiner.
Steiner says they are learning to adapt and are not planning on closing the shelter at any point during the renovation
“So we will continue operating, continue to take animals in, and help them and get them adopted,” said Steiner.
The humane society has been closed to the public because of the COVID-19 pandemic but is reopening cautiously this Friday
“For people to actually come in, to see our available animals and adopt them again, we’ve been doing adoptions from appointment only over the past month so it’ll be nice to be cautiously reopening,” said Steiner.
The renovation is planned to take 18 months from start to finish. The humane society broke ground in January of this year.
“So that means that next summer, approximately June 2021 we will have all of our construction completed and be able to operate fully out of the new facilities,” said Steiner.
For more information on how to adopt or foster an animal, you can visit their website.
