The new Pet Resource Center will aim to have a positive impact on the welfare of animals like Freddy, reducing the number that have to be euthanized due to a lack of resources. Spartanburg Humane Society photo
In 1985, Harold Carson and his wife in High Point, N.C., were looking to get a second pet when a stray cat showed up on their backyard doorstep.
“Someone had dropped it off in our neighborhood, and this cat came to our house looking for food,” Carson said. “So we took it in – but we had strays in our neighborhood all the time that were left to fend on their own.”
Since then, stray pets have become a growing concern in the U.S., to the point of overwhelming the nation’s 4,900 shelters for space, and forcing them each year to euthanize more than 600,000 animals in their care.
While there is yet no magical answer to overcoming this challenge, the people with Animal Welfare Services in Spartanburg County are hoping to begin a litmus-test solution with a new Pet Resource Center now underway on Southport Road.
Begun in December 2024, the new $24.6M facility is expected to be ready in March.
And once completed, the 26,600-square-foot Center will be not only be purpose-built to keep and care for strays until someone adopts them, but to eventually become a flashpoint for controlling the problem at a local level.
“Our approach differs from a traditional shelter model – we aim to provide support before a pet enters a shelter or becomes a stray,” said Kennedi Harris, community relations manager with Animal Welfare Services. “Our goal is to keep pets with their people through our forward-thinking Safety Net program, pet food pantry, re-homing assistance, and educational opportunities.”
Unlike the example of Harold Carson’s cat, however, strays in Spartanburg County are not subject to just a few targeted neighborhoods: Each year, based on research by Hub City Animal Project, more than 8,000 are picked up or turned over each year to the Spartanburg Humane Society.
Both groups, along with Animal Allies, are anticipating the Pet Resource Center to usher animal care into a new era.
“Stray and free roaming animals are not only harmful to the citizens in our community, but also a danger to themselves and other animals,” said Christina Richards, executive director with Animal Allies. “The absence of an open admission shelter for the last 15 years to covenant these abandoned, homeless and helpless animals has contributed to this crucial barrier.”
Once in operation, the Center will feature, in part:
• 91 kennels.
• Surgery, X-ray, pharmacy, and examination rooms.
• Multiple fenced animal yards.
• Future housing for farm animals.
• Room for future expansion.
“Today, communities are focused on prevention, education, and helping families keep their pets rather than surrendering them,” said Angel Cox, CEO with the Spartanburg Humane Society. “There are many families and pet owners in need of support, and the demand for services has grown beyond what any single organization can manage alone.
For example, Cox pointed out that in 2011, SHS was taking in nearly 16,000 animals each year – far more than could be looked after, adopted, or returned to their owners – such that “more than 90% of those animals were euthanized.”
“Simply put, there was nowhere for them to go,” Cox said.
Harris added that many pets enter shelters not because they are unwanted, but because “families are facing temporary challenges, such as housing instability, or lack of access to basic care and veterinary needs.”
This unfortunate outcome is expected to change with the new Center, which began in 2022 with two key decisions by area leaders: to bring in national consultant Dr. Sara Pizano of Team Shelter USA to do a feasibility study for animal welfare needs; and the approval of Spartanburg County Council for the allocation of $5,000,000 from Animal Rescue Plan Funds to assist in the construction of the new Center.
“It is to reimagine the animal welfare system, so pets and people stay together,” Dr. Pizano said.
And she, Richards, Harris, and Cox have high hopes of not only reducing the number of animals that have to be ‘put down,’ but eventually seeing a day when strays and other homeless pets are thankfully in the past.
“We believe this Center will make a tremendous difference for pet welfare in Spartanburg,” Cox said. “And we are truly excited to see it coming to our community.”
