Kent Animal Shelter to hold fundraising gala at LI Aquarium

Kent Animal Shelter in Calverton has been helping animals for more than 50 years. From its cattery, to the spay and neuter clinic, to Snowball’s feline retirement home, the no-kill shelter has made multiple outreaches to the pet-loving community both locally and nationally. 

In an effort to accommodate  even more dogs, the shelter is expanding its canine facilities  and renovating the former caretaker’s cottage as an isolation ward. They are also upgrading the septic system, and grading and landscaping the grounds to make the compound more welcoming and easier to use.

“With the new facilities, we’ll be able to do more, get the community more involved, and we’ll continue the spay and neuter [clinic]. We may be able to expand some of the veterinary services. We’ll certainly be able to do more rescues, because we have more space [in the new building],” said Pam Green, executive director of Kent Animal Shelter.

The dog shelter will be expanding to 32 runs and include meet and greet rooms and a play yard. There is also a pantry and kitchen area. The isolation ward will host dogs who need evaluation and time before joining the general population.

“[Currently] we have two very small isolation rooms. We could isolate cats because it’s just a smaller area. But for dogs, it’s a different story; we weren’t able to quarantine them. We would do all the veterinary testing, check them for heart worm, check them for all the tick-borne diseases, vaccinate them, and make sure they don’t have any intestinal parasites. So we would do all that. But as far as isolating them, we weren’t able to do that; we didn’t have space,” said Ms. Green.

Besides assisting in re-homing and sheltering animals impacted by disasters and overpopulation, Kent’s low-cost spay and neuter clinic serves more than 3,000 pets a year. This has had a significant impact on Long Island’s overpopulation problem, to the point that other states, primarily Georgia and Texas, ship their animals north for re-homing. “Since the spay-neuter programs started, and not like we’re the only one, but I would say that Kent did a huge amount of spay/neuter, like 3,000 to 3,500 a year. One year we hit 4,000, so overpopulation here is doesn’t really exist like it did [25 years ago],” said Ms. Green.

The shelter has been able to raise a substantial portion of the estimated $4.5 million needed for the project, with two grants from New York state totaling $275,000, a $75,000 grant from Suffolk County and $200,000 grant from Maddie’s Fund. There have also been substantial contributions from other foundations and private donations.

With $1.2 million in fundraising remaining, the shelter is holding a gala to support its renovation project at Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead on Nov. 7 from 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $150 and all proceeds go towards the capital building campaign. There will be a buffet, beer and wine, live music, an auction and raffles. There will also be sponsorship opportunities. 

Doug Geed, Emmy-winning former News 12 anchor and host of Long Island’s East End show, will be master of ceremonies for the evening. 

To reserve tickets or for more information, kentanimalshelter.com.