When the nonprofit Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter (FAAS) organization determined that they needed their own facility to spay and neuter dogs and cats and provide other services, they could have waited until an estimated $10.6 million was put into the kitty to build a traditional brick-and-mortar building. Related Articles They decided not to do that, though.
Instead, FAAS will soon break ground on a “temporary” facility made from eight shipping containers cut in half and arranged in a U shape. Called the Animal Medical Services & Training Campus, the facility is planned to open in December with surgery and dental suites, an X-ray and exam rooms and even a pet grooming area. FAAS has raised $1,435,000 of the $2.
6 million needed to build the interim shipping container structure, leaving the group with $1,165,000 still to raise. “We have to fundraise every dollar to make this happen. And using the shipping containers, we can do it for about two-and-a-half million,” said FAAS Chief Executive Officer John Lipp, who described the need for spay/neuter facilities statewide as a “crisis.
” “If we can do this faster, let’s get it up and going,” he said while speaking at a recent unveiling of the clinic site. The planned site is on a patch of land nestled amid office parks and residential housing on Bay Farm Island’s North Loop Road. According to FAAS, 344,000 animal shelters in California don’t have access to veterinary care staff and 40% can’t provide reg.