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Jed Boal ReportingA Utah animal rescue operation now has more room for adoptable pets to romp and roam.
Wasatch Humane will move into a new facility in December, and change its name.
It's dogs' day out for 20 cooped up canines with a new lease on life, looking for owners with a good leash and a good life.
Cheryl Smith/Wasatch Humane/Utah Animal Adoption Center: "Giving them a break from the kennel environment. Helps to socialize them and make them more adoptable, when they can get out and vent their dogginess."
Welcome to the Utah Animal Adoption Center, a new facility and a new name for Wasatch Humane which outgrew its old home in North Salt Lake.
Cheryl Smith/Wasatch Humane/Utah Animal Adoption Center: "This is the first time our dogs have been here, the first time the public has been here."
They really couldn't have asked for a better facility. There's plenty of room for the dogs to roam, and it will enable them to save many more animals from across the state.
The animals and administrators will move into the new three-acre adoption center at 1955 North Redwood Road in December. Right now it's under renovation. But it was once a kennel and a puppy mill, so structurally it's a perfect fit for animal adoptions, with a lot of thoughtful modifications.
A donor bought the property for the Utah Animal Adoption Center, and is paying for clean-up and upgrades, with doggy suites rather than caged kennels.
Cheryl Smith/Wasatch Humane/Utah Animal Adoption Center: "A dog-loving donor who recognizes the great work we do here in the community, right here in Utah."
The center does not euthanize healthy animals. It pulls most of its adoptable animals from animal control agencies that must put them down because of space restrictions.
"They will have opportunities for enrichment, exercise and fresh air. Some of our animals stay with us longer than at traditional shelters."
When the center opens for good, every day will be dogs day out, until the dogs go home.
