Work continues at Regional Animal Shelter

The San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter, which operates as the animal shelter for all of Hays County, began improvements to the facility in October that include repainting and re-proxying the kennels, aiming to further ensure a safe and healthy environment for the animals.

“These kennels get sprayed out with water every day, we use chemicals that kill diseases. Potentially in the kennels every day, the dogs are jumping on the paint every day with their toenails, you know,” said Christie Banduch, animal shelter supervisor. “It’s normal wear and tear, this is just something we have to do every so many years to keep that surface in a good state.”

The improvements are being made throughout each wing of the shelter.

“We have three dog kennel wings so we’re kind of doing those one at a time that way we’re not, you know, shutting down a ton of kennels at a time,” Banduch said. “It takes us down about a third of our overall space at a time while each wing is being worked on.”

Improvements began in the adoption wing, which is also the largest wing with 37 kennels. As of now, this is the only wing in the shelter that has been completed.

“We thought, let’s get that one out of the way first so they are done with the epoxy on the floors in that building,” Banduch said.

Maintenance has now begun on the second of three buildings located in the back of the shelter.

“The next phase of this was actually painting the wall as well but the floors were kind of where we needed to get the dogs really out of the way, obviously because they can’t stand on wet epoxy paint on the floors,” Banduch said.

While these may seem like small improvements to the shelter, Banduch said they can ultimately make a big impact on the animals.

“That’s how we seal the concrete surfaces, with the epoxy paint, that keeps those surfaces impervious to moisture, bacteria, viruses, things like that, that can kind of hide in a porous surface,” Banduch said

Moving animals during the improvement process has proved to be challenging for the shelter however, Banduch said they have managed to get it done.

“It has been a challenge, yes. So I got a team of rock stars over here. So we just kind of figure it out as it comes,” Banduch said.

As of now, there is no set date for the completion of the improvements but they’re going at a steady pace.

“It’s moving along about as on track as we can hope for,” Banduch said. “Sometime in mid-December, we should be able to at least wrap up the breadth of the work and have at least full use of our kennels again.”

For additional information regarding adoption specials and shelter resources, visit https:// sanmarcostx. gov/208/ San-Marcos-Regional-Animal-Shelter