Delta Animal Shelter putting finishing touches on new facility

ESCANABA — Back in June, ABC 10 visited the Delta Animal Shelter in Escanaba to find out more about the new facility that they’ve been building. Now, the time to move the animals into their new shelter is growing near.

The shelter hopes the new facility located on County Road 426 will improve safety and comfort for pets, volunteers, and the community. After more than a year of hard work, there are only a few details left before the shelter’s new home is ready.

“We are just about complete with the building,” shelter manager Susan Gartland said. “[We’re] looking at minor repairs, a few things that need to still be installed, finishing up some sink work today. A couple of kennels need to be done, and then we’re anxious to move. We’re anxious to move into a nice, safe, wonderful building and be able to show the community how we can give back in the things that we do to help the animals of Delta County.”

The shelter is also asking the public to consider donating to help out with the building. Despite the large initial donation from the John & Melissa Besse Foundation, building the new facility still required the shelter to take out a mortgage.

“Because of the conditions of the current building we’re at, we did not have the chance to fundraise completely prior to building this building,” Gartland added. “We needed to get out of the [original] building because of mold, electrical issues, lack of water, space constraints. So we built this project knowing that we would have a large mortgage.”

The no-kill shelter has 116 dogs and cats housed at its current facility awaiting adoption over the busy holiday season. The animals will be heading to the new shelter after the holidays. An official move-in date has not yet been set.

For more information on how to adopt a pet or donate to the shelter, head to deltaanimal.org.