Animal Welfare Professionals

I'm the director of a small municpal shelter in northern Mississippi.  We're ready to build a new (very small) shelter.  Most of our city officials are on board with building it in a new park where we already have a skate park, bike pump track, dog park, and walking trails.

A few elected officials are doing everything they can to stop it from being built in the park because they're concerned about liability issues or just don't care about animal welfare.

Any advice greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

I'd sell it from a "get them out of our facility faster" perspective.  Keeping dogs costs money, and every politician should be concerned about that.  By locating in a central area, your animals will get more exposure, and greater opportunity for exercise.  Volunteers can have easier access to the facility and their interactions with the dogs and cats can  improve animal behaviors and moral, which helps them get adopted.  You can also link the door of the facility to nearby hiking trails (perhaps with little dog foot stepping stones) to divert foot traffic to come see the dogs and cats.  Key to all this is that your facility should have outdoor play areas for the dogs to interact with each other and with their human visitors in a park-like setting.  Spill the surroundings over into the facility to make it welcoming.  These measures do not cost a lot of money and they will significantly impact turnover.

Thank you Jenn!  Excellent points.  I appreciate the information and will be including it to my letter to the Aldermen & Mayor.