Effort Underway to Build Animal Shelter

In a dialogue that could improve the lot of Long Beach’s homeless and sick animals, city officials are negotiating with regional animal rights advocates about creating a new animal shelter near El Dorado Park.

Long Beach’s Bureau of Animal Control hopes to close its 40-year-old Willow Street shelter and raise $4 million to build a much larger facility complete with more sanitary amenities, such as separate drains and air vents for each kennel.

The City Council recently gave the bureau permission to work with the Los Angeles branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on fund-raising issues and a possible joint operations agreement. Representatives from both agencies are set to meet later this month.

Madeline Bernstein, executive director of the Los Angeles animal rights group, said the relationship with the city is still “very preliminary,” but that both sides agree on at least two points: the desirability of a new shelter and a need for lots more money to build it.

But despite the fact that the project is only in the planning stages, community opposition has already become a potential concern, Bernstein said. If the city hopes to raise money for the project, she said, it may have to win over a group of homeowners that successfully defended the park earlier this year from a proposed adult sports complex.

“It’s easier to fund-raise if we’ve got the community’s support,” Bernstein said. “Certainly we’d be willing to allay concerns if there are any.”

The city’s Animal Control Bureau manager, Roger Hatakeyama, acknowledged that noise and traffic concerns have been raised by some neighbors of the proposed 6.5-acre site near Spring Street and the San Gabriel River Freeway. But he said the city has a strong case for the project, and that it will be designed so as not to bother nearby residents.