Man’s best friend gets a shelter upgrade in Pitt County

PITT COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) - For the tenants of the Pitt County Animal Shelter, life hasn’t always been a catwalk, but with the completion of a year-long renovation project, the kennel doors are wide open for business.

“As the community grows, so does the population,” said shelter director Chad Singleton. “There’s an overpopulation in North Carolina as a whole and in Pitt County.”

The animal shelter was operating under decreased capacity, limiting the number of surrenders they could take, but now there is something to bark about.

The shelter is celebrating a grand re-opening with more space and new equipment to better care for Pitt County’s four-legged citizens.

“The best part, for me, is the community cat room because people come in, they sit down, they can play with the kittens, they can stay there an hour,” said shelter employee Morgan Alderman. “It’s more likely to help them adopt a kitten versus seeing them in a cage.”

More kennel space, new meeting rooms, and industrial laundry all make up parts of the new and improved shelter operations, but animal advocates say this shouldn’t be a cat or dog’s home.

"The reality is that although we have a lot of resources for the community, the shelter itself is probably one of the last places that you would want to bring an animal because of the stress that the dogs undergo when they come here," said Singleton.

For the public, the shelter has a message.
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“The best thing that the public can do is spay and neuter their animals,” said Alderman. “That is the most important thing because if you don’t, a cat will have anywhere from 6 to 10 kittens and if you have three of those cats, how many kittens are you going to have?”

Also, consider making room for one of these shelter animals to find their fur-ever home in your heart.
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You can find a list of animals available for adoption here.