The new county animal care and regulation center on Bradshaw Road is providing a more spacious habitat to a wide variety of animals.

It houses cats, dogs, rabbits, reptiles, llamas, goats and horses and any other animal that comes through the doors. It also extends many animals' lives.

For visitors to the previous county animal shelter, the words 'five days' are chilling. That is the typical amount of time animals live at a government-run animal shelter before they are euthanized. If they are deemed dangerous, diseased, or unadoptable they will be killed immediately.

The new shelter allows the animals to have more time. The facility is spacious so the animals are displayed in habitats.

According to Chris Amos, communication and media officer for the County of Sacramento Municipal Services Agency, 90 percent of euthanized animals are feral cats.

"This is a fluffy adoption center," Amos said. "It's also a jail and a hospital. Because of that our adoption rate is up but so is our intake rate."

Improvements to come for the shelter include a bigger spay/neuter clinic run by the Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

"With this new clinic we could actually make a dent in the population," Amos said.

The volunteers at the shelter are dedicated specialists in their fields.

Gena Ensey, volunteer in the cat section, has been evaluating and spending time with 192 cats.

"We never thought this day would come, that we would get this facility," Ensey said.

"The new facility is better for everyone," volunteer Fred Stacey said. "Being cooped up they get hyper and stressed out."

Amos said the facility will host several adoption events in December. Pet Pantry, in a partnership with Coats for Kids, asks visitors to the facility to drop off a coat and a bag of animal food. Home for the Holidays offers animals one year or older to be adopted for free and receive free microchipping and vaccinations.

"It's a business," Amos said. "We're having to get more and more creative."

There will also be a celebration of demolition when the previous county shelter is blown up.

For more information on the shelter and to adopt an animal visit the animal care and regulation website.

Photos courtesy of Anthony Bento; for more photos visit anthonybento.com

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