KC Pet Project raising funds to improve animal shelter
KC Pet Project, which manages Kansas City’s animal shelter, has launched a $250,000 matching gift campaign to expand the veterinary clinic at the city-owned facility, 4400 Raytown Road.
The city ultimately hopes to build a new shelter, because the existing building dates from 1972 and is woefully outdated. But in the interim, this fundraising effort will allow KC Pet Project to increase the medical resources and space available for ill and injured pets, said marketing director Tori Fugate.
“This is giving us some breathing room,” Fugate said.
KC Pet Project has already received a commitment from the Petco Foundation to match dollar-for-dollar all donations up to $250,000 through June 30.
The existing veterinary clinic is only 400 square feet and grossly inadequate for the animals cared for each year — 10,500 in 2014. KC Pet Project will soon install two modular buildings in the shelter parking lot, adding more than 2,100 square feet of space for surgeries, a recovery ward, medical intensive care and separate isolation areas for sick and contagious animals.
The campaign is dubbed the Roadrunner Fund, after a severely injured and abused dog who lost his eyes but was nursed back to health at the shelter and found a new adoptive home.
More information about the fundraising campaign and the shelter’s adoption services is available at www.kcpetproject.org.
To reach Lynn Horsley, call 816-226-2058 or send email to lhorsley@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published March 23, 2015 at 12:22 PM with the headline "KC Pet Project raising funds to improve animal shelter."