---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 18:59:24 -0500
From: Doug Hunt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [csdgen] Koyanasquatsi (Life out of balance)
08:53 PM ET 02/04/98
San Francisco opens luxury $7 million dogpound
By Andrew Quinn
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Color television sets in every
room, a limitless supply of tennis balls and regular peer group
sessions ``with lots of hugs.''
In San Francisco, a dog's life got a whole lot easier
Wednesday as the city's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals opened its new, state-of-the-art $7 million animal
shelter.
``There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world,''
said SPCA President Richard Avanzino as he meandered down
''Lassie Lane'', where dogs are ensconced in private, furnished
apartments complete with cable television.
``People think of pets as family members. You wouldn't put
your family member in a cage, would you?''
At the San Francisco shelter, dogs dine on meals provided by
room service and see consultants who develop lists of their
''beauty requirements.''
Over in the cat rotunda, residents laze in specially built
nests designed to resemble ``bohemian artist's lofts'', casting
a borless animals and eventually decide to adopt them.
``We are trying to test the envelope here,'' Avanzino said.
''What we really hope is that this will help us to save a lot
more lives.''
Fittingly enough for a city awash in money from Silicon
Valley high-tech industries, the center was built with the help
of a $1 million donation from the Duffield Family Foundation,
established by the founders of the PeopleSoft software company.
Named after the Duffield's dead miniature schnauzer, Maddie,
the center is designed to help acclimatize animals to human
settings. To that end, they are put in mock apartments equipped
with real furniture, take regular runs in the center's small
park and are trained to use the ``French dog toilet'' -- a
high-tech innovation the center hopes to install in parks around
the city.
In the residential section, special ventilation systems
change the air no less than 17 times a day, while the floors are
constructed out of special anti-microbial microfibers.
``If anything drops, it is sanitized immediately,'' Avanzino
said.
The spa-like luxury does not end with the accommodations.
This being California, there is also a strong emphasis on
new-age style ``wellness'', animal-style.
``We like to make sure they have a lot of peer group
interchange,'' Avanzino said. ``It is important for their
recovery process.''
Human visitors are almost as coddled. While center workers
pull up computerized ``pet profiles'', families are served
cappuccino or herb tea while they mull their adoption options.
Center officials said the center, which joins an existing
SPCA warehouse facility, will make it easier for them to display
animals, teach them to behave like good pets and get them into
permanent homes.
The San Francisco SPCA forbids euthanasia except for animals
that are fatally ill or deemed to be safety threats, one of the
only facilities in the country with such a policy. Last year, it
placed 4,765 pets in new homes and killed only 62.
``Twenty-year old cats, three-legged dogs, they are all
guaranteed a home,'' Avanzino said. ``This place will help to
make that possible.''
^REUTERS@
