Saving the lives of hundreds of animals each year is the goal of a brand new medical facility the city of Fort Worth opened up at its shelter on Wednesday.
The new medical treatment ward at the Chuck Silcox Animal Care and Control Center is years in the making and one made possible by lots of donations.
The dogs and cats found in the new medical ward are ones that typically don't make it to the adoption centers and into a forever home.
"Unfortunately and traditionally in animal shelters, animals that get sick don't usually have a lot of chance to get adopted," said Jay Sabatucci, the acting manager of the shelter. "By this opening up, this enables us a whole new world of being able to get homes for animals, and we’re hoping to save a lot more lives."
The city's Code Compliance Department, which operates the shelter, estimates that 2,400 animals' lives will be saved annually.
The facility cost around $1 million and is the first of its kind for any municipal shelter in the North Texas area, if not the country. The facility is considered a game changer for a shelter that boasted a 68-percent live release rate last month, according to Sabatucci.
"We can house a lot more sick animals, get them better, get them into this adoption area and get them out to a new forever home," Sabatucci said.
Most of the cages are empty right now, but the shelter expects that to change rather quickly. Animals will be cycled out in about two weeks. Sick animals cannot be returned to the shelter's general population, so there are special adoption areas for the rehabilitated animals where the public can view through windows. The ward also features a treatment room, with high-tech medical dispenser and pet medical record access.
"And now with this we'll even find homes for those not so healthy," said Brandon Bennett, code compliance director. "This is just awesome and that [unhealthy animals] accounts for over a quarter of our euthanasia rate right now and, so, this is a good thing."
Another good thing is that it didn't cost taxpayers a dime. The facility was built with donations. The Community Foundation of North Texas assisted in helping the city raise funds for the shelter.
The medical ward has 93 kennels, nearly three times the previous isolation ward.
