By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—The Rutland County Humane Society (RCHS) has announced its plan to move its operations from its current location on Stevens Road in Pittsford, where it’s been located since the 1960s, to a building on the former campus of the defunct Brandon Training School in Brandon.
According to Mei Mei Brown, President of the RCHS Board, the organization’s current facilities, which were built decades ago, are showing their age.
“The building is crumbling on us,” said Ms. Brown in her office at RCHS. “If it were in good condition, we could get by here.”
In addition to the physical condition of the building itself, which encompasses 9,000 square feet on 17 acres, RCHS must also contend with a septic system that can’t keep up with the organization’s daily output. Caring for so many animals—RCHS handles roughly 1,100 adoptions a year—requires a lot of water.
“We’ve got the washing machines going all day,” said Ms. Brown. “We hose down the kennels every day. We do a deep clean of the whole building once a week.”
Furthermore, the air-filtration system at the current facility doesn’t remove pathogens from the air as much as it simply pushes them from one room to the next, according to Brown. The result is that animals frequently develop upper respiratory infections. This particularly affects cats, whose immune systems are more affected by the stress of a new environment than are those of dogs. But the cost of a new filtration system in the current structure would exceed $500K.
“Airborne diseases need to be filtered out,” she said. “Our facility needs to be sanitary. Every room in the new building will have its own air filter.”
RCHS initially sought to construct an entirely new facility, and even had architectural plans drawn up for a 16,200-square-foot complex, but the $7-million price tag proved beyond their means.
“We did a feasibility study and realized that the most we could afford was $3.5 to $4 million, which wouldn’t have gotten us what we wanted in a new building,” said Brown. Since COVID, construction costs have skyrocketed and what seemed like a healthy budget just a few years ago now covers only a fraction of what it once did.
Moreover, the search for an appropriate parcel of land on which to build proved difficult. They initially focused their search in the Rutland area, near the intersection of Route 4 and Route 7, in order to provide maximum accessibility and convenience to county residents. But the available parcels came with so many restrictions and regulations under Act 250 and the Agency of Agriculture that new construction wasn’t financially feasible.
So, they began a search for an existing building instead.
“We looked everywhere: Wells, Castleton, Clarendon, West Rutland, Pittsford…” said Brown. But they kept coming back to the building at the former Training School in Brandon. Initially offered at $650K, the current owners dropped the price to $300K because they supported RCHS’s mission.
“At first we thought that Brandon was too far north in the county, but the financial aspect of the deal was just too good to pass up,” said Brown. “Instead of $400 per square foot for new construction, we’re getting $9 per square foot for this existing building.”
And while it’s true that Brandon sits at the northern edge of Rutland County, Route 7 passes right through it, with Route 30 only a few miles away in Sudbury.
“We’re a destination,” said Brown. “A lot of people only want shelter animals and will come to Brandon.”
The building sits at the corner of Jones and Mulcahey Drives in the heart of the old Training School campus. Formerly the cooking facilities for the school, the brick structure offers 15,500 relatively open square feet on 1.6 acres. While they won’t increase the number of regular dog kennels they currently have (18), they will be able to add a number of specialized kennels and holding areas that they currently don’t have room for. The new building will provide space for intake of new drop-offs, a “sick bay” for ill or injured animals, and a “maternity ward” for pregnant animals. The current facility doesn’t allow sufficient dedicated areas for any of these functions, and animals that need extra space sometimes find themselves held in the kitchen or administrative offices.
RCHS also hopes eventually to provide on-site spay/neuter services and access to low-cost veterinary care. While Brown doesn’t want to take business away from local veterinarians, she says that a significant number of pet owners sometimes forgo medical care for their animals because of the cost.
“We see a lot of people skip vaccinations, especially for their cats, because of the expense,” she said.
RCHS sees itself as an animal-care organization, not simply as a disposal for unwanted animals. Its mission is to provide humane treatment for animals that need homes, hence its slogan “A Home for Hope.”
“We don’t put animals down for space,” said Brown. “We have an extensive network of foster homes where we can place dogs and cats that are looking for forever homes. We have a trainer that will work with difficult animals to get them ready for new homes.” Brown and other RCHS staff and volunteers often take home foster animals themselves.
RCHS deals mostly with dogs and cats (more cats than dogs, in sheer numbers), but will also accept other small mammals and birds, like ferrets, rabbits, and parrots.
“We don’t take reptiles, but we do handle more than dogs and cats,” said Brown.
The deal on the new building will close this spring, after all the necessary permits have been obtained from the town and the state. The move to Brandon from Pittsford is likely to take a few years, as the new building is rehabbed for its new purpose.
“We want to be good neighbors,” said Brown. “We’ll do what we can to minimize the noise for the surrounding apartment buildings. We’ll insulate the building for sound and will only let the dogs remain in the yard from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to cut down on the barking.”
Anyone in the area who’d like to volunteer should submit a volunteer form on RCHS’s website (rchsvt.org) or call them at (802) 483-6700. Volunteer positions can range from answering phones to walking dogs to cleaning out kennels.
Similarly, anyone who’s interested in donating to RCHS can find a donation button on the website with an option to donate specifically for the new building. And while people often drop off toys and bedding at their facility in Pittsford, RCHS does ask, however, that people refrain from donating food because the dietary needs of its animals can often be very specific and most commercial pet food isn’t suitable.
“But we so appreciate everything people donate,” said Brown. “It shows that people care about animals and that’s the important thing to us.”
RCHS’s current building is 63 years old and has provided “a home for hope” for decades. Thousands of Rutland County residents have been united with their animals through the organization’s Pittsford facility. But the organization has outgrown its current complex and is ready for the next chapter in Brandon.
“It will take a village to get the new shelter up and running,” said Brown. “We’re building for the next 60 years.”
