SOS! Dog Kennel Refurbishment
Why The SOS???
The APROP dog kennels and exercise yards are in desperate need of renovation. Many of the buildings that house the puppies and dogs are run down and need to be demolished and rebuilt. A major overhaul of this kind would improve the quality of life for the dogs that are housed in the shelter, ensure they are safe and make it easier to give them the care that they need. We need your donations to make this possible!
How Can I Help?
If you would like to support our efforts on this project, please do so by clicking on one of the donation amounts below – thank you for whatever you choose to give!
How Much Have We Collected?
Project Events
Project Updates
Tell Me More About The Problem
The kennels and fences have been constructed from what ever material has been to hand, in the past. Attempts have been made, over the years, to try and repair issues as they arise, however wear and tear and limited materials means many areas are not fit for purpose.
Meet ‘Big Ron’ – Our Site Foreman
Ron has a vested interest in overseeing the work as he is one of our longer term residents and lives in one of the kennels that suffers the most from water ingress. In this main kennel run, the roof leaks and is propped up with poles in the middle of kennels to try and reduce the sagging. The wire fencing panels allows rain in, the half height cinder blocks walls are loose and moving, the wire sections above the cinder blocks are not secure and smaller dogs can escape from one kennel to another. The tiling in some kennels and lack of drainage make it very hard to adequately clean and disinfect.
This Sounds Expensive!
As you can imagine, the costs of renovation are very high. For this reason, we have decided to start a specific fundraising campaign. This will be launched by our “In the Dog House” sleep over event at the shelter with two brave volunteers spending the night there.
We have other events planned to raise awareness of our SOS and you can find details on how you can donate and help us reach our goals else where on this page.
We are also launching the opportunity for major donors to have a memorial plaque at the shelter. All donations to this fund will be warmly welcome.
Can I Help In Any Other Way?
Absolutely!
We are always looking for individuals who can donate their time and/or skills, either on a short-term or longer-term basis. Click here to see details of the types of skills and volunteer roles that we are hoping to fill.
How we will use funds and priority areas
Our primary focus to start with is to rebuild our largest block of kennels at the front, so residents like Ron, will be cool in summer and warm and dry in winter. This will involve replacing all the wooden framework with a stronger metal frame, a new roof structure that will be fully watertight and will overhang the front of the kennels to provide much needed shade and protection from the rain. Also reinforcing and building up new block work… amongst other things! This is our top priority as these are our largest and most utilised kennels in the shelter. Big Ron our Foreman has agreed to oversee this work … so we will be in good hands (paws!)….
There are many other areas we need to improve at the shelter to make sure all residents are safe and well cared for:
- We need to replace fencing to improve the safety between kennel and exercise areas
- We need to waterproof one of the back block of kennels
- We would love to rebuild our nursing mother/puppy kennel so it gives our puppies the best start in life
- We want to reconfigure areas so we can provide a better quarantine area and use spaces more effectively to ensure our dogs will be more comfortable.
We have to raise funds for us to be able to complete all these works … so we start with the main kennels at the front of the site as phase one, and depending on fundraising we can move onto other phases.
At this early stage, our best guess is that we need at least € 14,000 to complete the first phase of work (see below). However, as we engage with builders and suppliers we fully expect this number to change, along with the other numbers shown below.
We will update the table below as as we learn more.
We know that our donors have huge hearts and deep pockets and it is possible that your donations will exceed the amount we need for this first phase of the refurbishment. Any additional donations will be put towards the next phases of work as described below .
| Estimated Donations Required | Additional Phases |
| € 14,000 | Phase 1: Refurbish the main kennels at the front of the site (this includes 4 smaller kennels and two large kennels (that currently house Ronald, x and x). |
| € 17,000 | Phase 2: Remove and replace fencing around Katy and Choco’s kennel area. This fence is extremely vulnerable. As it separates their area from two other areas where dogs are, it is critical this is replaced to maintain safety. |
| € 21,500 | Phase 3: Demolish and rebuild nursing mother/puppy kennel with two compartments so there is an area for a nursing mother to take herself away from puppies for toileting, eating etc. |
| € 27,500 | Phase 4: Reinforce walls and new roof on back kennel block (Cristina and Estrella) to make watertight. Replace fencing panels between this area and puppy exercise area. |
| € 33,500 | Phase 5: Reconfigure quarantine kennel area to provide separate kennels that minimise spread of disease and improve safety for volunteers handling new and distressed dogs |
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