The Wags and Whiskers Animal Shelter will continue with construction at their current Route M location, says President Tracy Sator. 

The shelter had been considering selling the property or attempting to move to a different location after their amended site plan, including a septic lagoon, was denied in a controversial decision by the Innsbrook Board of Trustees. 

Proponents of the shelter had previously expressed concerns that a traditional septic system would fail due to the animal hair from the shelter. 

Their engineer, Paul Ganey, spoke at length about how similar systems at other shelters had failed within two years of their installation. 

“We took a couple months, and really met with people, and overwhelmingly, they want us to open,” said Sator. 

Sator and others had previously argued it would be fiscally irresponsible to install a traditional system knowing it would fail, but after discussions with their donors, they decided it was the only way forward. 

“We’re taking a chance, … he’s going to try and design a system with as many fail safe filters and stuff, but it’s going to take work on our part,” said Board Member Kathy Caton. 

The board is working with Ganey and a plumber to reinforce the septic system with additional filters and catches to mitigate the amount of dog hair that finds its way into the system. 

Caton noted this will include extra work for shelter volunteers who will have to clear out those filters frequently. 

They also plan to slowly test the system as they bring animals in following the building’s completion, to see what the filters can handle and how often they will have to be cleaned.

“It’ll be a slow build-up just to test our protocols with this septic to make sure we’re not overtaxing it where it’ll fail quicker,” Sator said. “Our goal is to keep as much hair out of the system as possible, but that’s the big risk.” 

Even with the additional safeguards, the new system’s days will be numbered, and proponents of the shelter hope it will last long enough that an alternative is available before those days run out. 

“We had an open house here and once people did the walk through, … they were like, this needs to open,” said Sator. “And hopefully, maybe technology will change in the time that we put this one in.”

Since the new septic system will fall in line with the original site plan submitted to the Village of Innsbrook by Wags and Whiskers, they will not have to wait for another vote from the board. They do, however, have to renew their building permit, which Sator did not expect to be an issue. 

While large parts of the building are complete there is still lots of work remaining outside of the new septic system. 

The interior of the building still needs to be finished, a well needs to be dug and the board has been searching for a contractor to replace one of the doors for some time. 

Sator and Caton could not commit to an opening date, but hoped to be able to open by late summer next year.