Monroe County animal shelter hopes to expand

The Monroe County Animal Shelter is facing one big problem: A tiny building.The shelter rents the space from a former veterinarian. While the location is in an idyllic setting in view of the Smokies, there just isn't enough room for the approximately 500 animals that enter the shelter each month.Space has been a problem since the shelter opened more than two years ago."It was like people had been saving them up for us," said Claire Moxim, who volunteers at the shelter as part of the Monroe County Friends of Animals group.Even with the space problems, Moxim says the shelter has an adoption rate that tops 80 percent, and another 50 to 80 cats and dogs travel to upstate New York each month for adoption there."If we had the room, we have a lot of volunteers that would be more than willing to come and help out," Moxim said. "It is definitely our goal to do that. We could save a lot more animals."In addition to saving the animals, shelter workers say they could take better care of them while they're in the shelter, too.Right now, there is not enough room for every animal to stay inside, so many dogs stay outside throughout the winter, although they do have shelter from the wind, heat lamps, and doghouses."You cannot house an animal in a cage for more than a week -- that's even stretching it," Moxim said. "A shelter is a horrible place to live, and that's all a dog or a cat knows. They don't know that, tomorrow, somebody may come along and adopt them, so all they've got is today, and our goal is to always make that animal better off for having met us."The Monroe County Friends of Animals is working to raise $25,000 for the building fund.If the group reaches that goal, an anonymous donor has agreed to match it. The next big fundraising event is the Furry Tales Ball, which is set for March.