By SARAH THOMACK
St. Joseph Post

Representatives from an Elwood, Kansas, company and the Friends of the Animal Shelter of St. Joseph gathered earlier this week at the site of what will eventually be the new animal shelter.

A check presentation was held to recognize a $25,000 donation made by KindredBio to the future St. Joseph facility at 5909 Corporate Drive.

Matthew Applegate is the Senior Director of Commercial Manufacturing and the Site Director for the veterinary pharmaceutical company’s Elwood facility. Applegate said KindredBio’s donation was made to help the plan for the new St. Joseph Animal Shelter become a reality.

“That’s going to be able to really get the community in to see the cats and dogs and be able to increase that adoption rate and home more animals, whereas, their facility right now isn’t the best option,” Applegate said.

Kappy Hodges with the Friends of the Shelter said they originally planned to build a new facility, but then found an empty building at Corporate Drive that they decided would meet the needs of the St. Joseph Animal Shelter for less cost.

“It’s only going to be about $2.5 million to both purchase and renovate it… then when we were able to get the CIP committee to choose us as one of the projects, and we’ll get a million from that, then we’re down to a million and a half that we’re going to be raising,” Hodges said. “So when a company like KindredBio, one of the animal health companies in our area gives us money, it’s really exciting for us. We’ve raised enough to make a down payment on the building and now we’re trying to purchase it.”

For more information or to donate, go to petforu.com.