January 21, 2019
This week, Young-Williams Animal Center completed much-needed space additions to the dog holding areas, thanks to a $16,740 grant from PetSmart Charities.
Dogs at Young-Williams Animal Center are enjoying twice the kennel space thanks to a grant from PetSmart Charities to install special doors.
The renovations added sliding vertical doors between kennels, connecting each space and doubling or even tripling kennel size to create higher quality of life and capacity for care. Dogs are placed in these holding areas before being moved to the adoption floor.
“These doors give us the ability to better accommodate all sizes of dogs,” says Janet Testerman, CEO of Young-Williams Animal Center. “Not only do they give the large dogs more space, they also allow us to be flexible during times of high intake to save more dogs’ lives.”
Support, such as grants from PetSmart Charities, is crucial to help the shelter care for Knoxville’s homeless animals, as is support from the community, according to Testerman.
Chloe enjoys her doubled kennel space, made possible thanks to a grant from PetSmart Charities to install special doors. Many dogs like Chloe are available for adoption at Young-Williams Animal Center.
“We are so thankful to PetSmart Charities for its continued support of local shelters,” Testerman says. “We also want to thank everyone who answered our call for foster families and ‘doggie sleepovers’ so that our dogs had a place to stay during the renovations. We appreciate all of the support to take the best possible care of our animals and, ultimately, find a home for every pet.”
PetSmart Charities is a leading funder of animal welfare in North America. Grant funding to support shelter operations and improvements can be challenging to acquire in animal welfare. PetSmart Charities created a stream of funding that supports an animal welfare organization’s core sheltering operations and practices with a focus on programs that are both innovative and sustainable.
Shelter Operations is one of PetSmart Charities’ seven grant categories designed to support nonprofits that share a commitment to finding lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs and thought leadership that bring people and pets closer together.
About Young-Williams Animal Center
The vision of Young-Williams Animal Center is “a home for every pet.” It is the municipal shelter of the City of Knoxville and Knox County, and in 2018, the center took in more than 9,000 animals.
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Young-Williams Animal Center serves the needs of lost, unwanted, abandoned and neglected animals. The center’s mission is to lead the community to end pet homelessness, promote animal welfare and enhance the human-animal bond through the shelter and placement of animals, spay/neuter initiatives and public education of companion animal issues. Young-Williams Animal Center reminds pet owners to spay and neuter their pets.
Young-Williams Animal Center’s main facility is located off Sutherland Avenue at 3201 Division Street. Young-Williams Animal Village satellite adoption location and public spay/neuter program is located at 6400 Kingston Pike.
Both locations are open seven days a week from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. The shelter closes from 1-2 p.m. for an hour of quiet time for the animals. For more information about Young-Williams Animal Center, call 865-215-6599 or visit young-williams.org.
About PetSmart Charities®
PetSmart Charities, Inc. is committed to finding lifelong, loving homes for all pets by supporting programs and thought leadership that bring people and pets together. Through its in-store adoption program in all PetSmart® stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, PetSmart Charities helps to find forever homes and families for more than 500,000 shelter pets each year.
PetSmart Charities also provides grant funding to nonprofits aligned with its mission under four key areas of support: Preventing Pet Homelessness; Helping Shelter Pets Thrive; Supporting the Bond Between People and Pets and Providing Emergency Relief and Disaster Support. Each year, millions of generous PetSmart shoppers help pets in need by donating to PetSmart Charities using the PIN pads at checkout registers inside PetSmart stores. In turn, PetSmart Charities efficiently uses more than 90 cents of every dollar donated to fulfill its role as the leading funder of animal welfare in North America, granting almost $340 million since its inception in 1994.
Independent from PetSmart Inc., PetSmart Charities is a 501(c)(3) organization that has received the Four-Star Rating from Charity Navigator, a third-party organization that reports on the effectiveness, accountability and transparency of nonprofits, for the past 15 years in a row – placing it among the top one percent of charities rated by this organization. To learn more visit petsmartcharities.org/.
