WP: Maximum Bliss at the Pound: Deluxe Comfort at D.C. Shelter [View All]

[DeepModem Mom]

Maximum Bliss at the Pound
Abused, Neglected, Abandoned Pets Bask in Deluxe Comfort at Shelter
By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 21, 2006; Page B01


The Washington Animal Rescue League's new "holistic" shelter uses soothing music, running water and heated floors to rehabilitate D.C.'s sick, abused and neglected animals.

Larry the yellow Lab sleeps on a memory foam mattress. Paddy the Irish wolfhound laps from an automatically refilling water dish. Olga and Oslo, two Rhodesian Ridgeback-mix puppies, sprawl on a radiant-heated floor in Zen-like bliss.

They are among 80 homeless hounds inhabiting a new animal shelter that is ritzier than many day spas. These mutts exude the contentment of society housewives detoxing at an ashram, soothed into near total silence under a glass skylight skimmed by cascading sheets of recirculated water, the room aglow with daylight streaming through glass walls and thrumming with piped-in harp.

"Do you hear that? No barking. You barely hear a peep," enthused Scotlund Haisley, executive director of the Washington Animal Rescue League, which is officially unveiling its posh new animal shelter in Northwest Washington to the public this weekend....

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"Slowly, what's happening is that Americans are no longer accepting the small, stinky, rusty-fence shelters as suitable places for animals," said John Snyder, vice president for companion animals at the Humane Society of the United States. "There is a renaissance of new construction of these facilities across the country, and we're seeing some very attractive facilities."...

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Gary Weitzman, the shelter's medical director, said that because of the calming music, fresh water and heated floors, abused and diseased animals heal faster. And kennel cough -- a highly contagious illness in dogs -- has dropped nearly 90 percent with fresh air being circulated into individual dens....The facility also seems to affect people who come looking for pets. Adoptions are up, said adoption manager Shelley Petrasek, who credits the visible amenities with making people feel good about adopting animals....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/20/AR2006102001399.html?nav=most_emailed