A look inside the new Humane Society shelter

The first dogs, cats arrive as opening day less than a week away for Humane Society for Greater Lafayette shelter

• Today’s edition is sponsored by the West Lafayette Public Library, hosting a talk on Purdue photographer J.C. Allen and his work at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28, at the library, 208 W. Columbia St. Fred Whitford, a clinical engagement professor of botany and plant pathology at Purdue and co-author of “Memories of Life on the Farm: Through the Lens of Pioneer Photographer J.C. Allen,” will be the speaker. Allen worked for Purdue taking photographs to document agricultural extension work in Indiana, as well as key figures at the university, including Amelia Earhart when she was an instructor on the West Lafayette campus. The talk is free. Doors open at 5 p.m.

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A LOOK INSIDE THE NEW HUMANE SOCIETY SHELTER

The opening of the new Humane Society for Greater Lafayette shelter – a joint effort that included Lafayette, West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County – won’t happen until Sept. 3.

And there won’t be what you’d call a grand opening, with public walk-throughs, when the $7.5 million shelter on Sagamore Parkway South gets running full-scale.

“We seriously considered doing that, and we want the community to see how fantastic this facility turned out,” Sharon Dull, board president of the Humane Society for Greater Lafayette, said Tuesday. “We decided it just would be overwhelming for the animals as they’re getting acclimated to their surroundings.”

The first dogs and cats actually arrived at the shelter on July 31, when Tippecanoe County’s contract was up with Crystal Creek Kennels near Battle Ground. Dull said the shelter had 22 dogs then. As of Tuesday, the shelter’s kennels had 27 dogs and two cats, she said.

Sharon Dull greets Rice Cake, one of the first dogs at the Humane Society for Greater Lafayette shelter on Sagamore Parkway South. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

After Saturday, Aug. 31, animal control contracts for lost, stray or impounded pets in Lafayette and West Lafayette will transfer from the Almost Home Humane Society on South Second Street in Lafayette to the Humane Society for Greater Lafayette.