CAPE CORAL, Fla. — The Cape Coral Animal Shelter is expanding to a new 19,000 sq. ft. facility, but they need your help to make that happen.
"We knew when we opened that we were going to have to expand because there's such a need in this community," said Liz McCauley, executive director of the shelter.
The new facility is more than double the current shelter. McCauley says the shelter currently has 90 cats and dogs, waiting to be adopted.
Watch below to find out why they need to move into a new facility:
"So we're going to be able to about triple our capacity right now," she said. "We're going to have 46 new dog kennels."
They will have six cat rooms instead of three. Additionally, the shelter will now have a community room.
"Not only can we use it for training and kids classes and things like that, but the community can use it as well," McCauley explained.
The shelter opened about five years ago, and the current building was designed to have more affordable clinic space than what they have now.
McCauley thought the expansion would take a few more years, but things changed.
"There's such a need. There's so many deserted animals. There's so many unwanted pets out there, so many people have to surrender their animals right now," she said.
Plus, the community is growing rapidly.
"We realized that we have to do it now," McCauley said.
The cost is $8 million, and they are getting closer to the goal.
The Golisano Foundation donated $1.5 million over the next four years and $3 million has been saved all together.
"We're really counting on the community. We're counting on businesses, we're counting on everyone that we can to contribute to the shelter," McCauley said.
She says they are counting on naming rights to meet the goal. People can donate in order for them to get a plaque or naming rights to a building. You can also simply make a donation.
"Every dollar is going to count to get us to that goal," McCauley said.
With the ultimate goal of getting each and every animal a loving home.
