ARRI opens new state of the art animal shelter in Peace Dale

This is what EVERY animal shelter should be like

By Will Collette

Our relationship with ARRI started when we adopted Jesse and Mickie
from them in 2013

Last weekend, the Animal Rescue League of Southern Rhode Island held its grand opening for its new 7,000 square foot, fully modernized animal shelter on Curtis Corner Road in Peace Dale. They held the formal “Ribbon-Chewing” ceremony last Saturday. The building is beautiful on the outside and makes great use of the inside space, featuring a design that is light and airy.

They also unveiled their new name – Animal Rescue Rhode Island (ARRI) – and logo that reflects their vision that there is much more an animal shelter can do than just warehouse unwanted pets until it time for them to be euthanized.

For a start, ARRI is truly a no-kill shelter and they mean it. The only time they would even consider euthanasia is if an animal is too sick to be healed, when they do the right thing to relieve the creature of its pain and suffering.

7,000 square feet and built to "hospital standards" 

ARRI is also different than other shelters in that it is a 76 year-old non-profit organization with no connection to any municipality. It raises all of its own money from donors and does not receive any federal, state or municipal funding. 

To build this wonderful new building, they need $2.2 million and have raised $2 million with the support of individuals and private foundations.

ARRI takes animals in and prepares them for adoption. They are very good at turning abused and neglected dogs and cats who would otherwise be considered “unadoptable” into fine companion animals. Regular Progressive Charlestown readers have seen many of these animals featured in the regular “Dog of the Week or “Cat of theWeek” articles that appear here frequently.

The South Carolina rescues

They even take animals in from out of state where they face certain death. For example, they had just brought in a batch of puppies from South Carolina right before they were scheduled to be put down. I saw these cuties in one of the spacious new pens in the Dog Room all huddled together on blankets for comfort and security and was glad that ARRI could save them.

The building is loaded with special features – from the beginning, their vision was to create a model shelter. My particular favorite idea was adding kitty playrooms to allow the cats to get out of their “Kitty Condos” (yes, that’s what they are) and interact with other kitties. When Cathy and I donated to the Building Fund, we were given naming rights and we chose to sponsor one of the two kitty play rooms.

Just some of the kittens in the Kitty Play Room. Their non-stop
romping made them hard to photograph.

When we toured the shelter, we of course zeroed in on the room we will get to name. I nearly lost it when I saw the room – a one and a half-stories high room filled with benches, climbing perches, cushions and cat toys and about a dozen or more romping kittens.

Cathy and I made a vow not to come back with another kitten to add to the three we have. Two of our cats are twin brothers we adopted from ARRI two years ago which was how we got hooked up and committed to them in the first place. But we nearly broke the vow while watching the kittens jumping and rough-housing in the kitty play room.

The “Condos” where each cat is housed is several times bigger than the usual kennels you see at other shelters and is equipped with a discreet kitty toilette in a private enclosure so the cat can use the litter box without being seen from the front. There is a hatch in the back that allows the staff easy access to clean the litter box. It’s those little touches that make this place special.

Even the grounds are beautiful

The enclosures for the dogs are huge and the grounds are set up so the dogs can get out and play. There are not one but two lovely little garden areas on the grounds for the benefit of visitors and staff, and of course the dogs.

ARRI also maintains a pantry stocked with pet food and supplies to help out pet owners who can’t afford to feed their pets.

They are also launching a new Canine Academy program where they will actually screen incoming dogs for their aptitude to perform certain types of jobs, such as therapy dogs, comfort animals and, for the especially talented, search-and-rescue. The program will be run by a recently retired State Police officer who trained the Staties’ police dogs.

Doug Rubenstein and Tammy Walter

I have never heard of an animal shelter running a jobs program for homeless dogs.

I’m probably missing some of the other special features and programs that make ARRI unique, but there’s also their emphasis on humane education. They want the Shelter to be a place where people, especially children, learn about the care and treatment of companion animals and animal welfare. They have school programs planned to bring the message to even more young people.

I salute all the staff, board members and volunteers at ARRI, especially Board Chair Doug Rubenstein and Director Tammy Walter for their vision, hard work and devotion to animal welfare.

The new ARRI logo

Look, I’m not knocking other animal shelters, especially those like Charlestown’s that rely on volunteers and get minimal town funding. 

They do the best they can with what they’ve got. In Charlestown, given Town Council Boss Tom Gentz’s stated distaste for cats (and Planning Commissar Ruth Platner’s well-known antipathy), it’s unlikely that Charlestown will put much into the Charlestown shelter in the foreseeable future.

But frankly, every shelter should be like ARRI’s and I could not help but notice that they created this wonderful place with no government funding. Can the Friends of the Charlestown Animal Shelter somehow follow ARRI’s example? I sure hope so.