Leash linking ceremony at King County Animal Shelter celebrates new buildings, new partnership with PIMA Medical Institute Veterinary program

Monday afternoon, King County Executive Ron Sims joined volunteers and staff at the county's Animal Care and Control Shelter in Kent to celebrate the opening of a new cat adoption building and a new building and partnership with PIMA Medical Institute. Instead of a traditional ribbon cutting, Executive Sims and PIMA Campus Director Robert Panerio linked dog leashes between two buildings to symbolize the new community partnership.

One building houses King County's cat adoption program and the other building holds a PIMA Medical Institute classroom, complete with all current veterinary equipment. (See the construction photos.

PIMA Veterinary students will earn their certification by providing medical care to homeless animals in need in the King County shelter.

"This is a win-win-win situation," said King County Executive Ron Sims. "The students win, the shelter wins, and above all, the animals win."

The new cat adoption building holds over 100 new easy-to-clean stainless steel cat cages that are bigger than the shelter's previous cages, which are no longer in use. Each cage contains a cardboard "cat condo" donated by Petfinder.com that can be recycled after each cat is adopted to prevent the spread of disease. The new cat adoption building also has several rooms for cat socialization, where cats can interact with each other and potential adopters.

"We are glad to have a network of community partnerships to take care of homeless animals in King County," said Executive Sims. "The work PIMA will do here not only nurtures young students' minds and builds local careers through their on-site training facility, it also expands the regional animal care network, which will continue to pay dividends for the pets of King County for years to come."