The Elephant on the Table

That's right — the BVHumane is about to be homeless.  Unless we act now to rescue ourselves, all the kennel staff, all the Humane Officers, all the volunteers, and most tragically, all the animals, will have nowhere to work or live in just a few short months.  

What's that?  You have to be kidding?  Well no, actually, we are serious.  

Here is the basic skinny: the land on which the BVHumane has its kennels and shelter belongs to the City of Vallejo.  In the past, the City of Vallejo leased the land to BVHumane as part of the agreement between BVHumane and the City of Vallejo for BVHumane to provide Animal Control services to the city. Now, with the waterfront development moving forward, the plan is that the new U.S. Post Office is scheduled to be placed at our current location. 

Of course, this is only a crisis if there is no other place for the BVHumane to go, and for a long time the discussions with the City of Vallejo always involved another location. However, as discussions have progressed, it has become obvious that there may not be any adequate or usable land available. City staff is still exploring options.

What You May Have Thought or May Have Heard— Misconceptions

Q. The Vallejo city government will never let this happen… Can’t they set aside some land for us?

A. The City of Vallejo understands the need for animal services, and is working alongside BVHumane. However, any usable land is too valuable to give away, and a parcel of land large enough to be suitable for a large animal shelter will be very hard to find and will have many other, more profitable uses.

Q. Aren't there many foundations and other charities which support animal rescue and shelter? Can't we get money from them?

A. Yes and no. Yes, there are many charitable agencies which support animal services.  But no-they won't give us money to pay for our day-to-day operations and they won't give us money to build shelter buildings unless we own or have a long-term, 66-year lease on the land where the buildings will be built. The process for obtaining grant monies is long and we can’t start it until we have a new location.

Q. We can just buy some land, can't we?

A. No. We need three to five acres. The only appropriate parcel of land which has come up for sale in the last few years was listed for sale at $4.5 M. Just the down payment on such a parcel would be 5 times more than the BVHumane has to spend, and that doesn't include several more millions to build the facility once we own the land.

Q. BVHumane holds successful fund-raising efforts all the time-can't we raise money that way?

A. Probably not. The current fund-raisers provide some of the funding for the existing operations of BVHumane. There is not enough to save for a new facility, and there isn't a whole lot more we can do in the way of local events beyond the current very full schedule. Even so, if all the money raised by all the BVHumane fund-raising events was combined and used only for a new facility it would take about 30 years to raise enough to buy land
and build it.

So, is it hopeless?

Do we just let BVHumane disappear and leave all the needy animals to fend for themselves? Stay tuned for our follow-up article...