Humane Fort Wayne officially welcomes animals into new building

well it is official animals are now in the new Humane Fort Wayne building on leeburg Road 21 a live reporter Samantha condra was there this morning she's live in studio with us right now to tell us about some special moments yeah Heather and Linda over 40 dogs and cats will be in the new building by the end of today and I spoke with leaders at the shelter who say this project is years in the making those are the sounds that now filled the new Humane Fort Wayne location in the moment the first dog was brought into the facility meant the world to the staff we're all emotional about it because to see the first little paw prints wander in here and and know that that's a kickoff and a start to just a whole new chapter community relations manager Melissa Gibson says they've been waiting for that moment for years realistically Hannah Street our uh former shelter was never actually set up as a shelter it was a retrofitted building so you know in reality it's like this has been 50 years in the making for us to have a facility that's ours and set up for what we do and the needs of the animals and it's it's fantastic Gibson says with the expansion they hope to save even more animals we've got twice as much room for dogs almost three times as much space for cats so you know fingers crossed we're going to go from doing about 2,000 adoptions a year to close to 5,000 so 3,000 more lives a year saved out of this building as they move on to the next chapter they are excited to see the positive effects it has on the animals and the staff just to know not only that we're bringing them in but that the animals in our care are going to be so much happier while they're here with us for whatever time that takes it's just I don't my heart just wants to explode it's it's awesome human Fort Wayne officially opens its new location next Tuesday September 3rd reporting in studio Samantha condra 21 live news