Thieves Nab $9,000-Worth Of Outdoor Kennels From Animal Shelter
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's tough enough taking in hundreds of unwanted pets from all parts of Stearns and Benton counties.
Central Minnesota Animal Care and Control in Sauk Rapids is where local animal control like the city of St. Cloud bring their strays to be claimed or adopted. For nearly a decade, they've done their job on a shoestring budget.
That's why what happened sometime over the weekend stings so hard.
"You can see where the kennels were. You can see the lines where the kennels were and we had them wall-to-wall," shelter manager Leslie Fisher said.
Thieves ripped off 16 to 25 large steel fencing panels from the outdoor kennels, leaving the highly used dog runs in ruins.
"I walked in to let the dogs out and opened the door to the big run area, and there was nothing in there. It was empty," Fisher said.
To hide their theft the vandals spray painted the shelter's outdoor security camera, leaving no surveillance video showing the crime. It's likely that two or more people were involved, because the steel panels are cumbersome and heavy.
"They took all of our heavy duty panels that we use to make up the kennels," Fisher said.
Fisher hopes residents keep watch for the panels at scrap yards or possibly offered for sale on Craigslist, eBay or Facebook marketplace. What's of little value to the thieves, is a heavy blow to this shelter's mission.
"Now that I don't have my play areas, dog runs, I can't exercise the dogs, which affects their adoption." Because the runs were not permanently attached to the building insurance will not cover the loss.
That's why supporters of the shelter have set up a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the estimated $9,000 loss.
