Animal shelters are both inspiring and heartbreaking. They bring on good feelings simply because the people who run the shelters care enough about the animals to provide them a home until they are adopted. The dogs, cats and other animals receive food, water and shelter to keep them out of the often harsh elements.

However, they also evoke sad emotions, considering some animals were taken in as strays or given up by owners who could no longer – for whatever reason – take care of their pets. Who can look in the eyes of a forlorn homeless dog, for example, and not want to reach out and help it?

That’s why it’s good news the Delta Animal Shelter is getting ready to move from its current site to a new, custom-built facility along County Road 426 in Escanaba. Because the new shelter was designed from scratch, the shelter can introduce new services, such as a dedicated surgery area, a behavioral counseling area, an after-hours drop-off room (which is open 24 hours a day to law-enforcement members) and a children’s classroom.

A dog park and walking trails also are future possibilities.

The shelter is elongated on purpose so dogs, which will be housed in a single line along the back of the building, won’t have to face each other and get in a barking match. Instead, they can look at the nearby woods for a more stress-free stay at the facility.

The Upper Peninsula Animal Welfare Shelter, like the Delta Animal Shelter, is a no-kill facility. UPAWS provides fresh food, water and, for the dogs, a walk down the wooded road for exercise. The animals are spared from “being put down,” which, unless an animal truly is suffering from an injury or medical condition, is not the optimal end to its life.

In the case of the Delta Animal Shelter, the Delta Area Animal Society, which operates the facility, still needs funding to pay for it. Fortunately, the John and Melissa Besse Foundation is offering a dollar-for-dollar match for building donations.

These local shelters, as well as many others, deserve people’s support – and hopefully, donations – so they can keep providing homeless animals with good temporary homes until they can find their “forever homes.”