On Tuesday, the Upper Peninsula Animal Welfare Shelter opened the doors to its new facility, located at 815 M-553 South in Gwinn (Sands Township). The shelter spent the previous two weeks relocating from the old shelter to the new one.

“This is going to be a wonderful facility for the community to come and gather and celebrate animals,” said Ann Brownell, UPAWS community outreach director.

The new shelter is approximately four times larger than the previous facility in Negaunee Township, and the the dog kennels and cat areas have been updated while also adding a dedicated space for small critters and a fully functional pole barn for the rescue of large and farm animals, particularly horses.

For a shelter that does as much for our furry friends as UPAWS does, it was long overdue for them to get a proper facility to operate out of. Not to mention, the new location is wide open, which gives the animals a chance to roam a bit more than they might have been able to at the previous location.

Other aspects of the new facility include a community education room, fenced-in year-round dog park and private spaces for adoption counseling or to surrender an animal.

As animal lovers ourselves, we are grateful to have such a great local facility. UPAWS doesn’t receive operating funds from any governmental agency — it relies on donations from the community to stay in operation. Keep in mind, this is a shelter that saves consistently 98 percent of the animals who come through its doors. That is a testament both to the support of our community, as well as the shelter’s dedication to help all animals. Several of us at the Journal have acquired some of our best buddies from animal shelters, and as a result, it only seems logical to support this local shelter as much as we can.

An official ribbon-cutting ceremony is in the works for early March but no dates have been decided. To learn more about UPAWS, call 906-475-6661, email info@upaws.org, or visit www.upaws.org.