Berkeley Animal Shelter targets July 6 reopening after fire

Work is underway to repair the Berkeley Animal Shelter after a recent arson fire, officials say, with reopening anticipated in early July.

"Absent any unforeseen process delays," the city said in the latest update, the shelter, "anticipates being back open to the public and resuming normal operations by July 6, though some repairs of the building will most likely still be underway at that time."

The shelter has been closed since June 7 following a suspicious fire the night before. This week, the DA's office filed criminal charges against the man police say started it.

Berkeley fire officials ultimately deemed the building unfit for public use due to the "toxicity of ambient smoke and burned debris" inside.

"Remediation assessments and cleaning efforts," through a professional property restoration company, have been underway for more than a week, the city said.

For now, financial donations are the best way to help the shelter recover, supporters say.

During repairs, the shelter is closed for animal intakes and field services, aside from police cases and bite quarantine holds, according to the latest update.

"Members of the public are advised NOT to take stray animals into their care unless they are prepared to provide care or placement for those animals themselves," the city said. "We also do not recommend bringing animals to other jurisdictions' shelters without calling them first to confirm space and capacity."

Last week, Berkeley Animal Care Services (BACS) — the city department that runs the shelter — worked with Berkeley Humane, East Bay SPCA and Animal Fix Clinic to move all the shelter animals elsewhere during the remediation work related to the fire.

"As soon as I heard about it, I called our partners over there," said Jeffrey Zerwekh, executive director Berkeley Humane. "I got in the car and drove over there to see for myself."

Berkeley Humane — the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society — and the Berkeley Animal Shelter, the city's municipal shelter, are located about a mile apart in West Berkeley.

A lot of people confuse the two organizations, said Zerwekh.

"I'm getting lots of calls," he said last week. "People think that I had a fire."

When he got to the shelter, Zerwekh said it was clear that there was a fair amount of damage even though the fire had been contained to the lobby. The building was without power. Key systems were down.

"You could smell the smoke through the whole building," he said.

The day before had been California Adopt-a-Pet Day, and Berkeley Humane had 53 adoptions. That freed up space with fosters to take 14 cats from BACS: six kittens and eight adults, including a bonded pair.

(Berkeley Humane can always use more fosters, he added.)

With the power down, BACS couldn't access its database to provide medical background and history for its animals, so staffers found a workaround: going home and connecting remotely through a VPN, then painstakingly taking screenshots of each record to share with Berkeley Humane and the other partners who took in shelter animals.

That information is critical for adoptions, said Zerwekh.

Berkeley Humane then sprung into action, making calls to find the right foster home for each cat, pulling together all the supplies they might need.

It's "matchmaking," Zerwekh said.

"Our team was on it," he added. "People step up when asked, which is incredible."

Berkeley Humane had its own fire in 2010. It started in the laundry room when a dryer malfunctioned overnight. Fifteen cats died.

"When I started at Berkeley Humane, I could still go into the old, boarded up portion and smell the fire," said Zerwekh. "It had been 10 years."

Last week, he could smell the smoke in the fur of the shelter cats as his team worked to find homes for them.

"It means a lot to us to be able to help our partner," he said.

Zerwekh said the two organizations share donors and volunteers, and perhaps even have staff members who have worked at both places.

"If I have a need in the future, I know that BACS will respond," he said.

Zerwekh said he had loved seeing the strong community support since the fire for the shelter animals — and also wanted to highlight the 70 other animals Berkeley Humane has up for adoption.

"The BACS cats are very, very important," he said. "And they're just a handful of who we're currently caring for."

With a project underway to build a new home for Berkeley Humane, its adoptions happen outside its two thrift stores each weekend. And there will soon be a "catio" inside Pet Food Express on Telegraph Avenue where animals will be available.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, another group also pitched in to help.

Friends of Berkeley Animal Care Services (FoBACS) raised nearly $10,000 in just two days and solicited supply donations from supporters. The fundraising continues.

All the money the volunteer group raises goes right to the city, which decides how it can be used best, said Daro Quiring, FoBACS treasurer and longtime shelter volunteer.

(As of this week, the city has not said how much repairs are expected to cost.)

Quiring and his wife, Bonnie, also helped in another way, fostering the animal shelter's two office cats, a bonded pair named Royal and JuJee.

They were the last two animals to go.

Quiring said Kris Swanson, who handles fosters and rescues at BACS, had called to ask if he and his wife were willing to take the pair.

It was Swanson, Quiring said, who worked the phones for hours after the fire to find out where the shelter's more than 40 animals could go.

"All of the staff are really compassionate, dedicated, hardworking people who have the interest of the animals at heart," he said.