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DeKalb County Shelter Planning Facility For Aging Pets Of Seniors

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Animal-loving senior citizens will no longer have to choose to give up their pets without ever seeing them again, if the DeKalb County Board approves a proposed animal shelter addition.

There are situations--when a senior citizen has to go into certain nursing homes or rehabilitation centers--when seniors have to give up their dogs or cats. However, the DeKalb County Animal Welfare League has proposed adding on to its shelter, and caring for aging pets of senior citizens who can no longer take care of the animals themselves.

Yesterday, the DeKalb County Planning and Zoning Committee approved the proposal. The full county board is expected to vote on it in mid-April.

Animal Welfare League president Roberta Shoaf said the idea is to create a "senior sanctuary," where the aging pets of senior citizens will be cared for and which the seniors may visit to play or be comforted by their pets.

The senior citizens would retain ownership of the pets. There would be a fee of some kind but Shoaf doesn't know what it would be. She said it certainly would be much less expensive than putting up a loved dog or cat in a boarding facility.

"The goal is to have it not be one more thing that seniors have to give up when they're giving up everything else," Shoaf said.

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She hadn't ever heard before of a facility like the one she's proposed. Shoaf said she got the idea from the number of calls she'd get regarding a parent or grandparent's pet that no one could take care of because the parent or grandparent was going into an assisted living facility.

"There just isn't a high adoptability rate for these senior dogs," she said. "As our population ages, it just seemed like a good thing to do."

The DeKalb County Board may vote on the proposed 5,500 square foot facility.

Then there would be fundraising to get it built.

"The potential [is] there to keep that bond between elderly people and their pets strong, while they're in a situation where they can't physically care for the animal themselves," Shoaf said.

She envisioned the new center would have room for 8 "senior" dogs and 8-10 aging cats.

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