After being closed last summer because of problems with staff members, the Coles County Animal Shelter is recovering from its losses and trying to accomodate the needs of the animals.

The animal shelter, 6818 N. County Rd. 1120e, re-opened July 17 under the care of Melissa Brown and veterinarian Elizabeth Clyde in hopes of improving the condition of the shelter.

Brown, manager of the shelter, said when she took over in July, the shelter had been “neglected.” When Brown took over, she decided to modernize the bookkeeping system of the animal shelter and instated a new vaccination policy.

Prior to closing, the animal shelter only vaccinated animals when they were adopted. Now, every animal that is left at the shelter is vaccinated in order to control animal diseases.

The shelter also requires that every adopted pet that is not spayed or neutered be fixed before the new owner brings it home. When new owners choose a pet that is not spayed or neutered, the shelter will ask them to pick a veterinarian, and they will send the animal over to be fixed. The owners can then pick up their new pets at the veterinarian’s office.

“If we can get the animal population down, it will really help,” Brown said.

Brown also is making an attempt to keep the number of euthanized animals down.

Before Brown and Clyde took over the shelter, about 40 pets were euthanized per month. In the past, workers would euthanize animals just so that they would not have to deal with the work it took to take care of them, Brown said.

“They used to put them down to just put them down,” Brown said.

In the past eight months, however, there have been less than 200 animals euthanized at the center.

“That is still 200 too many,” Brown said.

The shelter has been keeping the animals as long as possible as long as space allows. There has also been an increase in the number of adoptions of pets, Brown said.

The shelter has received a wonderful response from the community from people who want to volunteer for the shelter, Brown said. People will come in and take the dogs for walks, play with the cats and help care for the animals.

Anyone who is interested in volunteering at the shelter can go in and tell one of the workers that they would like to help out.

If people feel they can no longer care for their pet, they can bring them to the shelter and pay a $35 surrender fee, which takes care of their vaccinations and boarding costs, Brown said.

“We would prefer they bring them to us rather than dump them,” she said.

The cost to adopt a pet is $35 for dogs and $25 for cats. The shelter usually has about 75 dogs and cats at a time, Brown said.