City animal shelter plans maintenance work, may turn away dogs

The Seattle Animal Shelter may have to turn away stray dogs for the next six weeks as it undergoes a maintenance project.

The replacement of an aging radiant floor-heating system starts Monday and will close the city shelter's main dog kennels.

The result is likely to cut the amount of dogs the shelter can hold from about 60 to around 40, said Kathy Sugiyama, a spokeswoman for the shelter.

During that time, the shelter is asking people to wait to bring in dogs until the project is completed — or take them to a different shelter. Fees for taking a dog to an area shelter range from free to more than $100.

"We're mainly asking people to hold off on surrendering pets at this time," said Sugiyama.

In a typical week, the shelter gets about 35 stray dogs, which are held for at least three days before being put up for adoption.

If the shelter has more dogs than it can hold when the project begins, it will place the extra dogs with families or send them to other local shelters.

Christina Siderius: csiderius@seattletimes.com