Building A Shelter In The Metro East
Gateway Pet Guardians is currently a virtual animal shelter. That means we operate solely via the internet and have no building, no offices, and no physical “animal shelter” in St. Louis to keep our rescued animals in. All of our dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens are living in the posh comfort of a real, live foster home-which is how we’d like to keep it! We believe that keeping our animals in a loving, nurturing home helps better socialize them and prepare them for their forever home than being couped up in a kennel all day would. But it would come in handy to have a building to house the East St. Louis strays that are in the most need-those who are sick or injured-on a temporary basis until a foster family steps forward. It would help us as an organization rescue many more animals than we currently can.
Over the past two years, we at Gateway Pet Guardians have been working diligently to raise the
monetary funds necessary to purchase land and build an animal shelter the heart of the Metro East. We have finally reached our goal and were able to purchase a building in Centreville, Illinois, which will require at least $300,000 worth of renovations before it can get up and running. It is located just outside of our feeding rout in East St. Louis-an economically depressed area in the shadow of the Gateway Arch. The city was once a bustling metropolis of industry but has now deteriorated to a small population suffering from drastic urban blight. Sections of “urban prairie” can be found where vacant buildings have been torn down and whole blocks, overgrown with vegetation, are home to hundreds-perhaps thousands of stray dogs and cats.
The home of Gateway Pet Gaurdians' emergency shelter and education center.
The city of East St. Louis has no animal shelter-no humane society, no one to care about the welfare of its non-human residents. It is only governed by St. Clair Animal Control, which has to police the entire county. But Gateway Pet Guardians is working to change that. Our dream for our animal shelter is not only to have a place to put our sick and injured rescue animals until they find a foster home, but to have a facility that would offer resources and information about affordable spay/neuter services to the city’s residents, vaccinations at a low-cost, and perhaps even at no charge. The education center will teach people in the community, as well as people all over the St. Louis and Metro East area, the importance of spaying and neutering their pets, why their dogs and cats need to be vaccinated, and why it isn’t safe to let pets roam the streets.
With your help, our dream can become a reality, and we can make a difference not only in the lives of stray animals, but also change a community for the better. Volunteer or donate to Gateway Pet Guardians today and become a part of our mission. Click here to read about how we began.
