Big Dogs Get Crates at Emergency Shelter

VILLAS – The Cape May County Dog Obedience Training Club and Bob Smeltzer, owner of Smeltzer and Sons Feed and Pet of Court House, have donated $1,000 worth of crates to Lower Township to house large dogs during hurricanes and other emergencies.
During Hurricane Sandy, large dogs were turned away from an emergency animal shelter at the county airport because of a lack of large crates to hold them. The dog training club raised $500 at Christmas and visited Bob Smeltzer hoping to order three or four large dog crates to donate to the shelter.
Due to the generosity of Smeltzer, the club will have 20 crates to donate to the shelter.
At a March 18 Lower Township Council meeting, members of the Cape May County Dog Obedience Training Club and Smeltzer donated the crates to Lower Township Animal Control which supervises the emergency animal shelter at Naval Air Station Wildwood Museum.
Smeltzer said his store has a great working relationship with the dog training club.
“What we agreed to do was sell them the crates at below our cost and I thought we should go a step further,” he said.
Smeltzer said he will match the $500 the club raised making $1,000 available to purchase crates.
He said after talking with Lower Township Animal Control Officer Don Montgomery, he learned it took a long time to assemble the crates on hand before the hurricane.
Smeltzer said the new crates basically assembled themselves after being removed from their box.
“Each crate will take about 10 or 15 seconds to install,” he said. “We’re happy to be a small part of it.”
Mayor Michael Beck said it seemed the county was experiencing storms more frequently.
Montgomery said 109 dogs were housed in the emergency shelter at the county airport during Hurricane Irene. He said 33 dogs were housed during Hurricane Sandy.
Montgomery said a number of dogs were turned away at that time because they were too large for the available crates.
The mayor and council members thanked Smeltzer for his generosity.