Branford Animal Shelter Plans To Double in Size to Meet Demand

BRANFORD, CT - The Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter is looking to nearly double in size to keep up with the growing demand of taking care of abandoned animals in the area.

Cosgrove Director Laura Burban, Branford First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove and other officials recently appeared before the Board of Finance to sketch out preliminary plans to expand the 2,600-square-foot shelter to about double that size.

The plan would be to do the expansion at or around the current site, which sits near the Transfer Station.

Cosgrove said the shelter, in some ways is a victim of its own success.

"The sheer success of the mission of the program," is difficult to sustain the first selectman said.

The good news, Cosgrove told the finance officials, is that the shelter has a strong core of backers - including grants and donations - so the yet-to-be-determined cost of expanding the shelter would hopefully be minimal to taxpayers.

Burban told the officials that the shelter cares for "500 to 750 animals per year." She said the shelter currently suffers from a lack of space, meaning sick animals have to share the same lobby space as humans.

She added there is also no air conditioning in the building, meaning it can get extremely hot for the animals, staff and volunteer workers in the hot, summer months.

Part of the cost of running the shelter is picked up the Northford and North Branford, which also uses the shelter.

The Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter has been helping homeless animals along the Connecticut shoreline and vicinity since April 2003.

Asked by finance officials when plans for the expansion might be more definitive, Burban said she'd hope to be back before town officials in January or February or 2020 with something more definite.