MARSHFIELD, Wis. (WSAU) --Marshfield needs its own pet shelter. That’s the message from Karen Rau, president of the Marshfield Area Pet Shelter Project, who addressed Marshfield’s Common Council at Tuesday night’s meeting and asked for the city’s financial help to supplement ongoing fundraising efforts. Rau says eight volunteers have tended to Marshfield’s stray and abused animals in their own homes for the last several years, but the need for an actual “brick and mortar” building is urgent to help house the 234 strays that were picked up in Marshfield just last year alone.
Rau says, “Without our own facility, we have to enlist the help of two already overburdened humane societies, South Wood County and Clark County, and ask them to take on the additional strain of our animals.” Two years ago the city donated just over two-acres of land on Marshfield’s south side as the future site of the proposed shelter. Estimated construction cost would be about $1.1 million dollars. The shelter would house 20 dogs and 40 cats when completed.