The Second Chance Canine Adoption Shelter outside Jamesville Correctional Facility is getting a second chance of its own thanks to an agreement between the city and county. The Onondaga County facility that's sat fairly empty since the pandemic will now hold canines scooped up by city of Syracuse animal control.
Board President of Friends of Second Chance Kimberly Smith-Ford said the city is facing a dog population crisis.
“This is the worst it's been in years," Smith-Ford said. "The current Syracuse city shelter is on Taft Road and their kennels are full on a daily basis. The calls come in on a daily basis of dogs needing to be picked up, and there's nowhere for them to go, so they're actually asking citizens to hold on to dogs until they have a kennel."
The Second Chance shelter, which has space for about 20 dogs, opened in 2015 with the idea that inmates at Jamesville would care for and train the dogs almost around the clock. Smith-Ford said it was a success during its five-year run.
“We had about 140 inmates go through the program," Smith-Ford said. "We actually had two inmates adopt the dogs they were training once they were released from jail because they fell in love with them. We had adopted out, at that point, about 400 local dogs from the city of Syracuse.”
She said all was going great until COVID hit; the inmates were locked down, and the dogs were sent to foster homes. The inmate program never resumed, and the shelter has been used by appointment-only for meet and greets for potential adoptive families.
Now, Smith-Ford said she’s glad to provide the space while the city provides staff.
“There's going to be seven kennel attendants and one shelter manager, all full-time positions," Smith-Ford said. "And so someone will be here seven days a week with the dogs. Myself and the board of directors will still oversee the program, help with the adoptions, help with the fundraising—everything we've always been doing.Except now, instead of inmates, we have we have staff from the city.”
She said the city aims to open the shelter by July 1.
Smith-Ford hopes to keep the shelter up and running if the prison shuts down. She said they've been talking with the county executive about keeping the shelter and some of the property if the county decides to close the prison and sell the majority of the land.
