Volunteers Refurbish Mesilla Valley Animal Shelter

Rats, mice and diseases – unwanted guests once harbored at the Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley inside a doublewide mobile home, are now gone for good.

The building has been refurbished, thanks to the help of community volunteers.

“A lot of people wanted me to get rid of this building,? Dr. Beth Vesco-Mock, shelter director, said. ?A lot of people were against it, why even waste your time.”

Hundreds of white rats once lived in cages in one of the rooms. A rodent infestation and disease-harboring interior had the building threatened to be shutdown.

“It just spiraled out of control,? Vesco-Mock said. ?In a very short period of time it became a mouse-haven and we worked very hard to make sure the mousers wouldn’t come back and visit us.”

Thanks to the generous heart of Hank Schweinebraten, owner of Casey Carpet of Las Cruces, the doublewide is now clean enough to eat inside the 1,200 square foot building.

Nearly $40,000 was invested for new flooring, plastic wall panels, washable paint, and ceiling fans. Volunteers said the refurbishing will help save lives.

?It’s really sad to see these animals suffering, they’re sick, people are dropping them off, they don’t care about them and to know that now these animals are going to have a place that is, you know, the floor is not going to make it worse for them because it’s antimicrobial which means it doesn’t harbor disease or anything these pets may be carrying, it’s going to be easier for them to treat the animals and get them adopted out of the shelter,” Nancy Nunez, of Casey Carpet, said.

The remodeled building is named ?Donna?s Dream,? Vesco-Mock said. The name is in honor of a shelter volunteer who adopted a dog once housed in the doublewide who would not be alive today without having space available in the building, Vesco-Mock said.