City Park Could House Animal Shelter
By Tim O'Neil / St. Louis Post-Dispatch

April 22, 2006 - With the blessing of Mayor Francis Slay, a private group that is raising money for a new city animal shelter is proposing to build it in a small park in southwest St. Louis.

The Animal House Fund originally sought a location in midtown. But after
that site was snapped up for an apartment building, the group began working
with city officials to build in the northwest corner of Ellendale-Arsenal Park, just west of River des Peres at Arsenal Street.

From Left, Animal House Chair Ed Throop, Mayor Francis G. Slay and Board of Alderman President Jim Shrewsbury

Ed Throop, leader of the building drive, has presented the idea to the
Ellendale Neighborhood Association, which is to consider it in an advisory vote on May 2. Janet Kuhl, association president, said she was skeptical at first but now supports the idea.

"The big concern was putting it in a park, but in reality, that section
Has never really been used as park space," said Kuhl. "Part of the plan
is to improve the rest of the park. So I see this as a win-win."

Throop said his group wants to plant trees, build a walking path and
improve the playground, in addition to constructing a shelter and adoption
center on two acres. The park has a small parking lot and two ballfields.

The proposed site for the shelter is a grassy area along Arsenal and a
thickly wooded slope downhill to the ballfields.

Throop has been raising money since the summer of 2004. He wants to build a
$4.5 million center to replace the city's animal pound at the foot of
Gasconade Street.

Throop said the fund wants a building of about 25,000 square feet, or twice
the size of the old pound, with off-street parking for about 20 vehicles.
He said they would like to build it into the hillside.

Throop is a retired west St. Louis County developer and banker, and a
former president of the Humane Society of Missouri. He said his group wants
to build the shelter and then hand it over to the city.

Barbara Geisman, Slay's development adviser, said the city will have to
approve the final design. She said Slay supports using a piece of Ellendale-Arsenal Park because that section isn't used by the public.

Geisman said Throop's plan can provide a much-improved animal shelter that the city can't afford to build.

“This is truly a philanthropic operation by people who care about animals," she said.

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