MIDLAND, Texas — As of Saturday, Aug. 17, the Joe and Van Mabee Animal Rescue Center is up and running.
Even on the day of the grand opening, visitors were already coming in looking to adopt animals in the Midland Humane Coalition’s care.
“So, it's been about a six-month journey for us to move to one location. We are so excited that we are finally here. It took a lot of hard work and dedication from both sides, from the board, the community and from my staff," said EJ Terrazas, executive director for the MHC. "So now that we're here, we're all excited, we're all happy. It is a weight lifted off our shoulder because now, we're in between Midland and Odessa, so both communities can kind of rely on us.”
Terrazas said unlike their original location at PetSmart, they now have 120 kennels and a dedicated isolation unit.
However, even though the facility is now open to the public, there is still work to be done and more to come.
“So, we are working on a meet and greet outing area where we would eventually like to have a kids playground and you know, families would come and do meet and greets on that playground. We are also working on a running track for our dogs so our staff can go out and have a little running or walk time with each individual animal," Terrazas said. "We are also working with multiple vets to eventually move into a surgical unit here at the ARC, but it's one step at a time at the moment.”
What matters most to MHC is the wellbeing and happiness of the animals themselves.
“Most of our animals right now have been in our care for a while. It is sad to see them leave, but it is a great feeling that they're going to their forever home and it's just I'm beside myself with words on the community’s support today," Terrazas said. "We even have people adopting earlier in the week, wanting to tour our facility, but we're here now and we have a lot of fur babies leaving today and it's about them, it's not about us. So, our work has truly paid off today.”