The Territorial Council last Thursday unanimously adopted the principle of using a public service delegation by leasing for the management and operation of a public animal pound and animal shelter service. In the drawers since the destruction of the old shelter during Hurricane Irma, the file is struggling to move forward despite the urgency of the situation.
The Community of Saint-Martin, competent in the fight against animal straying, has decided to provide the territory with lasting equipment including a pound with a capacity of 20 dogs and 20 cats, a shelter of the same capacity and an outdoor space planted near the refuge area. The site chosen to host the structure is near the Chevrise pond on the site of the former animal shelter destroyed in 2017, a plot of land which belongs to the Community. The project, whose total budget is estimated at €1.500.000, one million euros for the installations and €500.000 for the surrounding development, aims to deliver new, efficient and exemplary buildings on an environmental level and meeting optimal operation with separate accesses for the pound and the shelter. The latter not falling under the compulsory jurisdiction of the Collectivity of Saint-Martin and taking into account the absence of private initiative in the territory and the strong demand from the associative fabric, the elected officials decided to invest in a shelter which must only be managed by an animal protection association. The project management contract for the construction of this building located a minimum of one hundred meters from all dwellings according to the regulations was notified on June 7, 2023 to a joint group of companies: A2 Studio Architecture, ALEP Architecture, ANTEA Group, Caribbean Paysages, ICE Sarl and Domaine Canin. The studies will begin in the coming days. On September 14, 2022, Bernadette Davis, 2nd vice-president of the COM, organized a press conference on site to present the project, with an estimated delivery date in the first quarter of 2024. We will now have to wait until October 2024 while the number of stray animals, mainly dogs, in the territorial area of 53 km2 is estimated at around 5.000. For the moment, the major problem of stray dogs has been delegated to a private service provider who intervenes in the territory every quarter on a site near the Grand-Case airport acting as a pound. _VX
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