The fourth annual Trails for TAILS Bike-A-Thon raised about $2,000 on April 17, which will go toward building TAILS’ new animal shelter for DeKalb County.

Taking Animals Into Loving Shelter Humane Society has been planning the shelter since August 1999. Ground breaking will commence May 8, and the building most likely will open within six months of that date.

In addition to the bike-a-thon, funds have been acquired in different ways. An annual hors d’oeuvres dinner dance has raised $20,000 over several years, and a capital campaign raised $200,000. Solo pianist George Winston also has helped to raise money by putting on benefit concerts, one of which will be held May 6.

The shelter will have a progressive attitude in its facility design, said Kathy Stelford, TAILS Humane Society president.

“People are used to seeing animals in most shelters in cages, but this shelter will have real-life rooms for dogs, community cat rooms, separate rooms for nursing mother cats and a wildlife nursery,” she said.

Homeless animals are a huge global problem as well as a public safety issue, and TAILS is working to do its part locally, Stelford said.

“There is only one shelter in rural Genoa that can accommodate maybe 20 percent of animals that need shelter, which is a disturbingly understaffed program as far as animal welfare goes,” she said. “We will be able to accommodate a much greater amount than the county ever has.”

TAILS also has received a favorable response from the community for the animal shelter, Stelford said.

“We have over 1,000 people on our mailing list and a 150 person auxiliary group,” she said. “We’re taking great strides in getting people invested in what we’re doing.”

Upon completion, the shelter is expected to be 65,000 square feet.

For more information, visit www.tailshumanesociety.org or call 815-895-9666.