Residents fundraise for 'forgotten' Sweeny animal shelter with 'rusted cages' next to a sewer plant

SWEENY, Texas (KTRK) -- Residents in Sweeny, Texas, are fundraising for a new animal shelter.

The current makeshift animal shelter run by The Friends of Sweeny Impound is outdoors and next to a sewer plant.

"It hurts my heart because I know that they need a good place to call home," Sweeny resident Leigh Ann Thornton said, adding that she feels like the town forgot about the shelter.

"We have a lot of competing priorities right now," City Manager Lindsay Koskiniemi said.

According to Koskiniemi, the city plans to repurpose a current building in town and turn it into an animal welfare building that would take nearly $200,000 and years to finish.

The current shelter only receives about $2,000 of funding every year.

Thornton said she is taking charge of the fundraising efforts in hopes of the project starting sooner after learning about the conditions of the current shelter.

"The world is made up of a lot of talkers, but there are very few doers," Thornton said, challenging her neighbors.

The shelter is in the process of becoming a 501(c)(3) organization to write grants for the upkeep and continue its fundraising efforts for the new shelter.

"This is a bad situation all the way around," she said.

Thornton is spearheading a GoFundMe to raise the needed funds.

The Friends of Sweeny Impound group is also holding a fundraising luncheon at noon on Saturday, Feb. 10 at the Sweeny Community Center.

For news updates, follow Jiovanni Lieggi on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.