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04/25/2018 08:30 AMLinda Marino has always loved animals. As a child, that mostly centered on caring for the cats and dogs people kept as pets, but as she saw more of the world, that appreciation and concern grew.
“I became more sensitized to the plight of animals as I got older,” says Linda.
With that growing awareness came some changes. After reading about issues including factory farming, for instance, she stopped eating meat in her 30s. That growing sense of concern, paired with her love for animals, led her to step up as the president of The Animal Haven, a self-supporting, no-kill shelter for cats and dogs located in North Haven.
She wasn’t always an advocate for animals; for more than 2 ½ decades, she advocated for clients as an attorney in Manhattan.
She came to Connecticut when she retired from her Manhattan practice. With her interest in animal rights, she knew she needed to find a way to put her skills to good use.
“I knew I wanted to focus on animal rights issues and so I had gotten involved in the animal law section of the Connecticut State Bar Association. I was on the executive committee for animal rights,” says Linda.
She says that the move to that kind of law was a change, but one that allowed her to follow her passion—and her involvement with the committee is actually what led her to The Animal Haven.
“What happened was that I found out there was a dog that was going to be euthanized,” says Linda. “I knew there was a shelter in my area and so I said, ‘Let me see if I can save this dog,’...and that started my relationship with the Animal Haven.”
From that point on, her involvement increased. She started as a volunteer and, as she became more interested in helping out, she became a member of the board within a year or so. She’s been president for about two years now, she says.
Linda says the role has taken up the majority of her attention and energy. She explains that she holds more of a governance role and oversees long term planning and fiscal management in addition to anything else that comes up.
“My biggest goal and my focus has been over the last years has been to improve the facilities,” says Linda.
To do so, Animal Haven adopted a three-step process focusing first on its present footprint (including HVAC and facility renovations to make more room for operations), expansion for cats and the redesign, and an update of their kennel area for dogs. The entire project has been completed with impervious materials, according to Linda, to lessen and stop the spread of disease and virus between the animals.
The first issue they worked to tackle was the replacement of the HVAC system. She says that when they started that process they realized that the entire shelter needed to be renovated from the inside out.
For seven months, The Animal Haven was run out of trailers on the grounds while they renovated the shelter. Operating the shelter from the trailers was tough on the staff and Linda says that she is grateful that they have moved back into the space.
The project was funded by money from the shelter’s endowment in addition to a grant and donations including donations from the Lillian and Henry A. Konopacke Foundation, which was created by the Konopacke family specifically to support animal shelters like The Animal Haven.
Linda says that they are extraordinarily thankful for the donations that they have received from generous citizens over the years that have kept the shelter running.
She is very pleased with the renovations, but the job has not been without its challenges.
“The biggest challenge is making sure you’re making all the right decisions as you go along,” she says. “Because there’s always a tremendous need, stewarding limited resources, want to make sure you’re making the right decisions of every turn.”
The renovations were commemorated on April 19 with a groundbreaking ceremony (see photo on page 1). The shelter is also celebrating its 70th birthday, after it was founded in 1948.
Linda singled out several people and companies that were integral to the completed renovations, including
Donna Moss of Donna Moss Interior Design, who oversaw the interior design of the renovated shelter on a pro bono basis; Brad Collins and his design firm Group C, located in New Haven, who created on a pro bono basis an entirely new logo for the shelter; Sign Lite of North Haven, which fabricated and installed the new logo on the wall of the shelter for free; Thermal Solutions Sales Company, which donated two brand-new Thermal Solutions Apex boilers; United Office Furniture of Hamden, which donated file cabinets and office chairs to the shelter; Bristol Myers Squibb, which donated equipment and supplies to the shelter when it closed its offices in Wallingford; Jared Vasquez, a physics graduate student at Yale and volunteer at The Animal Haven, who designed the shelter’s new website; and board member Jim Bonito, a retired contractor who oversaw the entire project on a volunteer basis.
As they continue with their three-step plan, Linda is enjoying looking into different options and configurations that they can make to improve the kennel area of the shelter. The plans don’t stop there.
“Eventually we’d love to also improve all the grounds for the dogs, where they can socialize,” says Linda, calling that plan “the fourth tier.”