Lollypop Farm breaks ground on expansion Thursday

FAIRPORT, N.Y. — Lollypop Farm is busting at the seams. The animal adoption and humane society is out growing it’s current victor road location.

On Thursday ground was broken for it’s $20 million expansion. 

News10NBC’s Patrick Moussignac was there and explains why this is so important for the humane society.

Lollypop Farm says one of the main reasons the expansion is needed is because they are running out of room every time they conduct a large scale seizure of animals.

Lollypop Farm in Perinton is about to get bigger. The expansion is adding more space to take care of sick and abandoned animals of all shapes and sizes. Just over two weeks ago more than 100 cats were rescued from a home in Gates, and are now being cared for at the humane society.

“We’re built for a certain amount of animals,” says Reno Di Domenico, the vice president of law enforcement at Lollypop Farm. “These hoarding cases put a big strain on us so we need to expand. Our expansion is not just for housing of animals which will be a part of that, it’s also for an education building as well.”

DiDomenico says Lollypop Farm has seen an uptick in unwanted pets being surrendered.

“It’s put a strain on Lollypop Farm because a lot of people wanting to return some of these animals that had been adopted either through us, or local rescues, or to other shelters, ” says Di Domenico. “Our adoptions have not really increased or decreased. It pretty much stayed the same.”

An education center will also be built on site to teach people the proper way to care for their animals.

“Our initial goal is to correct the people who own a pet so that they can keep their pet so it doesn’t put a strain on lollypop farm — cause if we have to seize every animal that we go to we would need all the land that we have to house those animals,” explains Di Domenico.

The expansion project at Lollypop Farm is expected to take a few years to complete.