Brewer’s Bear Brook Kennels earns national accreditation

BREWER – Bear Brook Kennels is not the first in the state to earn Volunteer Facilities Accreditation through the American Boarding Kennels Association, but it is the only kennel in Maine that currently holds the endorsement.

“It’s a lot like a four-star rating,” kennel manager Lloyd Williams said Thursday. “We started preparing for that last February. A lot of it is little details, but it’s the little details that make the big picture.”

Bear Brook, which has been operating on Bennett Road for more than 18 years, earned the accreditation on Oct. 11.

The kennel association, founded in 1977, began offering the accreditation program for boarding kennels in 1984 as a way to gauge professionalism in the boarding kennel industry.

It is a nonprofit trade association for pet care service businesses in the United States and in 14 other countries, including Canada, England and Australia.

More than 200 standards of excellence in 17 separate areas of kennel operations are tested through the accreditation program.

“It’s a lengthy process,” Merry Carlson, administrative assistant for the kennel association’s headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., said Thursday. “They’ve got to meet a few hundred requirements. Right now, there are 81 that are certified out of approximately 2,800 member kennels, and another 13 are going through the process.”

Having emergency evacuation plans, keeping fire extinguisher inspections up to date, maintaining sanitation, having a separate area to isolate sick animals and maintaining a state-of-the-art facility are just a few of the requirements, Williams said.

“We have Web cams here that monitor the animals,” he said to demonstrate the facility’s modern conveniences. “You can go on the Internet and check on your pet from all over the world.”

The Brewer kennel manager said his facility caters to both the pet and owner.

The accreditation endorsement is valid for five years.