Colonial Heights Animal Shelter — Because Doing Nothing Isn’t an Option

Some stories you read and move on. This wasn’t one of them.

In August of 2025, a dog was found tied to the fence outside the Colonial Heights Animal Shelter. Left there overnight. Alone, confused, and completely dependent on whoever happened to find them in the morning. It wasn’t an isolated incident either. The shelter staff had been dealing with illegal animal dumping for a while, watching it happen on their property, knowing it was against the law in Virginia, and not having the tools to catch the people responsible or deter it from happening again.

In Virginia, abandoning an animal is a misdemeanor. But a law only goes so far without the evidence to back it up.

When our COO Eric Clary heard about what was happening at the shelter, the conversation was short. “Doing nothing isn’t an option,” he said. “We have the technology. We install it every day. There was no reason those animals should go unprotected when we could do something about it.”

So we did.

What We Did

Bastionpoint donated and installed a $10,000 professional-grade security camera system at the Colonial Heights Animal Shelter at no cost to the shelter. Zero. Not a discounted project, not a partial donation. We covered it entirely because it was the right thing to do and because we could.

Reilly McWhorter, our Low Voltage and Camera Specialist, led the installation from start to finish. If you’ve read our OtterCam story, you already know that Reilly is the kind of person who genuinely cares about animals. He doesn’t see this work as running cable and mounting hardware. He sees it as making sure that animals who can’t speak for themselves have someone in their corner. “A pet isn’t disposable,” Reilly said. “Pets are family, and no family member deserves to be thrown away.”

The system was built to cover the areas where dumping had been occurring, giving shelter staff clear, reliable footage they can actually use. Not grainy, not spotty coverage. A real system that holds up.

When we made the offer to shelter staff, they were moved to tears. That’s not something we say to pat ourselves on the back. We say it because it’s a reminder of what it means to work somewhere that has nothing in its budget for something like this, and to have a local business step in and just handle it.

Who This Was For

The Colonial Heights Animal Shelter operates on limited resources, stretched thin the way most municipal shelters are. The staff shows up every day for animals that have been abandoned, surrendered, or lost. They do that work because they love animals, not because it’s easy or well-funded. The last thing they should have to deal with is watching illegal dumping happen on their property with no way to stop it or hold anyone accountable.

This project was for them. And it was for every animal that ends up tied to a fence at two in the morning wondering what they did wrong.

What This Means Beyond the Shelter

We are in the business of protecting things. That’s what we do every day for businesses across the region. We design systems, we install them, we manage and monitor them, and we make sure they actually work when it matters.

What the shelter project shows is that the same technology protecting a corporate office or a warehouse floor can protect a place like this just as well. Outdoor perimeter coverage, around-the-clock recording, cameras positioned to capture license plates and faces clearly enough to be useful in an investigation. That’s not a luxury system. That’s what a properly installed camera setup does.

If you run a business and you’re still relying on outdated cameras, gaps in coverage, or a system that nobody is actively managing, you already know the risk you’re carrying. A camera that doesn’t work when something happens isn’t a security system. It’s a false sense of security, and there’s a big difference.

We’d be glad to walk you through what a real system looks like for your space and your needs.

The Part That Stays With You

The shelter staff cried when we told them what we were doing. Our team doesn’t forget moments like that. It’s a reminder that technology isn’t just a business tool. In the right hands, pointed at the right problems, it protects the most vulnerable among us.

That’s worth showing up for.

Bastionpoint Technology — Defend Your Castle. Protect Your Business. Contact us today.