NEW LONDON, Conn. (WTNH) – The Waterford-East Lyme Animal Control Facility is looking to raise money to buy surveillance cameras to put on the outside of the kennel. This comes after someone allegedly shot fireworks into the dog kennels on the Fourth of July.

Debris from fireworks littered the grounds and inside the kennels of the New London Animal Control facility the morning after the July fourth holiday.

“It was like a war zone,” said Robert Yuchniuk, the Waterford-East Lyme Animal Control Officer.

He says the holiday itself must have been horrifying for the dogs already in an uncomfortable situation.

“They were just terrified in their kennels,” said Yuchniuk. ”They had nowhere to go and no one to speak up for them that night.”

But now plenty of people are speaking up for them and taking action to try to prevent something like this from happening again.

There is a roof over the outdoor runs and it extends beyond them. So debris from fireworks wouldn’t have been able to just fall from above and get inside. Someone would have had to have shot the fireworks directly into the kennels from in front of them.

“Serious harm could have been done and we’re lucky that it wasn’t,” said Melissa Yuchniuk who is a member of the Waterford Lions Club which started a fundraiser to get cameras installed outside the animal shelter.

Members hope they will deter other criminal acts and help catch those who do them.

“If something were to happen in real-time the police can be dispatched,” said Melissa Yuchniuk.

The four-camera system would be directly connected to the New London Police Department and would be monitored by dispatchers.

“I believe it’s going to have night vision capabilities so even in the cover of darkness we can see what people are doing out here,” said Robert Yuchniuk.

More than eleven thousand dollars was raised in less than a week.

“It is amazing,” said ACO Yuchniak. “We have a great group of animal lovers in this area. We’re lucky in that respect.”

Any extra money from the fundraiser will benefit the shelter in other ways.

Donations came from more than two hundred people and businesses in the community.