New animal shelter set to open this summer

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

Mansfield’s animal shelter is moving on up.

Construction began on a new Mansfield Animal Care & Control 25,000-square-foot animal shelter in September, and is expected to be completed by this summer.

The new space will be a huge difference from the current shelter, which is 10,000 square feet and can hold up to 66 dogs and 36 cats. The new shelter will be able to handle 130 dogs and 135 cats.

With all the new space, the city’s new pet project will also be nicer with indoor/outdoor kennels, five outdoor play yards with artificial turf/grass, volunteer space, training space, a grooming room and surgical suite.

“I’m excited about the public being able to come in,” said Veronica Munoz, animal care & control manager. “I can’t wait to see the dogs play outside and use the outside yards.”

The new space will have room for prospective pet parents to meet the dogs and cats that are up for adoption. Currently, they are limited to a small lobby, little play yard or concrete hallway between buildings.

“We just don’t have that much space for them to get to know each other,” said Nicolette Ricciuti, director of regulatory compliance.

The new place will be more consumer-friendly.

“You can see all the cats in the lobby windows,” Munoz said. “We are going to have suction cups with little beds for them and three different cat rooms.”

The pups will have their own new digs, too.

“There will a wall with storefront kennels with windows,” Ricciuti said.

Even livestock will get special treatment with an area with real grass and covered shelter, since livestock are known to tear up artificial grass/turf, she said.

People who are surrendering an animal or delivering a stray will use a separate entrance from those looking to adopt, Ricciuti said.

“The separate entrance will have an exam room to check them out and scan for a microchip,” she said.

The current shelter was built in stages, the lobby and stray building being constructed in 1996, adoptions area in 2005 and quarantine area in 2015.

The new shelter will also be in a new neighborhood, moving from 407 Industrial Boulevard in the city’s industrial area to South Wisteria Street, next door to the city’s Chris Burkett Service Center.

Cost for the new facility will be $25,580,000, which will come from the city’s building construction fund.

And the shelter will be home to the city’s first large sculpture installation under the Public Art Program.

Paw in Paw is the first large-scale installation under the Mansfield Public Art Program. Selected by the Mansfield Public Art Advisory Committee and created by artist Vito Di Bari, the 16-foot tall metal sculpture will depict a cat and dog.

The sculpture will be unveiled May 18, while the shelter is expected to open in June or July.