The City of Mansfield broke ground for its new animal shelter on Monday with a little help from some four-legged friends.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, canine “workers” wearing doggy-sized hard hats and bright yellow safety vests dug their paws into the dirt at the new construction site at the Chris W. Burkett Service Center at 620 South Wisteria St., just down the street from the current city hall building.
At 25,000 square feet, the planned new state-of-the-art facility will be more than double the size of the current animal shelter. The current shelter can hold about 50 dogs and 50 cats, but the new building will have the capacity to house 130 dogs and 135 cats, NBC 5 DFW reported.
“As Mansfield continues to grow, we’ve outgrown our current animal shelter,” Mayor Michael Evans said, per the Mansfield Record. “This new shelter will provide space to hold even more animals until they find forever homes and a better design to improve animal health and wellness and more room for all the residents who volunteer and help our furriest residents.”
The new animal shelter will include a play yard where adopters can get acquainted with their potential pets and designated spaces for outreach and education. The medical facilities will also include extra kennels for recovery.
Last month, Mansfield City Council approved a total of $38.3 million in taxpayer money for the expansion of the Chris Burkett Service Center and site work, with about $22.9 million of that earmarked for the construction of the animal shelter. The money for the project will come from the city’s Utility, Drainage, and Building Construction Funds.
The new shelter is needed because of an increasing population of homeless pets in the city, according to the Mansfield Record.
The current shelter will remain in service until the new facility opens in the summer of 2026.