Maricopa County awards $27M for new animal shelter in Mesa

State-of-the-art animal shelter to break ground in Mesa

FOX 10's Danielle Miller reports.

MESA, Ariz. - The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has given the green light to break ground on a new animal shelter, and state animal control officials say this news couldn't have come at a better time.

Maricopa County Animal Care and Control (MCACC) was just awarded $27 million to build their new East Valley shelter, which is planned to break ground in the fall near Baseline Road and Lewis Drive in Mesa.

"We already demolished the existing building that was there…in 2019," said Monica Gery with MCACC The architecture plans were approved so right now those will go out to bid for construction companies. The boat of supervisors will then review those bids."

The money has been allotted in the 2022 budget to build the state-of-the-art facility, which will replace the shelter near Loop 101 and Rio Salado.

"It was built in 1991," Gery said. "It is just not up to national standards or our standards anymore. We really needed it, and we’re excited to get started. We wish we could have it today."

Judging by the amount of animals processed in the area, Gery says the new shelter will take stress off of the Phoenix location.

"We processed 7,000 pets, dogs and cats prior to the pandemic in the East Valley so we know there is a huge need," Gery said. "We know the East Valley is growing in size. We also had a huge volunteer base that is based in the East Valley."

The current East Valley location has been closed since the pandemic hit, but has reopened for limited use because the Phoenix location is at full capacity.