The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors recently approved $1.8 million in funding to help consolidate its animal shelter services and pave the way for those services to be moved into a larger, renovated, central location to better serve residents. 

As part of its centralization plan, the county will move all of its animal shelter services to its Durango campus, located a few miles away from Interstate 17. The plan calls for the closure of the county's 27th Avenue and Loop 101 and Rio Salado shelters. According to the county, architects are creating plans for the Durango location expansion and renovation. 

“There is no room for expansion at the shelter in Mesa and the building doesn’t function well,” Deputy County Manager Reid Spaulding said in a press release. “The mission is to find permanent homes for more animals. That takes a facility with the capacity and layout to meet the demands we are seeing today and expect in the future.”

“Animal intake in Maricopa County has declined 13 percent every year for the last five years, creating the possibility for a different approach to animal welfare that emphasizes service and prevention, not just sheltering,” Martin said in a statement.

Visit maricopa.gov/shelterplans for updates on shelter consolidation or for more information.