OKC Animal Welfare To Receive MAPS 4 Funding For New Animal Shelter

Overcrowding is just one of the many issues the Oklahoma City Animal Welfare is facing. The city originally allocated $38 million of their MAPS 4 funding for a new animal shelter and later bumped that up to $42 million.

The shelter told News 9 that the new space will help save more animals.

“This shelter was built 20 years ago, we moved into this building in 2001, so whenever we moved into the building, it was new. At the time, animals were brought in, held for three days, and then euthanized. Lifesaving really wasn’t happening, only about 10% of the animals coming in at that time were being saved,” said Jon Gary, the Superintendent of Oklahoma City Animal Welfare.

The MAPS 4 funding is set aside to replace the current shelter with a brand new one.

“We were fortunate to be one of the sixteen projects picked this year to be able to build a new facility,” Gary said.

According to the city, the new shelter will be on city-owned land with adoption and care by OKC Animal Welfare.

“The whole design was not right, now that we have changed, and we are saving more lives and doing our best to save more animals. That is where this new facility is really going to come into play,” Gary said.

The new shelter will have a more modern, spacious place for cats to play and at least 50 more kennels for dogs. 

“Not only is it going to be a little bit larger and have more capacity but just the overall design. Bigger kennels for instance, the kennels that our dogs stay in are far too small for the length of stay that they have to be here,” Gary said. 

The vet clinic will also be expanded, which will allow staff and pet owners to stay with their animal during appointments. 

“The shelter will have a space for our field team to have office space and areas where they can meet with the public,” he said.

Animal Welfare starts the design phase at the beginning of 2023. They start construction in 2024.