$5 million Stafford animal shelter to open in 2019

Stafford County will build a new animal shelter.

The county has outgrown its current shelter next to the Rappahannock Regional Landfill on Eskimo Hill Road. It was built in 1991.

The new $5 million shelter will be built on county-owned land next to the Rappahannock Regional Jail, on Wyche Road just off Route 1.

The new shelter will include more holding space for animals, larger display rooms for animals up for adoptions, and isolation rooms for sick animals. The new shelter will also feature a dispatch communications room, and more room for shelter staff, according to county documents.

The walls inside the current shelter are narrow. The cat room is full with kittens up for adoption, and kennels are regularly occupied by large-breed dogs.

“You can hardly move past each other in the hallways in here,” said animal shelter director Capt. Mike Null, of the Stafford County Sherriff’s Office. “We have storage from the floor to the ceiling in here, and we’re running out of space.”

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The need for a new shelter was identified in 2006. Design work on the new buildings is underway. Construction should take about two years, and it could begin next year.

An expanded volunteer program will be added at the new shelter. Null said many people are concerned about the shelter putting down animals. Having more volunteers on hand to care for the animals would help reduce the number of animals euthanized, he said.

“If you want to complain about it, step up and help,” said Null.

In 2015, no dogs were killed under euthanasia at the shelter due to space constraints. Euthanasia was administered to three cats, said Null. 

The new shelter’s opening is scheduled for 2019, one year later than what was originally outlined in Stafford County’s 10-year Capital Improvement Plan.