veterinarian

New Denton Animal Shelter Opens to Immediate Adoptions

After years of fundraising and preparing, Denton’s new animal shelter is finally open.

The Linda McNatt Animal Services Center opened to the public Monday morning at 3717 North Elm Street.

The new, state-of-the art facility includes more than 18,000 square feet featuring separate wings for adoptable dogs and cats, an on-site veterinarian’s office, training space and outdoor socialization and play areas for the animals.

Volunteers and city staff spent the weekend moving the animals from the previous shelter to the new space and saw their work payoff as a large crowd waited to enter Monday morning and the first dog was adopted out of the shelter within minutes of opening.

Denton’s former shelter was a facility near the Denton County Courthouse built in the late 1970s.

During a tour in 2013, staff told NBC 5 that shelter could only had about 35 cages for dogs and 18 for cats, far fewer than the city needed to meet its stray and rescue animal needs.

The outgrowing of the shelter had been a topic of discussion for years and about eight years ago a campaign began to raise money for a new public-private funded facility.

Longtime Denton resident Linda McNatt and her husband made the first donation to that cause, and she was on hand Monday to see the first adoption take place at the new shelter that carries her name.

"I'm glad the journey has come to fruition now and that we can see the results and that now we have all these precious little babies in this beautiful, beautiful facility,” said McNatt.

City staff emphasized the efforts to make the new shelter a more cheery, uplifting place to act as temporary home for Denton’s homeless animals. Along with a bright color scheme inside, the building has a lot of natural light including areas for the animals to sit in the sun, and cages not currently occupied by a dog or cat can instead display artwork by local children.

Kennel supervisor Gayla Nelsen said her staff had increased adoption rates to about 85 percent in past years, and she hopes the new facility and local volunteers will help them continue to raise those numbers.

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