Shiny new animal shelter inches forward in Brooklyn

City officials on Monday announced they’re moving forward with a new state-of-the-art animal shelter in Brooklyn that’s meant to serve as a “humane home” for parentless pets awaiting adoption.

The $48 million facility is being erected on Shepherd Avenue in East New York, and will include an outdoor dog run as well as a parking lot fitted with electric vehicle chargers.

The new space is designed to hold up to 300 animals, and replaces another animal shelter shuttered in Brooklyn last year, according to the city Department of Design and Construction. The construction of the new shelter comes as the city-run kennels face an overcrowding crisis.

Last year, the city’s shelters took in 5,463 dogs and 9,004 cats – up from 4,939 dogs and 8,608 cats in 2021, according to data from Animal Care Centers of NYC, the nonprofit that operates the shelters. Low adoption rates have contributed to serious overcrowding in the city’s shelters, and advocates have said the problem was made worse by a trend of New Yorkers abandoning pets they adopted during the pandemic.

Michelle Morse, the city’s acting health commissioner, called the groundbreaking “an important step toward our goal of providing full-service animal shelters in every borough.” The city opened a full-service animal shelter in Staten Island in 2022, and one in Queens last year.