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Years in the making: Clay County’s new animal shelter to break ground in 2025

GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. – The new year will mark the beginning of a long-awaited project in Clay County — a new animal shelter.

After years of planning, construction is set to begin in early 2025. The shelter will be located at 20 Sleepy Hollow Road in Middleburg, a more centralized location intended to improve access and community engagement.

Ernest Hagan, director of Clay County Animal Services, shared that the new facility will span nearly 35,000 square feet.

“In the cases where we do have to take the animals in, it’ll be a much nicer environment for them to be in,” Hagan said. “It will accommodate a lot more staff, a lot more community engagements, and it’ll be a lot more beneficial to the animals that we have in our care.”

Dr. Jennifer Green, medical director for the shelter, highlighted the benefits of a larger medical suite in the new facility.

This expansion will enhance surgery services for the Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return (TNVR) program for cats and allow for more rabies vaccines and microchips to be provided to the community.

The new shelter will also help Clay County maintain its no-kill status.

“We should be able to have X-rays, so we’ll be able to offer just a lot more, and be able to get these animals that maybe need a little bit of extra help and love and time to the rescues that they need to be in,” Green said.

The county has long outgrown the current shelter that was built decades ago. Green explained the challenges they face in the existing building and how the new facility will address these issues.

“With the new building, we’ll have a lot more space,” she said. “Right now, we do have to sometimes double up some of our pets in the kennels, and we’d like to be able to have them have their own space.”

Securing a new shelter is a significant achievement for Hagan and his team, one that he hopes will serve as a model for other shelters.

“It would just be a better, beneficial scenario for the county and the residents itself, and we look to be a beacon facility that others could look to, to emulate,” Hagan said.

Although the shelter will take 18 months to build, Green is eager for its completion.

“This community has grown exponentially since the shelter opened in the ’60s and ’70s,” she said. “With the population growth of people, we have a population growth of animals as well, so we’ll be able to serve a lot more.”

The new shelter will cost $21.5 million to build. Once completed, the current shelter is set to become a green space for the community.


About the Author
Ariel Schiller headshot

Ariel Schiller joined the News4Jax team as an evening reporter in September of 2023. She comes to Jacksonville from Tallahassee where she worked at ABC27 as a Weekend Anchor/Reporter for 10 months.

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