After more than a three-year wait, the new Carroll County Animal Shelter is up and running, and the head of animal control believes the new facility will increase the adoption rate by making it easier to adopt a cat or dog.

Initial plans for the shelter began in 2003 when it was approved as a project through the 2003 special purpose local option sales tax referendum. The county broke ground on the shelter in October 2006, though the decision to use prison labor instead of an outside contractor delayed work significantly.

But now the wait is over, as the operations portion of the shelter went online Nov. 8. Roughly 100 of the 300 spaces for animals in the facility are available and, in the months to come, the remaining portions of the shelter will go into operation as they’re completed. Two of the building’s eight pods are now open.

The Carroll County Animal Control Department is planning a grand opening celebration for the beginning of the year. By that point, the entire building will be functioning.

The new shelter, at 251 Automation Drive in Carrollton, will effectively double the capacity of animals from about 150 at the old shelter to about 300 at the new facility. The real advantage of the new shelter is its size. At 16,000 square feet it can accommodate the public, which is critical for a successful pet adoption program.

The adoption area alone will be approximately 3,500 square feet, or about three-quarters of the size of the entire old shelter. The new shelter has separate accommodations for adoptable cats and kittens as well as adoptable puppies and dogs. It has “get-acquainted rooms” for pet owners to spend some time interacting with the pets before they decide to adopt them. In the future, Animal Control Director Tim Tant said, the center will offer open areas outdoors where people can further get to know a potential pet.

“It gives us more area for the public to come in, and it’ll be people friendly,” said Tant. “Adoption will be up because there’s more room and more space. We’re looking forward to a lot of things, especially adoption to go up. Everybody really likes the way the shelter is put together.”

The old shelter, formerly housed on Zyzzx Street in Carrollton, had more problems than simply being undersized. Since May 2008, the shelter has had to euthanize animals because of separate outbreaks of the canine parvo virus, a highly contagious and ultimately fatal disease of the digestive tract.

The new shelter will properly address these past problems, Tant said, which will be made possible largely through the design of the facility itself. The pods in which the shelter is divided will act as buffers between different sets of animals.

Puppies will be separated from full-grown dogs. Kittens will be separated from cats, and animals who have had their shots and are ready for adoption will be separated from those who have just recently been brought to the shelter. If an animal does contract a disease, individual pods can be quarantined, eliminating the possibility of mass euthanization.

“You’re not going to completely eliminate [parvo] anywhere,” Tant said. “But it’s a good step in helping educate folks and just a good place to come get them a pet and hopefully a healthy one.”

The new shelter will also offer state-required spay and neuter procedures to be performed on all adopted animals, beginning sometime in December.

“We think this new shelter will help us out a lot,” Tant said. “It’s just a great place to have to get us moving forward in the right direction.”

The shelter is open Tuesday through Sunday, with an hour lunch break each day from 1 to 2 p.m. On Sundays, the center is open from noon to 4 p.m. for adoption only.