Whenever animals are found outside without owners, they are shipped to the Collin County animal shelter in McKinney, but a local pet avocation group wants Frisco to establish its own facility.

“Many of the [rescue organizations] are doing fabulous things, but they don’t have a facility,” Frisco Pet Project organizer Marla Fields said in an article for Community Impact. “They are working in cooperation with the PetSmarts and the Petcos and the Hollywood Feeds to do adoption programs.”

Having considered all the consequences that would come with opening an animal shelter here in the past, mayor Jeff Cheney decided that a partnership with the county is more reasonable.

“We have a partnership with Collin County along with other cities to collaborate as a region to try to provide the most cost-effective services for this need. The pros to working as a region is you have a lot more resources available,” Cheney said in an article for Community Impact. “You’re pooling money to service, in our case, the 450 [animals] that were transported [in 2018]. It’s just much more efficient and cost effective.”

Nonetheless, Fields believes that a shelter in Frisco will bring more convenience and benefits for both city residents and the animals.

“Sometimes the hours aren’t conducive to your hours,” Fields said. “And you may not discover that your pet has gotten lost … until after hours, and then the pet has to stay over there.”

With the number of animal rescues on the rise since 2011, junior Kyle Strickland sees the convenience of a Frisco shelter as a beneficial force that will increase adoptions.

“I think that having an animal shelter nearby to a community will promote more adoptions,” Strickland said. “So I think one in Frisco will promote the community of Frisco to hopefully adopt more and might make a positive impact on the amount of animals that get sent to these shelters.”