(Radio Iowa) – The City of Ames has purchased property for a new animal shelter that will at least double the number of animals that can be taken in — and the shelter is already taking in a thousand animals a year. Shelter director Ron Edwards says the plans are in response to a growing need for shelter space locally, and he hopes the expansion will help ease the burden on other shelter partners in the central Iowa region.

“We’ve heard a lot of no kill shelters that have had to make some very difficult euthanasia decisions that they haven’t had to do in a very long time, so shelters are struggling right now,” Edwards says. “We’re in a really good spot. We’ve had so many amazing adoptions, but we can do a lot better in our new facility and we’re going to make sure we do that.”

Edwards says the current shelter in Ames takes in around 900 cats, dogs and exotic pets every year, along with roughly 100 wild animals. “We are continuing to see those numbers increase, he says, “so that was really part of the focus of making sure that we had a facility that was sized right.”

He says the animal impound numbers have grown alongside the population growth of Ames, but Edwards also blames a lack of spaying and neutering for increasing the number of puppies and kittens. “We have a program where we can bring the animals here to our facility, again, when we have space,” he says, “so I’m hoping we’ll continue to do that.”

Ames has launched a fundraising campaign for the last $1.5 million needed to pay for the $7.5 million project. Edwards expects they’ll be able to move into the new animal shelter within two years.