Multnomah County Animal Shelter

Animal Services Facility
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Welcome
Welcome to the interactive webpage for a new Multnomah County Animal Services Center! Thanks for visiting!
The community needs a new animal services facility to better serve the animals, staff, volunteers and community members who depend on its services. We are in the early stages of designing a new building that can provide a healthier and more supportive environment for everyone who depends on it - the animals, the employees, and the public.

This interactive webpage walks you through the services we provide, the challenges visitors and our staff experience, and why we need a new facility. We also invite you to share your experience visiting or using our services.

Your input today helps us develop designs and identify priorities for a future facility.

The new shelter will serve pets, people and its employees for decades to come. This interactive webpage will give you some information on the project, ask you some questions to help direct the project, and inform you on other opportunities to provide input. This is one of several opportunities to answer questions and give us your thoughts and feedback on the concept design.

A Little Bit About Us
What does Animal Services do?
We are the only public animal shelter and control agency in Multnomah County. We serve nearly 800,000 residents across 465 square miles.

We provide a variety of services across six program areas:
- Field Services
- Animal Intake and Housing
- Animal Health
- Client Services
- Adoptions and Foster
- Enrichment and Pathways for animals
Who visits the shelter?
With this wide range of services, the community comes to us for services that can be both joyful and difficult.
The community visits to:
- Adopt a pet
- Reclaim their lost pet
- Look for resources for pets they can no longer care for
- Drop off a stray or injured animal they found
- Pick up a foster animal
- Volunteer their time
- Respond to a notice or enforcement action
- Obtain or renew a pet license
Our services are supported by 78 staff and hundreds of volunteers, serving over 7,000 animals every year. The work is demanding, emotional, and performed in a building that makes the work harder and more stressful for everyone involved.
Ivy came in stressed and defensive. She struggled with kennel stress and resource guarding. Animal care and animal health members diligently using fear free techniques, positive reinforcement and a monitored transition period of medication management to lower her fear, anxiety and stress. Ivy went from being un-leashable to curling up on handlers’ laps for kisses and cuddles in less than two weeks.

Why a New Facility is Needed
Service demands have evolved in the last 50 years, but the building has not

Originally built in 1968, the building started as a Sheriff's office. Today, the building can no longer keep up with current and future operations. The current building is outdated, can’t sustain additional renovations or additions, and doesn’t meet modern shelter standards. The growing demand for services puts additional pressure on a building not designed for modern shelter requirements.
We completed an initial design concept in 2022, but operations have changed significantly and the previous design did not take into account the growing demand for services we are now experiencing. We are taking a fresh approach; this current effort builds on what staff, volunteers and community members have shared in the past, while taking a new look at:
- How we operate now and what we need to operate in the future.
- What kind of building we need, how big it is, and what a building site should look like.
- Animal care standards and what that means for a shelter facility.
- How we can fund the project.
Challenges in the current facility

We continue to provide high-quality care for the animals despite the limitations of the facility. The outdated building presents operational challenges that make already difficult and important work even harder.
This project doesn’t just replace the old building - it is an opportunity to design something that better supports animal care, public service, staff and volunteer work, and the community’s long-term needs.
These are the goals that are guiding the design:
- Support safe, humane animal care.
- Help staff and volunteers do their work more effectively.
- Be easier for the public to navigate.
- Feel more welcoming, calm and connected to the community.
- Be practical to operate and maintain over time.