City, county agree: Community needs new animal control shelter – Nogales International

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Kittens at the Santa Cruz County Animal Care and Control Center on Hohokam Drive in Nogales.
Lt. Jose Peña checks up on a dog at the Santa Cruz County Animal Care and Control facility on Hohokam Drive.
Santa Cruz County Animal Care and Control operates out of a 34-year-old facility on Hohokam Drive. Now, county and city officials say an upgrade for the center is long overdue.
Kittens at the Santa Cruz County Animal Care and Control Center on Hohokam Drive in Nogales.
When Lt. Jose Peña began working for the county’s animal care and control unit, a brand-new facility had just opened in Nogales to house local stray dogs and cats.
That was in 1988.
Thirty-four years later, staff operate out of the same building, which contains only 20 kennels.
By comparison, the six-officer staff rounded up nearly 1,500 dogs and cats over the last 13 months.
“We’ve outgrown the facility a long time ago,” said Peña, now the center’s top officer.
Now, the city and county are carving out a potential upgrade for the center. Both Mayor Arturo Garino and County Supervisor Bruce Bracker described the potential project as a financially ambitious, but nonetheless essential undertaking.
“It’s time,” Bracker said. “It’s just a question of getting the plan done, getting the pricing, and then identifying the funding.”
Speaking to the NI Tuesday, Peña described plans to build a facility in the now-vacant juvenile detention center on Hohokam Drive, a stone’s throw from the current location. As Luna, Peña’s black Chihuahua, sniffed at his feet, he stood in his office and flipped through preliminary designs, showing a meet-and-greet area for adoptions, a larger parking space, and a vet’s office.
“It’s almost three times the size as this,” he said, standing in the current facility.
Having more space, Peña emphasized, is more than an issue of comfort – it may mean saving more lives among the animals. With only 20 kennels, the current facility often overcrowds when too many strays are recovered.
With a new facility, “we’re going to be able to rescue more animals,” he added, “and not have to euthanize because we don’t have any room.”
Cramped quarters
On the afternoon of Aug. 30, a long-legged, black-and-white dog kept watch from behind a large kennel, while three, curly-haired neighbors barked and jumped next door. In a nearby cage, pint-sized kittens climbed over each other.
Technically, Peña said, dogs and cats should be in separate rooms – a practice backed by other shelters. But the facility’s cramped quarters don’t allow that.
“It’s unfortunate,” he said.
So, Peña said, the staff turn the kennels in opposite directions, in an attempt to create some semblance of space for the animals. The new facility, he added, would contain a separate room for cats.
Between Aug. 1, 2021 and Aug. 31, 2022, staff impounded 1,009 dogs and 486 cats, rotating the animals through the center’s 20 kennels.
When the current facility gets close to overcrowding, said Peña, he and other staff start contacting potential rescues for strays who haven’t been adopted or claimed by an owner. The center facilitates close to 100 adoptions per year, he estimated, but the majority of strays go to rescues – other facilities that can care for animals until they’re adopted.
“We just start calling,” Peña said.
The animal control unit sometimes works with nearby humane societies. In addition, Peña said, a Tucson resident often calls around to find rescues and sometimes transports the animals from the Nogales facility to their new temporary homes.
Peña described the issue as an ongoing cycle: the shelter becomes crowded, and personnel try to avoid euthanization.
“We see it and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, OK, here we go again,’” he said.
The new facility, he said, would emphasize adoptions, with a meeting area designed to look like a park, and, potentially, a hallway lined with images showcasing available cats and dogs.
Lt. Jose Peña checks up on a dog at the Santa Cruz County Animal Care and Control facility on Hohokam Drive.
On call
Two veterinary clinics are currently active in Nogales – one on Morley Avenue and another on Grand. But the new center, Peña said, would bring more of those services to local residents.
Currently, the county/city facility does not include a veterinary room. The new facility would – something Peña predicted would help staff to spay and neuter animals more efficiently.
Under state law, any animal that leaves an animal control unit must be spayed or neutered. Having a vet in-house, Peña said, would make adoptions and rescues happen faster.
“We don’t have to go through a process and wait for them to get neutered and the adopter has to be leaving a deposit,” he said. “Whereas we have a vet (who), let’s say, comes down twice a week to spay, neuter animals.”
A two-part effort
The Santa Cruz County Animal Care and Control Services is one of several entities operated both by the county and the City of Nogales. (The two also partner in their management of the Nogales-Santa Cruz Public Library and the Flood Control District.)
The county contributes significantly more funding to animal care and control, budgeting more than $752,000 in expenditures for the current fiscal year. The City of Nogales, by comparison, allocated $355,000 to the center in its budget.
A new shelter would require far more funding, Peña estimated – likely in the millions.
“I think part of this project, we are going to look to the community, see if there are people that are interested in supporting animal shelters,” Bracker said.
Still, Bracker acknowledged that other projects were occupying the county’s attention – like the South32 mining operation currently developing in the Patagonia Mountains.
“Having the mine in our community it’s just, it’s really taking a lot of staff time,” he said. “Dealing with the housing, with the infrastructure, with all these different things.”
Santa Cruz County Animal Care and Control operates out of a 34-year-old facility on Hohokam Drive. Now, county and city officials say an upgrade for the center is long overdue.
‘Working together’
At the opening of a new city-owned dog park this month, Garino also noted the size of the project, suggesting that city and county staff would look into grant options.
“We’re talking three, four, five million dollars,” he said of the new shelter.
Originally, Peña said, he’d requested a new shelter from then-County Manager Greg Lucero – more than a decade ago. The county went through a recession, and then a pandemic, Peña added, throwing major projects to the wayside.
Then, three months ago, Peña said, Flood Control Coordinator John Hays reached out to him, letting him know they could start planning.
Now, Peña said, he hopes to see a new shelter come to fruition before his retirement several years from now.
“The city is in it, and the county is in it, working together,” he said. “So it’s like, ‘Yes! Thank you.’”
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