Will a Frisco Animal Resource Center Make the Bond?

It’s no secret that Frisco’s top priorities are infrastructure, economic development, and public safety. However, the City’s best-kept secret is that Frisco doesn’t have its own local animal shelter, which is a public service and part of public safety. When an unclaimed pet or stray is found within the City, it sits in the back of an animal services vehicle and transported over to McKinney for Frisco residents to hopefully retrieve or possibly adopt. Animal control trucks act as Frisco’s local shelter until pets and animals are carted to Collin County Animal Services (CCAS) each day.

In recent years, support for an animal adoption and rescue center in Frisco has grown, despite city opposition. Since the inception of Frisco’s Pet Project in 2018, the view that our pets and animals should have better protection and welfare within its own community, starting with the City’s commitment to a shelter, has garnered much needed attention.

For over five years, Frisco Leaders have been telling residents that a bond is the only way a local Animal Resource Center (Municipal Shelter) could possibly become a part of Frisco’s improvement and expansion plans. Since October, Frisco’s Citizen Bond Committee (CBC) has been meeting to discuss and review potential capital projects to place on the ballot in May. They have been presented with some much needed and exciting projects for several city departments including an expansion of our police/fire departments’ training facilities (23M), a PD covered parking garage (est. 25M), police range (13M), new fire station (20M) and Fleet services building (8.5M), new Facilities and Parks building (39M), downtown garage (est. 20M), and more, totaling over 400M. The final costs will likely be determined and approved at Monday’s January 9th meeting.

Frisco residents have been at these meetings as well, advocating and praising all of the benefits an animal resource center has to offer to Frisco. At the December 12th CBC meeting, what was first proposed as a 10M animal center, the CBC agreed and approved 5M for a center despite being advised by City Staff that Frisco doesn’t “want, need, nor recommends” a shelter.

It’s extremely rare that the CBC would recommend a capital project that the City doesn’t support. For this reason, residents are terribly concerned that City Staff is going to pull the shelter from the City Council’s bond proposal, ignoring the citizen’s wishes.

Here is How You Can Make a Difference Now

Right now, if you could please send a friendly reminder to the CBC before Monday at 5:30PM at bondcommittee@friscotexas.gov and simply request…

SAMPLE EMAIL —

Dear Committee Members,

Please add my name to the list of Frisco residents that wish for you to keep an animal resource center (shelter) on the upcoming proposal to present to the City Council so we can vote on this in May as part of the bond. Please let Frisco residents decide the fate of our pets and animals in Frisco. 

Sincerely, 

Name and Address

Want to Do More?

Join your Frisco residents, and come to the Monday Jan. 9th, Citizen Bond Committee meeting at the Municipal Center at 8450 Moore Street, (old senior center by the Heritage Museum) at 5:30 PM. You are welcome to speak at Citizen Input but you do not have to— showing up will speak volumes. And if you can, bring a family member, friend, or work colleague that is equally passionate about animals, please do.

Want to do or learn more, Sign Our PETition too, and share our cause on social media, or if you have questions, email us here at FPPTeam@friscospetproject.org.

If this were a perfect world, we wouldn’t need an animal shelter, but until then, Frisco needs to give all the support we can to Frisco Animals Services, Collin County Animals Services, to our local rescues, our residents, and especially, our Frisco pets.

THANK YOU!!!!!!