The Brownsville animal shelter has all types of dogs and cats up for adoption and has been a much more pleasant place to visit following a $3 million upgrade in 2005.

That’s the work Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner Ernie Hernandez believes the county has the capability to pull-off.

He’s been pushing for the county to build a new animal shelter to replace the current one which was built about 30 years ago.

The current shelter is located on FM 509 near San Benito and is fenced-in with no sign of animals looking for good homes.

“After seeing some of the pictures and (reviewing) some of the issues that go on at the (county) animal shelter...With all the killing of all the animals...I felt it would be very important for us to (build) one as soon as possible,” Hernandez said.

The Cameron County Health Department has been working on maps which show that San Benito and Cameron Park pose some of the biggest problems in the county when it comes to picking up stray or lost animals.

Commissioner Hernandez said it's not only a human issue to take care of animals, but it's also a safety concern.

Health department officials said the county picks-up from 2,000 to 2,500 animals each year.

Without enough kennels to place them in or adoptions, most of those animals are euthanized.

Hernandez said preliminary estimates from national animal organizations, show it would cost the county about $3 million to build a new, 150-kennel shelter.

He’s hopeful the county can work to reduce the cost to about $1.5 million for a new shelter, because it’s an issue that can no longer be ignored.