OLIVETTE, Mo. – A page has turned at the St. Louis County Animal Shelter in Olivette, which is newly named the St. Louis County Animal Care and Control Adoption Center.

 “We’ll have pets here—mostly cats and dogs—that will be looking for a new home. In St. Louis County, we would love to have your help in matching a pet with a new home,” St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said.

Previously the APA of Missouri had been operating at the facility over the last two years before officially closing on Friday. All the animals at the shelter had been adopted or found foster homes before the transition.

“It’s an exciting moment for St. Louis County, especially the health department…I have access to the data for what worked well and didn’t work well,” Dr. Kanika Cunningham said. “We have a great partner, the APA, who helped us get to this point. I think we’re at a position to launch and do really well using the social conscious sheltering tenants.”

The county is accepting applications for animal shelter volunteers as part of their pilot program. This includes positions in humane care, adoptions, and promoting responsible pet ownership. Tuesday is the deadline.

“We’re a public shelter so we can’t just turn away any animal,” Cunningham added. “We take in roosters and chickens and sheep. That’s what we do; it’s part of public health. I think it’s an exciting time for us looking at public data, a lot of our strays and bite cases come from underserved areas in north county.”