The Portage Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) has recently been approved by Portage la Prairie City Council to build a new facility. Paws Chair Staci Creighton says the current building is really lacking in size for the animals.

"We've been needing a new building for quite some time. With the lack of space we have in our building, our building only houses cats and realistically we can house about 12 cats and we have over 30 right now, so we're pretty full. We don't have the opportunity to house any dogs, so we can't bring them in from the pound, they always go straight to foster homes," says Creighton.

Creighton says it's still unknown when they'll start with construction plans for the new building, but thinks it'll be a positive thing for the city.

"It'll be a huge impact on us, just because of us being so full and the pound being so full, and the animals staying in the pound for months and months at a time. I think it'll be a great thing for us, and a great thing for city to take in more stray and abandoned animals, Creighton explains.

With a brand new building in the works, Creighton adds PAWS will most likely need more volunteers to help with a larger volume of potential pets.

"Right now, we do have some volunteers but with such an excess amount of animals, it'll be a lot of work so we'll definitely need some for sure," says Creighton.

If you'd like to get involved with PAWS or become a potential foster pet parent, check out their website, www.portageanimalwelfaresociety.com