AIKEN --- Two animal shelters located next to each other on Wire Road are looking to expand their facilities in an effort to ease overcrowding.

The Aiken Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recently purchased 10.4 acres off Willow Run Road with plans to build a 20,000-square-foot facility.

"We've already cleared the land, and we've already started doing some of the prep work -- working with an architect and looking at mock drawings," said Gary Willoughby, executive director of the Aiken SPCA.

The current facility, built in 1981, is about 4,000 square feet and can house about 75 dogs and about 30 cats.

While the new facility will house more animals, the main focus will be on a larger animal clinic and an area for education and training.

Mr. Willoughby said the expansion will allow the facility to do spaying and neutering five days a week.

"We want to be able to spay and neuter about 6,000 animals a year," he said. "We do just a little over 2,000 now."

The surgeries currently are performed four days a week. Because the clinic takes up about half the shelter's space, Mr. Willoughby said, the number of animals it can spay and neuter is limited.

Next door to the Aiken SPCA is the Aiken County Animal Shelter, which takes in about 600 animals a month.

"We've known for a while our shelter is maxed," Aiken County Administrator Clay Killian said. "We've asked the council to put money in the budget this year ... to look at ways to expand the shelter."

The county is considering two options. One would expand the current shelter and the other would use the SPCA's current facility when it moves into its new building in about two years.

Bobby Arthurs of Aiken County Animal Control said the county facility, built in the early 1990s, has not changed since then, although the county's population has roughly doubled.

Along with the increased population, the shelter has seen "an increase in the number of animals being brought in, especially over the last couple of years," Mr. Arthurs said.

When the facility was built, 100 to 200 animals were being brought in each month. Mr. Arthurs said that number has increased by about 200 percent in a facility that is a little smaller than the SPCA's building.

"We need a larger facility to house the number of animals we receive each month," he said.