Dog at the Robeson County Animal Shelter in Robeson County, North Carolina. | Photo by Emma Hall
Story by Caroline Daly
Nine animal shelters in North Carolina have received state funding to improve their shelters and the well-being of the animals they are housing there.
The Animal Welfare Section of the Veterinary Division of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services awarded nine community shelters grants as part of the Animal Shelter Support Fund program. These funds will be used to help shelters improve their facilities to better comply with the Animal Welfare Act, according to a press release from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Anson County, Davidson County, Greene County, Halifax County, Person County, Robeson County, Rowan County, Stokes County and Washington County all received funds for improvements ranging from $3,500 to $50,000. The funds could be used to fix a variety of issues, such as lighting, fencing, flooring, animal enclosures and outdoor facilities.
“I think it was just recognized that there was a need to help the shelters,” said Heather Overton, the assistant director of public affairs for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. “It’s a little bit of money that will help several shelters you know, improve their facilities.”
Those nine shelters were the only ones that were eligible to apply this past year for this pot of money given by the N.C. General Assembly due to their desperate needs for improvements to their facilities, as their facilities needed to meet compliance after their inspections. The General Assembly, is a bicameral legislature composed of a Senate and House of Representatives. The issue of shelters being run down and needing funding came to state lawmakers’ attention, so they changed state law to distribute money to the shelters in need.
All shelters in North Carolina that are run by local governments can now apply to do anything to help improve their facility, whether it is in response to a violation they might have had or anything that would better help serve the animals in their community.
After the General Assembly put the money into the budget, it ended up having to go through a rules review process to approve how the funds were going to be given out to the shelters. The General Assembly announced the funds’ availability to the shelters through email and a press release in late January 2024. The shelters all responded quickly and the funds were awarded at the end of February 2024.
“Many local government-run shelters have been faced with staffing shortages, an increased number of animals from the community and limited funding for repairs,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “The Animal Shelter Support Fund was once used only for emergencies from hurricanes and other natural disasters. I appreciate the change in legislation that allowed us to also award funding to shelters needing upgrades and other repairs. We know these funds will be beneficial to the shelters receiving them and help to better serve the animals in their care.”
The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services act as an animal welfare section. Animal welfare sections are responsible for upholding the North Carolina Animal Welfare Act. This Act applies to shelters, voting facilities and some pet shops. As part of upholding this act, their field inspectors go out to about 900 different shelters, boarding facilities and pet shops each year to make sure that they’re in compliance with the Animal Welfare Act.
“When there are violations, we work with the shelters to try to help them come into compliance. Sometimes if the violations continue, or they’re particularly egregious, then we do have three courses of action. We can give them a notice of warning. We can give them a civil penalty, or we could revoke their license,” Overton said.
In these inspections, the Department found that numerous animal shelters needed improvements for the health of the animals and communities they serve, as some facilities were older and needed maintenance.
Out of the $250,000, $203,000 has been given out so far to the nine facilities. The money was given on a first come first serve basis, depending on needs or violations.
Two of those shelters that received funds were in Robeson County and Greene County. For these shelters, the General Assembly’s Animal Shelter Support Fund came just in time. With the number of violations in shelters across the state, the General Assembly allowed these funds that are usually reserved for natural disasters to be used for improvements.
Cobey Houser, a lieutenant in the Patrol Division of the Robeson County Sheriff’s Department, said: “The state has been very good with working with us. They work a lot with us and help us out a lot.”
Greene and Rowan counties’ shelters received the most funding possible as they needed larger improvements. Greene County received $50,000 for updates to fencing, flooring and painting in their facility. Robeson County received $50,000 for upgrades to the flooring.
Greene County has already received its funding and started making improvements.
“These funds are greatly appreciated as we maintain our shelter to the state’s standards for our temporary occupants,” said Kyle DeHaven, the Greene County manager.
The Robeson County shelter will receive the money in about four to six months as paperwork is still being processed. This shelter is one of the largest in North Carolina. One of the top facilities for intake in the state, Robeson County’s shelter typically houses between 116 and 170 dogs at all times.
The Robeson County Sheriff’s Department took over the local animal shelter in July 2023.
Prior to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Department taking over, the shelter was owned by the Health Department, but once they took over the budget had already been closed for 2023, so they couldn’t apply for money at that time.
The Sheriff’s Department found a lot of improvements to flooring for the kennels in the Robeson County animal shelter that needed to be done after they conducted a state inspection. The cement floors throughout the housing area for the animals were cracked and somewhat crumbling.
“With every one of our inspections, our flooring has been non-compliant as far as inspection. We knew it was one of the things that was most costly,” said Tammy Deese, the major chief of operation for the Robeson County Sheriff’s Department. “We needed funds to do that because our budget is exhausted at this point. So, we wanted to get those floors fixed for diseases and infection and make it safer for the animals.”
Dogs and cats can get stressed out in a confined space, so shelters often need to make improvements so the animals have more comfortable space to roam and make the space more enjoyable for them. The animals being less stressed also makes them more desirable for adoption. Potential pet owners are going to want an animal with a calm, yet also fun personality.
This money could also be used to make changes to the design of the shelters. Dogs can only see colors such as blue or yellow, so those colors make them more comfortable in their space, rather than only seeing more neutral and gray tones.
The Sheriff’s office has invested a considerable amount of money into the Robeson County shelter but the budget is running low and they still have improvements to make, so they are in need of more financial assistance.
“We have made huge strides in correcting the outdated equipment and have added several new full-time and part-time employees to the program,” Robeson County Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said. “We also recently started our own 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization named The Robeson Sheriff’s Charitable Foundation. Funds are being donated to this non-profit for several programs we now offer and to assist us at the shelter. We also have a gala planned for September to raise funds for the shelter and our addiction program.”
Another issue the shelters have faced is euthanasia. The Robeson County Sheriff wants to hold euthanasia to a bare minimum, where they only euthanize severely injured animals that are so ill that they can’t be rehabilitated. With that comes a lot of animals that wound up being held at the shelter for extended periods, sometimes six or seven months.
According to WCNC Charlotte, in 2021 North Carolina animal shelters had the second-highest kill rate in the nation. The nonprofit Best Friends Animal Society reported that 36 of 120 North Carolina animal shelters have a no-kill policy, resulting in the state ranking third in pet shelter deaths in the United States in 2023.
This gives those shelters a bad stigma attached to them, but often times they are working with little to no resources to help them, according to WCNC.
From the national perspective, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), around 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized each year. The number of cats and dogs that are euthanized in the United States from shelters has declined from 2.6 million from 2011 to the 920,000 number now. This decline is due to an increase in animals being adopted by pet owners along with an increase of stray pets being returned to their proper homes.
Pet owners should ensure that their pets have proper identification, with collars saying their name and owner’s name with their phone number or address. When animals do not have proper identification, they cannot be returned to their owners properly and are often taken to shelters, and their owners have no way of finding them. There are also options to place a microchip in a dog or cat so the owner can track them electronically, without the animal having to wear a collar.
The funds from the N.C. General Assembly will help the facilities make upgrades to enhance the shelters so more animals have a safe place to stay before their potential adoptions. Shelters have dealt with overcrowding in recent years which has caused their facilities to need more maintenance and enhancements.
“During COVID-19, a lot of people chose to adopt dogs and the shelters were not having the overcrowding issues that we’re seeing now because pet ownership is expensive,” Overton said. “The community still has a lot of unwanted animals, dogs and cats. So, they tend to fill up shelters, county shelters in particular. They have to take what’s brought to them and they do tend to fill up. It’s a hard job.”
According to the ASPCA, about 6.3 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide annually, of that group, 3.1 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats. About 2 million dogs and 2.1 million cats are adopted from shelters each year.
This funding will aid in getting more animals adopted to pet owners and free up space for more animals to come into the shelter to get adopted as well, continuing the cycle of adoption for these pets.
Only $203,000 of the $250,000 has been dispersed for now of this money to the nine shelters, however, more shelters in North Carolina are always going to be in need of help. There are about 120 animal shelters in North Carolina, so if those shelters apply then they can hope to get assistance to enhance their shelters for the betterment of their animals.
Each entity involved with animal shelters in the state of North Carolina hopes this funding will continue to be available and given out in future years to help more animals get adopted.
“We are really excited to get the funding and be able to use it in this way. And that we hope that is something that continues into the future where we have this funding available for local shelters,” Overton said.
