You do NOT have to be an Anne Arundel County resident — or even a Maryland resident — to adopt.
Anne Arundel County Animal Care & Control (AACACC) in Millersville is waiving its adoption fees for all its available dogs, effective immediately, because it has reached the limit of its ability to house and care for the dogs it already has, even as more continue to arrive every day, Administrator Robin Catlett announced.
“Throughout the United States, many public, open-access shelters like ours that must accept all pets brought to them from their jurisdictions are experiencing capacity issues,” Catlett said.. “Our own shelter is now over its capacity for care.”
A shelter’s “capacity for care” includes both the space it has to house animals and its staff’s ability to provide adequate, humane care for those animals, Catlett explained. AACACC is now at the limit of its abilities to provide care to the dogs it already has, yet additional dogs are arriving daily as strays or are being given up by their owners. The shelter’s existing foster families have taken many adoptable dogs into their homes, but they too are reaching their limit.
“Our shelter has not had to euthanize adoptable animals due to exceeding its capacity for care in many years, but we are currently on the brink of being forced to make those awful decisions for dogs,” Catlett said. “We hope that with the support of our community, we can avoid this, but we believe in transparency and we want Anne Arundel County citizens to know what we might be forced to do if we cannot find homes for more of our dogs.”
Adoptable dogs at AACACC are spayed or neutered, vaccinated and microchipped. All available dogs have undergone staff observations to see how they behave with people and other dogs under a variety of situations, and all information the shelter has on each dog is available to adopters. Approved potential adopters can meet with individual dogs at the shelter and also arrange for their current dogs to meet a potential new family addition.
Although AACACC is waiving its usual $17 dog adoption fee, potential adopters still must meet the shelter’s regular adoption requirements, which are outlined under the “adopt a pet” tab on its website, aacounty.org/pets, Potential adopters do not have to live in Anne Arundel County; in fact, the shelter often has adopters come from out of state.
Photos of available dogs are on the “animals at our shelter” page of the shelter’s website. That page also includes an interactive slideshow of all the available dogs that can be accessed by clicking on the blue “dog gallery” tab.
Anne Arundel County citizens who cannot adopt a dog should consider fostering one for the shelter to open up kennel space for the additional dogs that are arriving. (Citizens of other jurisdictions may be able to help by fostering for one of the shelter’s rescue partners so they can take dogs.)
Anne Arundel County residents should send foster applications and required additional documentation to [email protected].
Applications are located online at aacounty.org/departments/animal-control/forms-and-publications/Foster_Application.pdf or may be picked up at the shelter.
AACACC also has a popular live Facebook video that showcases its available pets on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.. The live video begins about 9:30 a.m. and also is posted on its Facebook page for the public’s later review.
AACACC, 411 Maxwell Frye Rd., Millersville, MD, is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays. It also is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on one Sunday a month, including Feb. 26.
Although the shelter also has many cats and kittens, their situation is not as dire as it is for dogs, Catlett said. Cats and kittens younger than 9 years of age continue to be $14 each. Older cats and smaller pets such as rabbits and Guinea pigs always are free to qualified adopters.
“National studies have found that there is not a strong correlation between how much a person pays for a pet and how loved and well-cared-for that pet will be,” Catlett said. “Our own experience and that of other shelters who sometimes offer their pets for free bears that out. You just can’t put a price on love.”
