‘Barrier’ or ‘advocate’: Volunteers want Charlotte animal control to split from CMPD
For volunteers like Kelsey Joseph, Charlotte Animal Care and Control’s shelter is an unnerving place.
When Joseph arrives in the morning, she grabs a key and a leash and heads straight for kennels where anxious barking drowns out conversation. A pungent smell hangs in the air.
She’s focused on dogs who have been at the shelter longest and those who haven’t been out of their kennel that day – or in several days. Shelter staff are often stretched so thin they can’t take dogs on walks, leaving the responsibility to volunteers, she told The Charlotte Observer.
Joseph walks the dogs through the shelter, out the back door and past the incinerator for euthanized cats, dogs and wildlife.
As a volunteer, Joseph said she has to compartmentalize – focus on walking as many dogs as possible. But when she gets in her car at the end of the day, she feels defeated because she couldn’t get to them all.
It’s this feeling that drove Joseph to advocate for change. As a board member for Friends of CMAS – a nonprofit supporting the shelter – she’s coordinated volunteer visits to Charlotte City Council meetings every month for over a year.
The shelter’s always been part of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, but volunteers for more than a year have been telling City Council members they should split off Animal Care and Control into its own department. And top staff members say they support the change, too.
A handful of animal services departments across the state are independent, while others reside under the sheriff’s office or within public health. Some volunteers and staff say an independent Animal Care and Control would speed up funding requests, improve volunteer experience and increase staff pay. Others think the police department’s support of the shelter is helpful.
The decision is up to the City Council — where one member said she’s interested but concerned about the cost.
Charlotte animal shelter
The current shelter opened in the 1990s when the system of managing animals in the city was different and Charlotte was half its current population.
Built around a catch-and-kill model, the shelter originally held stray animals until owners collected them. If they weren’t claimed, animals sometimes were adopted out, but they often were euthanized.
When Melissa Knicely, Animal Care and Control communications manager, started as a volunteer 18 years ago, around 60% of animals were euthanized.
“Now, that landscape looks very different. We understand the importance of pets and people’s lives,” Joseph said. “So this isn’t just about animal welfare, like this is very much about people and that unique connection that people have to companion animals, and we need to keep those animals healthy and sane for the duration of their stay at the shelter.”
Animal Care and Control currently operates two locations: the main shelter on Byrum Drive near the airport and a satellite adoption center in west Charlotte. On Monday, it hit its capacity of about 200 again, Knicely said in a news release. Last week, 121 dogs entered the shelter and nearly 500 dogs are either in the shelter or in foster care.
That’s partly why shelter advocates want the City Council to start construction on a new shelter along with an independent animal control department.
City officials haven’t ignored shelter funding requests. The city budget this year added 10 new positions at the shelter, increasing staffing by 29%. They include an additional veterinarian, an animal control supervisor, three animal health technicians, four kennel attendants and a customer service revenue assistant. But three of the new position allocations will retain existing over-hires, Animal Care and Control Director Joshua Fisher told the Observer
Animal control freedom
Whenever animal control applies for funding or personnel, the request goes through CMPD’s business services team and the chief’s office before it’s submitted to the city, Fisher said. If animal control became its own department, those requests could go to city administration directly.
He said the layers of oversight make it challenging for the shelter to be approved quickly for city funding. And CMPD balances a range of priorities along with animal control, he said.
“I’m not blaming the police department,” Joseph said. “They have an important function in our community — it’s just not Animal Care and Control. They’re talking about being short 911 dispatchers, and then you’re like, ‘okay, but we need more money for dogs,’ of course they’re going to be like ‘No.’”
Katie Ferraoli, a shelter volunteer, said the city should highlight the shelter as a public health resource rather than a wing of CMPD.
Animal shelter worker pay
Another problem potentially solved by an independent Animal Care and Control: staff pay.
Animal Care and Control top staff are not paid at the same level as directors of independent city departments, Joseph said.
Fisher’s annual salary is $135,359.25, according to the City of Charlotte open data portal. City directors of independent departments make considerably more — the city’s director of solid waste services, communication, transportation, and strategy and budget all make over $200,000.
“With us being part of police, the Chief of Police is that department head,” Fisher said. “So he is compensated at a certain level. And then you have your assistant chiefs that are the layer right below him, and then you have the rest of us underneath that. So it shifts all of our roles down, which means that it’s harder to adjust those salaries appropriately to hire and retain talent.”
Volunteer application concerns
Multiple volunteers told the Observer the volunteer application from the police department can deter people interested in helping at the shelter.
The form asks about alcohol habits and if interested applicants have “ever tried, used, or experimented with” a variety of illegal substances, including marijuana, heroin and cocaine. Tina Baer, a shelter volunteer, recalled a story of a prospective volunteer being nervous to complete the form after being five years sober.
Ferraoli told The Observer the application process is extensive. With background checks, drug screenings and confirming references, it took four months to start as a volunteer after submitting her application.
“That’s a barrier for people,” she said. “They don’t want to wait that long. If we have people willing to help, I can’t be like, ‘Okay, cool. I’ll see you in December!’ That’s really frustrating for people.”
Support from CMPD
Some staff think the police department provides helpful support for the shelter.
Taj Trotman, who works in intake, said the close connection with CMPD is helpful when crime and animals intersect, including dog fighting rings or court cases.
Police also assign some officers to the shelter after an injury, Knicely told The Observer.
“When they leave, they are our biggest advocates,” she said.
The support of the largest city department is a “luxury” because of robust business services and human resources teams, Fisher said. But the benefits of an independent Animal Care and Control far outweigh the disadvantages, he said.
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department spokesman said the department didn’t have any comments to share beyond those received by the Observer from other city officials.
City Council on splitting up animal control
Council member Dimple Ajmera told the Observer creating a new department would increase city costs, and it’s not clear whether costs outweigh benefits.
“While this idea has potential merits in terms of specialized focus and resource allocation, we must carefully weigh the fiscal options,” she told The Observer in a statement.
Council member Ed Driggs told the Observer he wasn’t familiar with the volunteers’ proposal, but he thinks the city should provide Animal Care and Control with what it needs.
The city is designing a new adoption center and reserved $30 million in the 2025 budget that could go toward a new facility.
Fisher said he’s hopeful the project will start construction in late 2025. The main shelter underwent renovations in the past five to six years to bring it up to federal code, Knicely said.
This story was originally published August 7, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
