La Plata, MD – What will be the future of the Tri-County Animal Shelter?

A proposal before the Charles County Commissioners Tuesday, Sept. 29 recommended a new facility be built and designed to cater to Charles’ rapidly growing stray pet population.

That would exclude what has been a tri-county partnership with St. Mary’s and Calvert counties for more than 30 years.

Not so fast, said Commissioner Amanda Stewart.

“I have been visiting that facility since I was a little girl,” Stewart told William Stephens, director of Emergency Services; Ed Tucker, chief of Animal Control; and Kim Stephens, Tri-County Animal Shelter supervisor. “My thoughts are, if we did build a new facility, how would it affect the current facility and would it have a negative effect in St. Mary’s and Calvert?

“We need to have a conversation with all three counties,” she said, “a larger conversation. We need to be good neighbors.”

“We would certainly be open to that conversation,” Tucker said.

Tucker said the current facility has outgrown itself. At 12,000 square feet, the shelter processes close to 9,000 animals a year, with almost 5,000 of those coming from Charles.

“We began by serving a community of about 87,500 people,” Tucker said in his presentation. “Today, that number has grown to around 355,742 people. We have outgrown this facility.”

Tucker proposed building a modern facility capable of providing services to the residents of Charles County and their animals. 

The problem comes in the cost for a proposed 35,000-square-foot facility with expanding holding areas (cats and dogs sometimes have to share space in the current shelter, Tucker noted),somewhere in the neighborhood of $11.5 million—and that cost would be borne by an already financially strapped Charles.

He said Charles County’s population of 154,747 adds up to 72,732 dogs and cats, not counting other animals. The population of the tri-county area was around 87,500 people when the facility was built in 1973. The report pointed out that is 67,000 less than Charles County’s current population. 

“Obviously, we’re at a crossroads and beyond,” Charles County Commissioner Vice President Ken Robinson said. “There is a lot to consider.”

“We need to see if there is any interest at all from the other counties,” Charles County Commissioner President Peter Murphy said.

Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com