LEONARDTOWN — St. Mary’s County residents surrendered 55 dogs to the county animal shelter in September and October, about half the 109 handed over during the same two months of 2025, Animal Services Division Manager Hollis Lampe told the Animal Control Advisory Board on Nov. 4.
Lampe attributed the decline to the shelter’s expanded pet pantry and to a change in how staff handle surrender calls. “Previously there wasn’t a lot of programming backing that,” she said. Now a caller who wants to give up a dog is offered training guidance, a crate or food, and help rehoming the animal directly. “What we’re seeing is that we’re having more owners that are calling to surrender their dogs that are actually ending up keeping their dogs,” she said, which spares shelter space and staff time.
The dog figure drove a smaller drop in total intake. The Animal Adoption and Resource Center took in 664 animals from Sept. 1 through Oct. 31, down from 698 in the same period last year, when the shelter reported a sharp fall rise in intake. This year’s intake breaks down as:
- 238 owner surrenders, all species
- 218 strays
- 132 cats brought in for trap-neuter-return
- 30 animals born in care, all mice and rats from a single small-animal surrender, since adopted
- 21 animals seized or placed in protective custody
- 18 transfers from coalition partners
- 7 adoption returns
Outcomes and the euthanasia question
The shelter recorded 702 outcomes over the two months, up from 640 a year earlier: 289 adoptions, 133 euthanasias, 122 cats returned through TNR, 84 transfers to partner organizations, 48 animals returned to owners and 26 that died in care. A Trunk-or-Treat event with a fee-waived adoption weekend produced 59 adoptions, counting foster-to-adopt placements, and the shelter plans to make it annual.
Euthanasia numbers “are going to look very different from last year and going forward,” Lampe said, because the shelter began offering euthanasia as a service to county residents. Of 38 dogs euthanized, 17 were owner-requested; the remaining 21 “shelter euthanasias,” of strays or surrenders with behavioral or medical problems, compare with 23 dogs a year earlier. Of 86 cats, 43 were owner requests, leaving 43 shelter euthanasias against 50 last year.
Removing owner-requested cases, Lampe put the shelter’s adjusted live-release rate at 85%, against 84% a year ago, within the 80% to 93% range she said is generally treated as low- or no-kill. Including every owner-requested euthanasia, the unadjusted rate was 77%. “Some people are very sensitive to adjusted live-release rate statistics,” she said, “so in the interest of full transparency” she gave both.
Asked about the criteria, Lampe said any county resident may request euthanasia and the shelter proceeds in the vast majority of cases, most involving terminal illness or severe behavior problems, including dogs with bite histories once a quarantine has passed. A healthy, adoptable animal brought in for euthanasia would instead be evaluated for adoption.
Feral cat colonies without feeders
Lampe flagged one driver of cat euthanasia that the numbers alone do not show: properties where a colony of feral cats has lost its caretaker. At any given time, she said, the shelter is dealing with three or four properties holding 15 to 45 cats each whose owners want them gone. The shelter cannot house feral cats long term, and when barn-cat placements run out, fractious or sick cats “do not have good outcomes.”
She asked residents with outdoor cats nearby to consider TNR, which returns sterilized cats to their territory, or to adopt an outdoor cat for pest control. Several unsocialized cats are available now.
The shelter also added an administrative coordinator and dispatcher, Karen Clark Reden, who will serve both the shelter and animal control. The division’s volunteer and foster programs, and its partnership with the nonprofit AROO that commissioners formalized in January, are detailed on the county shelter page.
