Animal services urges funding for five care-attendant positions as shelter capacity and surrenders rise

Caroline Deerfield, the executive director of the county’s Office of Animal Services, told the Montgomery County Council budget committee that the shelter system is routinely over capacity and pressured by a rising rate of owner surrenders driven by housing instability and economic stress. “We start every day at 125 percent overcapacity,” Deerfield said, adding that the surrender rate has climbed to 41 percent from roughly 38 percent at the last briefing.

Deerfield said the shelter’s operational gap is producing what she described as “moral injury” among staff forced to make repeated euthanasia decisions because there is insufficient capacity to care for animals. She asked the committee to place five animal care attendant (ACA) positions — a request staff quantified at $437,410 — on the reconciliation list so the council can weigh funding as it finalizes the fiscal year budget.

Council staffer Susan Farag outlined the executive’s recommendation for Office of Animal Services, which included a $299,791 (2.72%) increase from the approved FY26 baseline largely for compensation adjustments and routine operational costs. Farag also described a technical $67,000 reallocation related to pet licensing portal management that is neutral to grant totals but moves an expense into the appropriate account.

Committee members pressed Deerfield for operational details, noting the impact on animal well-being and on staff safety and mental health. One councilmember asked how long animals are confined; Deerfield said some animals were spending as much as 23 hours a day in cages and that volunteers provide important support but cannot substitute for trained ACAs. “Our staff spend the vast majority of their time just cleaning,” she said, adding that ACAs’ core duties include enrichment and rehabilitative care, not janitorial work.

Members discussed a pragmatic approach to funding the request. Chair Katz said he preferred not to put the department in a position of getting zero and proposed a two-tranche approach, advancing three positions in one tranche and two in a second, to improve the chance of partial funding. The committee voted unanimously (3-0) to proceed with that two-tranche reconciliation strategy and gave the packet general committee support (3-0).

The immediate budget question for the council is whether to keep the five ACAs on the reconciliation list for later consideration or to incorporate some or all positions into the base budget. Deerfield and staff urged that filling the ACA positions preserves programmatic capacity and protects both animals and staff; councilmembers asked staff to provide additional operational detail showing the differences in care outcomes if zero, two, three, or five positions are funded.

The committee also discussed the licensing vendor change: the county plans to bring pet licensing back in-house to reduce resident complaints and vendor fees, which staff said would lower ongoing costs associated with an outsourced Texas-based vendor. Farag said the licensing change is intended to be cost-neutral over time and to improve customer service through better online point-of-sale options.

The committee asked for follow-up information to help frame the full-council discussion, including a breakdown of what service levels and animal socialization would look like at zero, two, three and five funded ACAs. Deerfield said the department will provide additional data for the packet and emphasized the human and animal impacts of delayed or absent staffing. The committee’s recommendation will move to the full council as part of the reconciliation process.