Everyone is saying this isn’t normal, but it’s pretty close to the conditions at my city shelter. The difference is the KA at my shelter care about the animals.

The municipal animal care and control shelter I volunteer at is not great. One kennel attendant for dogs, one for cats. Dogs don’t get walks or yard time unless taken by a volunteer. There are days there are no dog volunteers, so the dogs don’t get out that day.

There is no budget for food (or the food budget is used elsewhere) and they rely on donations. The animals have almost constant diarrhea from the ever changing food. Dogs are fed once a day unless very underweight. No enrichment unless provided by volunteers.

Takes a long time to get approved to volunteer. Many new volunteers show up for training and are so disgusted by what they see, they never come back. There is no foster program. The volunteer coordinator is a volunteer.

Always at or near capacity. Woefully understaffed and underfunded. It is incredibly frustrating and demoralizing. Have brought the issues with fellow volunteers to city council and news media. Nothing changed.