Late last year, when Guilford County Animal Services Director Jorge Ortega spoke at a work session before the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, Ortega addressed some of the challenges the county’s animal shelter is facing and he offered an analogy: that the shelter was a hospital patient that had been in intensive care but was now on the road to recovery.

At that time, the county commissioners and the county manager added some mid-budget-year funding to the Animal Services budget to help the shelter through a hard time.

Now some money from private citizens is coming to the rescue as well.

And it’s much needed money: After the work session at which Ortega spoke, one shelter volunteer told the Rhino Times that, in her mind –  given the red tape preventing the shelter from using donated items, the exhaustion level of shelter volunteers, the downsizing of some programs that benefit the animals, and a coming loss of part-time staff – a better analogy was that the shelter was dead, on a gurney, and headed to the morgue.

Those who run and work at the shelter, as well as many animal lovers in the county, want Guilford County to support the shelter to a level that would allow it to be a no kill shelter; however, right now that’s not feasible given the limited resources of Guilford County Animal Services.

Regardless of the view one takes on the current extent of the problems, it’s unquestionable that the shelter has been facing major challenges, is short staffed and lacks the funds it needs. So, it’s very helpful that some members of the community have been stepping up to generously offer their own money to help care for the animals at the shelter and to reduce the stray population in the county.

Guilford County Animal Services has recently received an impressive $180,336 in donations, which is meant to support the department’s mission of protecting public health, addressing animal neglect and providing essential resources to pets and their owners.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is set to approve the acceptance and use of the donated funds at its next meeting on Thursday, Jan. 9 in the Commissioners Meeting Room of the Old Guilford County Court House in downtown Greensboro.

The donations include a standout individual gift of $107,000 – an amount that exceeds Guilford County Manager Mike Halford’s $75,000 approval threshold.  There are also several smaller contributions, all aimed at improving the welfare of animals in the community. The $107,000 gift is the reason why county commissioner action is required before the money can be accepted and put to use.

Animal Services had a challenging year in fiscal 2023- 2024, the year that wrapped up on June 30 of last year.  But the department was also able to do a lot of good as well.

During that 12 months, Animal Services assisted about 7,046 dogs and cats, responded to 12,796 service calls, reunited more than 750 lost pets with their owners and helped over 5,000 animals get adopted.

Also, about 600 animals were transferred to rescue partners during that 12-month period.

The $180,336 in donations will be used to support several important Animal Services initiatives including the following:

  • $20,000 will be used to expand the county’s spay and neuter voucher program, which helped spay or neuter over 300 animals during fiscal 2023-2024.
  • $100,000 will address a backlog of 393 spay and neuter procedures, ensuring that pending adoptions can move forward without delay.
  • $57,936 will be used to support ongoing spay and neuter services and animal wellness, as well as to handle unforeseen medical needs that come up during the current fiscal year.
  • $1,900, raised by those who volunteer at the shelter, will provide winter shirts for shelter volunteers to wear during community events and at the facility.
  • $500 will be used to buy blankets and beds for the comfort of animals awaiting adoption at the shelter.

Since animal advocates want to get at the root cause of animal overpopulation in Guilford County, the spay and neuter efforts are considered absolutely  essential.

Last year, Guilford County expanded its expenditure on community spay and neuter efforts to $131,000. The donations being put to use this week will allow the program to sustain its impact.

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