19-04-2025
Worcester animal shelter halts animal intakes for months amid growing crisis
Since at least November, more than 150 animals have been sent out of Worcester as the city's only animal shelter refuses new intakes due to reaching capacity, creating a growing crisis for the city's Animal Control.
Typically, the Worcester Police Department's Animal Control unit works closely with the Worcester Animal Rescue League (WARL). But the rescue, which currently has 34 dogs, stopped taking in new animals months ago.
Instead, the police department has had to work to find new places to put 156 animals, including 105 dogs and 51 cats, between November 2024 and April, Worcester police spokesperson Joseph Cersosimo told MassLive.
The Worcester Police Department's Animal Control unit has seen a higher intake of dogs, specifically 'unclaimed strays, animals taken into custody through violations and animal cruelty investigations' since November, said Mike Keiley, vice president of the animal protection division of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center (MSPCA-Angell), who works closely with WARL.
After the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) conducted an inspection of WARL between December 2024 and January, the shelter almost received a cease-and-desist order from accepting new animals, Keiley said. MSPCA-Angell stepped in to assist and agreed to help WARL address its capacity problem.
WARL did not respond to MassLive's request for comment.
And the problem possibly started even before November, Keiley said.
'I would say they've probably been at capacity for longer than [November], just because they're really representing one of the only shelter systems in the Worcester area altogether,' Keiley said. 'And Worcester is the second largest city in Massachusetts. There's no doubt there's incredible need.'
Without being able to leave dogs with WARL, Animal Control has been working with other animal control units across the state to rehome dogs in need of adoption or to scan chips to reunite lost dogs with their families.
Additionally, Worcester's animal control officers have been buying some of the food for the animals, a Feb. 26 Facebook post from Worcester police read.
'Since there is such a great need, donations are being requested from the public,' the post read.
In March, Worcester police posted about more than a dozen dogs rescued that were in need of new homes after they were surrendered to police or picked up off the city's streets.
'We have a surplus of them now and we're looking for people to adopt,' Cersosimo told MassLive.
The department's Facebook post featured a video of the dogs that officers have rescued in recent months. Since the post went up on March 31, it has received nearly 200,000 views and 430 people have commented.
But MSPCA-Angell said WARL isn't the only shelter in need — most of the state's shelters, including MSPCA-Angell's shelters, have seen higher numbers of intake needs. MSPCA-Angell operates with four adoption centers that have accepted locally and nationally surrendered animals.
" We choose to be at capacity because we're trying to help so many other organizations and individuals," he added.
After hearing of Worcester's problem and to combat the capacity problem shelters are facing across the state, the MSPCA announced the formation of the Massachusetts Animal Shelter Support, or MASS, Coalition. The group is comprised of several groups, including the Worcester Animal Rescue League, Boston Animal Control, Thomas J O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center, Dakin Humane Society and Berkshire Humane Society.
'The coalition really does aim to increase adoptions and ultimately reduce euthanasia for animals that are stuck in shelters and helping to get them out so that they can have a successful outcome,' Keiley said.
In dealing with its own capacity issue, MSPCA-Angell has developed various strategies to move 'animals through our system and [get] animals adopted efficiently,' Keiley continued. 'That's what we're trying to share: what strategies are working for us with the other shelters that we're working with.'
Among these strategies is relying on people to foster dogs, according to Sara-Rose Brenner, senior public relations manager with MSPCA-Angell. By giving a dog a home setting to be in, it frees up a kennel for any dog that is surrendered or is taken into the organization's custody following an animal cruelty case. However, it's not as permanent as a dog being adopted.
'It's not a forever situation,' she said. 'The goal is to find forever homes.'
Social media has been another tool to get the word out about animals looking for new families, she continued. It has also helped to spread awareness of the capacity issue and send out to prospective pet owners 'a plea for help.'
The other strategy that has been and will soon be implemented again next week is fee-waived adoption events. From April 21 to April 27, all of the MASS Coalition shelters will take part in the 'Big Dog Energy' fee-waived adoption events for dogs over 1 year old.
Such events are held during vacation weeks with the hope of more turnout at shelters where people can bring out the whole family to adopt, Brenner said.
Past fee-waived adoption events have contributed to lowering the number of dogs at different shelters, including WARL, Keiley said. However, without a new plan in place, the Worcester shelter could not reopen to accepting new animals due to limited staffing and not to 'sacrifice [their] bandwidth' by increasing their intake again.
In addition, MSCPA-Angell officials will be on the ground at these shelters, including WARL, to provide more assistance and, in WARL's case, lower its capacity from 34 dogs down to around the single digits, Keiley said. Through its partnership with MSCPA-Angell, WARL will have 'a better operational plan to move forward so animals can move efficiently and effectively through their system and not get backed up in care,' Keiley added.
'We would identify to MDAR that we believe that WARL is ready to confirm what the capacity for care should be,' Keiley said. 'Then MDAR would do an inspection and sign off on it to resume intake. It's going to take longer than we anticipated. We want them to open when they are ready to open without targeting a date. It could be May, it could be later than that.'
However, people can still make appointments with the Worcester Animal Rescue League if they choose to adopt. Adoption fees on the Worcester Animal Rescue League's website vary from cats to dogs to smaller animals like rabbits.
This problem reflects a nationwide trend of animal shelters reaching full capacity, Keiley said. In 2020, MSPCA-Angell had an intake of 451 dogs. That number grew incrementally until 2024, when the intake number more than tripled to 1,437 dogs in MSPCA-Angell's care.
'The important backdrop to this is animal welfare has gone through some turbulent times in the last several years, starting with COVID-19,' Keiley said. '... We saw the entire nation be more excited to adopt animals during COVID-19 and less relinquishment of animals to animal shelters.'
During the 'return to work' phase later in the pandemic, operations at Massachusetts animal shelters saw drastic changes with staff and leadership turnover, Keiley said.
The shelter has seen a change in leadership as well. Kristin Mullin's LinkedIn page states she's still the executive director and a recorded voicemail message to the executive director's phone number still says her name. But the shelter confirmed with MassLive that she is no longer in that role. Kathy Jamieson is currently the interim executive director of the Worcester Animal Rescue League.
Shelters during the pandemic also saw a low intake of dogs despite a high interest in adoption, Keiley said. As more people returned to work in person, this flipped as interest dropped and shelters saw intakes increase.
It was 'the perfect storm of all challenges [that] really locked up animal welfare and created all these big challenges, and that's reflected here at Worcester Animal Rescue League, but not unique to Worcester Animal Rescue League,' Keiley said.
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