By Billy Liggett | billy@rantnc.com

After alarms have sounded concerning staffing and lack of resources last week, Lee County Animal Control announced in August improvements to the way it communicates with local animal rescue and foster groups (as well as the public) about availability and adoption options. 

The announcement comes after several public critical statements posted online by local rescue organizations and adoption advocates. Among the key concerns: 

  • Reports of multiple animals euthanized due to shelter overcrowding and understaffing,
  • limited transparency around and difficulty learning about animal outcomes,
  • and a decrease in funding for the animal shelter for the current fiscal year compared to last year (a 2 percent, a $22,000 drop).

According to Alyssa “Lizzie” Farr, a Harnett County resident who is actively involved in animal welfare and rescue efforts in Lee County and the region, concerns deserve public scrutiny, but more importantly, changes need to be made to “give [animals] a fair chance at rescue or adoption” without local government making things “unnecessarily challenging” for the shelter to network with local rescue groups. 

“The shelter is consistently at or over capacity, leading to the euthanasia of animals for space, and the problem will only worsen as the county’s population increases if the government does not commit to dedicating more resources to a shelter that already struggles with understaffing and space issues,” Farr said. “The public needs to be aware of this issue to demand transparency from local officials about how the shelter is affected by budget decisions and what the long-term plan is, if any,  to address the growing strain on shelter resources — such as introducing affordable spay/neuter clinics, trap-neuter-release programs, expanded adoption hours/events and more.”

The criticisms come after recent awards handed to Lee County Animal Shelter by the nonprofit group, Best Friends Animal Society, which tagged it as a “No-Kill Shelter” in 2023 and 2024, a signal that the shelter hit a 90-percent adoption rate for a calendar year. That number dropped to roughly 82 percent in 2025, with 1,222 animals adopted and rescued throughout the year. 

No numbers were provided for 2026 so far. 

One organization that has gone public with its difficulties dealing with Lee County Animal Control this year is the Sanford-based nonprofit group It Takes a Village Rescue, which boasts saving more than 2,700 animals since its founding in 2017. In an Aug. 19 Facebook, the organization featured photos of dogs that were euthanized because, “the shelter is no long allowed to partner with rescues on critical cats and dogs.”

The organization, led by Lori St. James, claimed it had reached out to the county asking to present its concerns to the board of commissioners and completed forms to get information on animals it was trying to save, “only to be ignored.”  

“Lee County is going to lose all its rescue help … if we all don’t start standing up for these animals,” the post read. “They are going to lose their no-kill status that was worked so hard by the animal shelter staff and the local rescues to obtain. For two years, Lee County was ‘no kill.’ In the last two weeks they have put down 10 dogs.”

Contacted by The Rant to provide more details about their concerns, a representative of It Takes a Village declined additional comment, stating, “I just had a wonderful phone call with commissioner Samantha Martin. For now I’m going to stand down on any more negative publicity as she seems more than willing to help us fix the things that are going wrong with Lee County animals.” 

Martin admitted to The Rant the shelter has been short-staffed and “unable to both carry out their animal welfare duties and respond to lengthy information request calls and messages.” In order to alleviate some of this, she said, the staff believed the best practice would be implementing a public records request process for the in-depth information requests in addition to sending weekly updates to rescue and foster partners to streamline communications.

Beginning this month, she said, the shelter will be fully staffed and will be able to both “care for the animals and fully communicate with the public and adopt and foster groups.”

Martin said the shelter’s website — leecountync.animalshelternet.com — will continue providing weekly updates to rescue and foster partners, and the county communications team will assist Animal Services in increasing the frequency of their social media posts. 

“The goal has always been to maintain transparency and provide accessible information with the end goal of finding homes for the adoptable animals,” Martin said. 

Hailey Hall, communications manager for Lee County Government, added that shelter staff “work tirelessly” with local rescue groups, and the goal remains to decrease euthanasia rates and improve adoption rates. She said shelter staff will take adoption interest calls to schedule appointment visits and utilize recently implemented processes — weekly email updates to partner rescue and foster groups, regular maintenance of the website and Facebook page, and a public records request process for in-depth inquiries. 

“The primary focus of staff will always be ensuring the welfare of the animals in their care and we recognize and appreciate our local rescue and foster partners for assisting in this mission,” Hall said.  

Martin added that volunteer opportunities are also available to those wanting to help.

“The Lee County Animal Shelter welcomes volunteers to provide enrichment for the animals, including leash-walking and teaching basic commands, along with assisting in light cleaning and helping to capture photos and videos to showcase these animals for adoption,” Martin said. “Volunteer applications are appreciated and are available at
leecountync.gov/volunteer.”