What happens when you can’t turn your pet in at your local shelter? Mecklenburg County residents are facing that reality after the county-run animal shelter said that starting this month, it will only accept stray and lost animals — not pets surrendered by their owners.
The policy change reflects a deeper issue facing animal shelters nationwide.
Inside Mecklenburg County’s publicly-run animal shelter, rows of kennels line both sides of a long, gray concrete hallway. Every kennel is full and the dogs are all unleashing excited barks.
For shelter employees, this hallway and the noise is their everyday soundtrack. And it’s only gotten louder.
“We [...] could every day put out a note about being at capacity,” said Melissa Knicely, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care and Control’s communication and outreach manager.
Starting this month, the shelter is halting pet surrenders. That means owners who can no longer take care of their cats or dogs can’t drop them off there.
The decision triggered a wave of negative emails and comments on social media. Knicely said she understands the frustration.
“We've been working on a response,” she said. “I think it's good to know [residents are] concerned, first of all. It’s great that they have a concern.”
But that concern doesn’t change the facts: The county shelter is bursting at the seams. And it’s a problem animal shelters are facing across the United States.
“Nationwide ... Shelter Animals Count has been tracking these trends based on 2025 data. They are seeing the length of stay of dogs going up. They’re seeing medium and large dog adoptions doing down,” said Abby Richardson, animal welfare manager at Lake Norman Humane, a nonprofit rescue organization in Mooresville.
Unlike the county-run shelter, Lake Norman Humane is not required to take in all strays and lost pets. But Richardson said her team is still overwhelmed.
“We get more requests than we could possibly manage,” said Richardson. “We are a small rescue. We take in about 500 to 700 animals a year, and we probably get that amount of requests from owner surrenders, strays, and other municipal shelters reaching out to us within a month.”
Four other Mecklenburg County shelters contacted by WFAE also said they were overwhelmed and over capacity.
It’s been an increasing problem for years and Knicely said it all stems from the economy. She isn’t just talking about pet food prices increasing, but a myriad of issues.
“A lot is that ‘I'm moving and I can't afford the pet deposit and the pet rent.’ A lot of it is ‘I'm moving and they are not going to allow this dog because it's on a dog restriction list.’ ‘They are not going to allow this dog because it weighs too much.’”
“The other piece of it is people are getting evicted from their homes because things are costing more. [Or] ‘My animal is sick, but I can't afford the vet care for it.’”
Richardson also highlighted the changing housing market as a factor.
“I think we’re seeing the same stuff here that nationwide we’re seeing,” she said. “[H]ousing and financial pressures are some of the top reasons people are having to surrender their animals.”
Vet costs are also skyrocketing.
“The vets are being charged more, so they're having to increase their charges,” Richardson said. “It's definitely not something vets are doing just to make more money, because they’re not. It's just kind of how the economy is going right now.”
Animal shelters can’t control the economy or the housing market, which means they’re increasingly relying on pet fosters like Courtney Jones, a Lincolnton resident who’s been fostering cats for more than two years. While she doesn’t work at a shelter, she still sees the effects of overcrowding.
“I have had people personally contact me, especially now that I post the animals on Facebook, Jones said. “I have people coming out of the woodwork, sending me messages asking if we can help. And it's really kind of sad because there's not always a way to help people.”
Jones said increasingly her foster pets are staying for months, rather than weeks.
“It's also just across the board harder to get them adopted because there's just so many [animals in need] … all over the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area.”
Jones said she wasn’t shocked by the community reaction to the county shelter halting owner surrenders.
“People get so angry and you can only do what you can do. It’s kind of always been a situation where ‘Oh well, just take them to the pound,’” she said. “That's what you hear people say all the time. And that's just not the solution.”
When even the foster homes are full, shelters are pushed to their last resort. Last week, the Mecklenburg shelter had to euthanize a dog due to overcrowding.
Euthanasia often sparks criticism from animal lovers, and Knicely said it’s become a no-win situation.
“If we start euthanizing too many animals, then we're going to … be caught on the carpet for that. ‘Oh, they're terrible. Their live release rate is 70%. That's the shelter that kills all the animals.’ And so, I have learned in animal welfare that … we are just never right.”
Another controversial topic is owner surrender itself. Many can’t imagine giving up a pet. But often the reasoning is complicated.
Megan Scott, a Mecklenburg County resident who surrendered her dog a couple years ago, said she used to judge those who gave their pets to shelters. “But you truly do never know what someone is going through, or, like, what kind of needs the dog has.”
Scott has bipolar disorder, and said she got the dog from a former manager during a manic episode. She realized over time she was unequipped to handle it.
“That wasn't like an immediate realization because at the time, in the midst of a manic episode, you don't really have any reasoning skills … and in my manic state, I was like, ‘Oh, I'm gonna move to the countryside and I'm gonna build an obstacle course.’ Like I just wasn't thinking clearly,” Scott said.
“So then, when I kind of came down from that, and I talked about it with my therapist, I was like, I cannot give this dog a good life.”
Scott didn’t tell anyone about the incident for a long time. She said she was embarrassed. And the experience changed her perspective.
“I think it’s easy to make the assumption that that person is irresponsible, or they don’t care about animals or whatever, but I don’t know.”
“Just based off of my experience … I don’t pass the same judgment anymore,” Scott said.
Richardson said there are things Mecklenburg residents can do to help.
“Look into what you can do to help the animal welfare organizations near you,” she said. “Are you able to foster? If you find a stray, are you able to hold on to it and help rehome it? That's an incredible help to your local animal control and your local shelters.”
