Animal Services in Blount County

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Animal Control in Blount Co.

Alabama requires local governments to pick up and impound loose dogs. Animal Control Officers (ACOs) also respond to reports related to dogs and cats.

Although ACOs may investigate cruelty or address municipal code violations, most Alabama ACOs are civilians who do not have law enforcement authority. The sheriff’s office and local PDs are responsible for the enforcement of cruelty laws.

Blount County’s ACO is a law enforcement officer. Dep. Brock Echols began his post as ACO at the Blount County Sheriff’s Office in August 2024.

Dep. Echols serves 60,000 residents across 650 sq.mi. He shared with us that the job’s workload could keep several ACOs busy; former ACO Sgt. Jeff Kirkland had said the same.

When calling, keep in mind that it may be the following weekday before Dep. Echols is able to respond. Cruelty and hoarding cases are prioritized and can take a full day or longer to address. Simply driving from one call to another can take over an hour. Even with this challenge, Dep. Echols quickly demonstrated great effectiveness by uncovering and ending severe hoarding and abuse situations, two of which had festered for over 15 years prior to Echols’ tenure.

Blount Co. Animal Services At-a-Glance

Report animal concerns according to the location, as noted below. For more information about animal control and enforcement of animal laws, or if your concern is not being addressed, see this guidance.

The City of Warrior is entirely in Jefferson Co, per Blount Co. Sheriff’s Office. All Warrior addresses in Blount Co. are in the unincorporated area.
[County population figure includes municipalities. Altoona is partly in Etowah Co. County Line and Trafford are partly in Jefferson Co. Garden City is partly in Cullman Co. Municipalities listed as § 3-1-5 (RAL column) may also require confinement by ordinance.]

Dog Confinement is Required in All of Blount Co.

The applicable law is indicated in the right column of the table above. See Dog Confinement Laws for details.

• Tags required everywhere. All dogs in Alabama must wear a current rabies tag, per § 3-7A.
• Dog confinement is required by § 3-1-5 and municipal ordinances prohibiting running-at-large (RAL).

How to get help

• Report a loose dog or a RAL violation by following the reporting instructions provided in the table above.
• If you choose to assist a lost, stray, or abandoned pet, be aware of your rights and responsibilities.
• If your pet is lost, see these tips.
• Ask your Commission or Council to require dog confinement.

Impoundment Facilities & Shelters

If your pet is lost, remember to check not only the local shelter or impoundment facility, but also those in neighboring cities and counties.

The Animal Adoption Center of Blount County (AAC), established in 2005, is operated directly by Blount County Commission and is the impoundment facility for all of Blount County. Karen Startley has led the AAC since approximately 2014. Staff includes five full time employees and four part-timers who work weekends and holidays.

To visit dogs and cats at the shelter, turn from Highway 1 into the AAC driveway, then use the callbox at the gate to request entry. Appointments are required only for those who wish to surrender a pet.

The facility has 52 indoor dog kennels, a puppy room, cat room, covered outdoor puppy kennels, and additional uncovered outdoor kennels to which adult dogs are brought while the indoor kennels are cleaned. As of late 2024,

Additional details from Karen:

• Spay/Neuter is performed on all 6 month and older animals prior to adoption, while adopters of younger animals receive a sterilization voucher to utilize when the puppy or kitten reaches the required age or weight, per a June 2026 Facebook comment.
• Foster Program welcomes Blount County residents to care for pregnant or nursing mamas, bottle babies, animals awaiting transport to rescue, or animals who need extra care while recovering from medical treatment.
• Volunteers are also welcome at the AAC to socialize animals, greet visitors, write pet descriptions, or help in other capacities. Adults 55 and older are encouraged to volunteer through the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), a free resource offered by Positive Maturity’s Americorps Senior Corps.
• Animal Census Reports are prepared monthly and can be requested from kstartley@blountcountyal.gov. Data is not posted by the AAC or by the county. I request from Karen each month and post some data at Blount County Shelter Data and post all of the AAC’s scans at the end of each year.

The AAC welcomes donations. Contributions to counties (including the shelter) and municipalities may be tax deductible under IRS Code 170(c)(1). To make a general contribution, please specify “special projects” to ensure that your donation goes to the shelter rather than other county expenses.

• To donate funds via credit card, check, or cash, call or visit the shelter. You will be provided a donation receipt.
• Dog food, kitten food, newspaper, and dog houses are always needed.
• Food, toys, supplies can be selected from the shelter’s Amazon wishlist or this second wishlist.
• Trolley or run lines help neighbors keep their dog on their own property. These donations can be the difference between a dog staying with his family or being surrendered due to challenges with roaming or inability to erect a fence.
• Help animals find homes by sponsoring or donate toward an animal’s adoption fee.
• Include the shelter in your trust or will to enable larger projects and purchases.

Adoption

Adoptable animals are shared on Facebook and on Adopt a Pet. Regular adoption fees are $80–110 for dogs and puppies and $50–70 for cats and kittens; some fees are reduced or waived thanks to donations and for animals that have already been sterilized.

The shelter staff keeps a list of those interested in adopting a certain breed, size, age, etc, or a rabbit, hamster, guinea pig or ferret, so that folks can be contacted when a matching animal becomes available.

Animal Census

Thanks to Director Karen Startley for providing Census Reports each month.

Source: AAC Census Reports for 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026.
YTD’26 = January through September.
Live Release Rate (LRR) = Live Outcomes ÷ Total Outcomes.

A substantial difference between Intake and Outcome totals suggests flawed or missing data and is indicated in Missing Outcomes, Adj. Total Outcomes, and in the LRR — pending accounting from the shelter.

*In 2024, Blount Co. reported 199 fewer outcomes than intakes. In such a situation, normally we would utilize the Intake total rather than Outcomes to calculate the LRR. Since Blount Co. reported 69 more outcomes than intake in the surrounding years (27 more in 2023 and 42 more in 2025), we have adjusted the Missing Outcomes and Adjusted Total Outcomes figure by the 69 additional outcomes reported in the year before and after.

Extremely High Intake: Animal Adoption Center of Blount County intake in 2022 to 2025 has ranged from 33 to 43 animals per 1,000 residents. This is an extremely high per capita intake compared to shelters nationwide, according to Best Friends 2021 data, even accounting for the expected higher intake in rural and poorer areas. Best Friends recorded an average intake of 25.5 animals per 1,000 residents for counties matching Blount’s highly rural, moderately socially vulnerable status.

What Can the Animal Adoption Center of Blount County Do to Reduce Intakes? Even comunities with higher intake rates have succeeded in securing live outcomes for well above 90% of pets. But the higher the intake, the greater the challenge. The AAC has the opportunity to reduce intake and improve positive outcomes through:

• High Volume, Low-Cost Spay & Neuter: Blount County residents have many options for low-cost sterilization, and the AAC reports that nearly all pets adopted from the shelter are now sterilized prior to release to their new family.
• Cat TNR Programs: Trap, neuter, return (TNR) is the only effective and humane method of stabilizing populations of feral and friendly community cats. Though TNR funding is available, Karen reports that residents do not want cats to be returned, and Blount County heeds these residents’ requests — which means ending many cats’ lives.
• Proactive Redemptions: A large number of animals that end up in shelters are actually family pets. Some may be rehomed, others destroyed without their family’s knowledge. Blount County has the opportunity to encourage microchipping (such as by holding an at-cost or sponsored microchip event and including microchipping with adoption) to raise the reportedly low percentage of county pets that have a microchip and to facilitate the reunion of pets with their owners — especially while still in the field (without a trip to the shelter). Currently, animals are scanned for microchips only once they arrive at the shelter.
• Pet Retention Programs: Food banks, trainer referrals, grants for vet care, short term foster plans, and pet help desks are also instrumental. The AAC does no meaningful surrender counseling, the number of accepted owner surrenders is high and rising, and pets are accepted from other counties all while increasing numbers of animals die at the AAC.
• Reduce & Prevent Owner Surrender: The AAC is under no obligation to accept owned animals. By implementing Best Practices, the AAC can provide a safety net without perpetuating a cycle of surrender, acquire, surrender. Surrender counseling leads people to keep their pets more than half of the time.

Low-Cost Spay & Neuter in Blount County

More Options & Information: See Low-Cost Spay & Neuter in Alabama, in St. Clair County, and in Walker County.

Financial Assistance

• Animal Adoption Center of Blount County
• Animal-Angels Foundation Pet Help Desk: 833-754-7542
• Peggy Cropp of FCDF — call or text 205-243-9946

Dog Bites & Attacks in Blount Co.

To have knowledge of a bite or scratch and fail to report it is a crime (§ 3-7A-9). First seek medical attention; then report as soon as possible to:

• Blount Co. Health Department at 205-922-0751, and
• Law Enforcement: Blount County Sheriff’s Office at 205-973-0517, or your police department.

See Dog Bites & Attacks for more information on reporting, quarantine, criminal charging, and legal implications.

Documents & Sources

Blount Co. Documents

• Animal Adoption Center of Blount County Animal Census Data
• Adoption of Alabama Code § 3-1-5, plus additional coverage above.
• Blount County Commission Public Records Request Form (PDF), also accessible from the Blount County website: click the Government menu. Requests may be submitted to the email address on the form.

News Coverage

• Blount County Issues First Pet Protection Ban
• What Will Happen to Your Pet if You Die? and Aggie’s Story
• Blount Countians Care for Animals in Extreme Cold
• Charges Filed in Blountsville Dog Hoarding Case
• One Dead and Two Injured in Cleveland Dog Attack
• Foster Parents Open Hearts & Homes
• Pet a Shelter Cat for Their Health — and Yours
• ACO Jeff Kirkland Praised at Retirement
• Is Alabama Power Spraying Pesticides on Your Property?

County Sources

• Oct. 13, 2026: Karen Startley, Director of Animal Adoption Center of Blount County, kstartley@blountcountyal.gov, discussed AAC and other topics with Kristin Yarbrough on many occasions. Shelter sterilization practices were provided by Karen in April 2025. Staff details are from Karen in late 2024. We appreciate that Karen provides AAC census data via email each month.
• Sept. 2026: ACO Dep. Brock Echols shared animal control information in September 2026 and Aug. 18, 2025.
• Oct. 2025: Mark Staton, Blount County Administrator, 205-973-0285, discussed the AAC in an informal meeting in Oct. 2025 and has assisted with information requests.
• Multiple occasions through Sept. 18, 2025: Sgt. Jason Paul, Public Information Officer at Blount County Sheriff’s Office, 205-625-4127, communicated with thoughtfulness, warmth, and a balance of openness and respect of privacy me on law enforcement operations, making it possible to grasp a bigger picture and to report on topics like dog confinement law procedures with greater accuracy. Then-Sheriff Mark Moon also shared information about the confinement law enforcement procedure.
• Summer 2025: Blount County Commission Chairman Bradley Harvey (who was then a Commissioner) and former Chairman Chris Green spoke openly in summer 2024 regarding the Commission’s adoption of Alabama Code § 3-1-5.
• June 2025: District Judge Sherry Burns did not respond to an email and phone call regarding possession bans.
• June 2025: Circuit Judge Gregory Reid did not respond to an email regarding possession bans.
• Several occasions in 2025: Catherine Denard, former director, Blount County Department of Human Services (DHR), made herself available on short notice for an Apr. 3, 2025, meeting regarding the human aspects of animal hoarding and enthusiasticly invited further collaboration; but follow-up was difficult — as it turned out, Catherine had been quietly replaced as in late July 2025, according to two unverifiable sources and the Alabama DHR website’s listing of an interim director.
• June 3, 2025: Pamela Casey, Blount County District Attorney. The DA’s office ignored or declined several invitations to comment for Blount Countian coverage of animal cruelty and other legal topics. The only call that Casey returned, on June 3, 2025, regarded possession bans in animal hoarding cases. Casey reacted as if the concept was nonsensical, asking me whether I had ever, anywhere, heard of a possession ban being issued; I cited the sentencing of Bobbie Jean Taylor (1, 2), former director of the Lawrence County Animal Shelter. The day after that phone call, Blount County’s first pet possession ban was ordered in an animal hoarding case prosecuted by Assistant DA Patrick Hubauer.
• June 2025: Blount County Probation Office: An Alabama Department of Probation and Paroles (ADPP) officer promptly met with me and spoke openly for reporting on a state animal law topic. I very much appreciate this person who I am not naming due to state department restrictions on communication with reporters.

Municipal Sources

I researched animal-related municipal ordinances in Blount County municipalities in late 2024 and early 2025, which required requesting from the many towns that did not post their records online. (Only Blountsville and Oneonta publish ordinances on Municode.) All requests were submitted informally (via phone or email, without use of a form), and all requests were fulfilled via email without resistance except in Snead, where the town clerk insisted on an in-person request. I shared my thoughts in this commentary.

• Allgood Clerk/Treasurer Teresa Coin, Sept. 3–4, 2024; Jan. 27, 2025; and March 11, 2025. Teresa stated that this is Allgood’s only dog-related ordinance. We also spoke about the inapplicability of the state at-large law due to the municipal license tag requirement. Follow-up information sent Apr. 14 to advise the Council regarding repealing the tag requirement so that the statute would apply in Allgood. On a June 20, 2025 call with Teresa, I learned that the Council had revised the ordinance in May! Teresa emailed the ordinance.
• Altoona Town Clerk Teresa Hutchens, Mar. 13, 2025. Follow-up information sent Apr. 15 to advise the Council regarding removing the tag mention so that the statute would apply in Altoona. On a June 20, 2025 call with Teresa, I learned that the Council had revised the ordinance in May! (Just as happened in Allgood!) Teresa emailed the ordinance.
• Blountsville Interim Town Clerk Melissa Sanseen, Sept. 4, 2024 phone call; Court Clerk Lindsey Hyde, Jan. 8, 2025 phone call; and Code Enforcement Officer Phillip Hathcock via text on Mar. 12, 2025.
• Cleveland Town Clerk Miranda Shirley provided the PDF of the current and previous ordinances and the contact instructions in Sept. 2024, Jan. 2025, and on Mar. 11, 2025.
• County Line Town Clerk Lucy Kiley said on Sept. 4, 2024 that the town has no animal ordinance. (The town posts ordinances and resolutions, though Lucy stated that the lists are not up-to-date.) 
• Hayden Town Clerk Dana Bradford (who also consulted with the police chief), Mar. 12, 2025 stated that Hayden has no dog-related ordinances, to their knowledge.
• Highland Lake Mayor Gail Bailey offered the option to report to police department for quicker response due to limited hours of the Town Office, Jan. 7, 2025 phone call. Ordinances are posted on the Town website.
• Locust Fork Town Clerk April Hudson provided the PDF on Jan. 7, 2025, stating that it was the town’s only dog-related law.
• Nectar Town Clerk Kristel Jones and Mayor Rickey Box via email on Sept. 11, 2024.
• Oneonta Mayor Richard Phillips provided reporting instructions via August 28, 2024 phone call. For follow-up reporting, I spoke on June 23, 2025 with Ashley at Oneonta PD and a magistrate at Oneonta Municipal Court.
• Rosa Mayor Andy Ellis stated on Jan. 28, 2025 that to the best of his knowledge, Rosa has no dog-related ordinances. Thanks to Cheryl Helton for the assistance in reaching Andy.
• Snead: Assistant Magistrate Ashlynn Salmon via phone call on Jan. 8, 2025; Chief of Police Casey Hathcock, Jan. 27, 2025 phone call; Town Clerk Jammie Osborn, Mar. 10–13, 2025 phone calls and emails. Jammie stated that 2016-03 is Snead’s only dog-related ordinance. For follow-up reporting, I spoke on June 23, 2025 with Officer Roper, who said PD had received over 50 complaints this spring alone and that due to dog bite incidents, officers issue a citation on the first offense, if witnessed. Officer Roper also said that dog owners do usually comply.
• Susan Moore Town Clerk Karen Osborne via phone on Sept. 10, 2024.
• Trafford City Clerk Duane Johnson and Ms. Sherrie of Trafford Court, Mar. 13, were able to uncover what they believe to be Trafford’s only dog-related ordinance.
• Warrior Police Department Lt. Stephen Scott, in a phone call on Jan. 8, 2025, confirmed that no ordinances apply in Blount County: although there are Warrior addresses in Blount County, the address corresponds only to the associated post office.

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