How to Request Census Reports

How to Make an Official Request

The required format is set by the Open Records Act, Alabama Code § 36-12-40 et seq, the state equivalent of the FOIA. The Open Records Act allows two request formats:

• The county or city may require the use of their own Records Request form. You might find this form on the county or city website or by searching, or you can call to ask whether there is a required form.
• In the absense of a form, requesters may use the simple Open Records Act template found at § 36-12-45 (b)(3).

You can then email your request (see next section) or deliver it personally.

Either way, it can be helpful to confirm receipt by the recordholder right away in order to bypass the Open Record Act’s allowance of 10 business days for the officer to acknowledge receipt [§ 36-12-45].

Who to Request From

We’ve found it to be a coin toss as to who is more likely to be more responsive:

• The shelter director or manager, or
• The county or city government or the organization or individual who is responsible for the shelter.

If you have a friendly relationship with the shelter director or with the county administrator or city clerk, you might start with that person. The important point is that they all are responsible for Census Reports, per § 3-10-3 of the Shelter Animal Census Act.

How to Phrase Your Request

Specify the pound or shelter, the state law governing your request, and the months for which you would like records. Since an Alabama Animal Census Report by definition covers one month, be sure to specify by months rather than years. The shelter is required to maintain reports for a minimum of three years, per § 3-10-4.

Please provide monthly Animal Census Reports for [name of facility], per Alabama Code § 3-10-1 et seq., for January through December 2025.

Please email the records to ___.

We recommend requesting email delivery since that makes it easier to share the records and also since the recordholder is more likely to ask a fee for physical copies.

Troubleshooting

Some of the hurdles you might run into:

• In-person requirements. Some local governments state that requests may only be delivered in person, even though in-person requirements violate the Open Records Act.
• Fees. The shelter, county commission, or city council is allowed to charge a “reasonable fee,” which is undefined. We have never been asked to pay for emailed Census Reports nor more than $5 for paper records.
• Unresponsive officials. If recordholders do not respond to your initial request or to followup calls, emails, or visits, we suggest asking for help or requesting anew from a different official, such as a Commissioner, Councilmember, or ACO.
• Delays. Fulfillment of this simple request is required within 15 business days [§ 36-12-45]. Since every shelter should already be preparing monthly reports, a substantial delay raises questions of poor recordkeeping or intentional manipulation or concealment of public records.
• Unfamiliarity with the Census Reporting Act. Even though the requirement has been in place since 2015, many officials and even some shelter directors have not heard of it. In such cases we suggest you kindly point them to Alabama Code § 3-10-1 et seq and maintain your expectation that the request be fulfilled in a timely manner. If the shelter has not been keeping records, they can start today. You can suggest this free form. (The information about costs and expenses will need to be recorded separately.)
• Incomplete or Unclear Reporting. Please share the Reports with us and we can guide you on next steps.

Per § 3-10-4 of the Census Reporting Act, “access to the reports shall not be denied for any reason.” Unfortunately, though, the Act [§ 3-10-5] grants citizens no legal recourse against recordholders who refuse to comply.

If you run into any of these or other hurdles, please let us know so that we can support your efforts.