Alabama Animal Advocates

GBHS Animal Census Reports

We welcome your updates, additions, corrections, or comments: please email us. Information that you provide can be credited to you or kept anonymous, as you prefer.

GBHS is in Violation of State Accountability Law

GBHS Remains Uncompliant. Even after a year and a half of suppressing legally mandated reports, the 2025 and 2026 documents that GBHS has now posted still do not comply with state law. GBHS has yet to comply with Alabama’s 2015 Animal Census Reporting Act. For over a decade GBHS has maintained government contracts, collected millions in taxpayer funds, and has been entrusted with the care of our animals — all while in violation of the one-and-only instrument of accountability that is required of them by Alabama law.

Previous-Year Data (Also Uncompliant): We compiled previous-year GBHS files from Eye on the GBHS and an unidentified (but likely GBHS) Squarespace server. We combined the monthly reports files into single compilation PDFs for each year. All of the previous-year data we have found can be viewed here:

Some of these reports include remarks and callouts added by the former GBHS staff members who posted them in the Eye on the GBHS Facebook group. None of these reports have been edited in any way by us.

GBHS CEO Allison Black Cornelius’ Attempt to Gaslight Us

In a July 28, 2026, 5:16 a.m. Facebook post, after multiple failed requests for state-mandated reports, we publicly mentioned that 2024 was the most recent year from which GBHS had shared data. On Aug. 3, CEO Allison Black Cornelius replied to another of our posts, stating:

Hey you geniuses.
They’re on our website.
Always have been

The reports “always have been” in the GBHS FAQ, Cornelius claimed, attempting to gaslight us. To rewrite history. To deny facts.

The documents were NOT there all along. Cornelius’ claim that the documents that she had withheld “always have been” on the GBHS website, right there under our noses the entire time, is demonstrably false.

Verify for Yourself. The truth is that GBHS could not have posted the documents any earlier than the afternoon of July 28, 2026 — the very same day we publicly mentioned GBHS’s noncompliance. Cornelius’ flippant statement that the documents “always have been” on the GBHS website is conclusively demonstrated as a lie, by once again, GBHS’s own files:

GBHS’s Manipulation of Animal Census Reports

CEO Allison Black Cornelius described the data provided by her organization as GBHS’s Complete Organizational Results. Complete is an accurate description in the sense that the figures are provided only in aggregate. That is, GBHS documents combine government contract data with private GBHS activities unrelated to the organization’s government contracts, without defined separations or subtotals

The figures represented in the data are shown in this table:

Type of Data Records Classification 2024 Totals
Public Intake: Animals taken in as part of a government contract. Animal Census Reporting Act § 3-10-3
 17,538
total animals
Private Programs: Animals that GBHS intakes from various private sources (e.g., Bissell Pet Foundation, extracontractual disaster relief efforts or hoarding case assistance, animals received from rescue organizations). Private or Community Services provided through GBHS’s operation as a private nonprofit (as opposed to as a government contractor).
Private Services ("Community Care"): A tally of services rendered for prviate citizens and private corporations. 7,594
services rendered
Private Services ("CCDP/TNVR"): A tally of feline sterilization surgeries performed on animals not part of any government contract. 2,231
surgeries performed

Only Public Intake Data is Prescribed by the Animal Census Reporting Act. Because GBHS (a) aggregates rather than separates private and public intake and (b) does not provide data specific to each county, city, or contract, GBHS Complete Organizational Results do not comply with state law.

No Private Program or Private Service is a Census Act Prescribed Data Point. These services are provided by GBHS’s operation as a private nonprofit. GBHS may, of course, share information about their private nonprofit work, but Private Programs or Services are unrelated to GBHS’s government contracts.

Greater Birmingham Humane Society (GBHS) noncompliant Animal Census Data
GBHS December 2024 "Animal Census Report," with markings that we added, as explained below.

This is NOT an Animal Census Report. Despite GBHS’s title, which we’ ve circled in red, this is not an Animal Census Report. Only the highlighted items present data prescribed by the Animal Census Reporting Act in § 3-10-3. The crossed-out numbers and categories are NOT Animal Census data. They represent Private Programs and Services performed as part of the organization's operation as a private nonprofit.

The Census Reporting Act states in § 3-10-3:

Any report compiled by the owner, operator, manager, or director of an animal shelter pursuant to this chapter shall include a statement by the person preparing the report certifying that the report is true and correct to the best of his or her knowledge.

Greater Birmingham Humane Society submited these reports to their government contractors and provides these reports as fulfillment of Public Records Requests (§ 36-12-40, et al) for Animal Census Reports pursuant to the Census Reporting Act. This is a lie.

On July 29, 2026, GBHS CEO Allison Black Cornelius stated:

Our certified reports are public, and GBHS will fulfill every legal reporting obligation.

This is another lie. GBHS has never fulfilled every legal reporting obligation, and GBHS falsifies government contract data by inflating and intermingling it with extracontractual figures.

GBHS Has Provided Only Non-Compliant Records:

Unfulfilled GBHS Records Requests

What GBHS Staff Has Said About Transparency & Animal Census Records:

GBHS is legally required by Alabama’s Animal Census Reporting Act (§ 3-10-1, et al) and Alabama’s Open Records Act (§ 36-12-40, et al) to provide monthly animal census reports. The Reporting Act states, “Reports under this chapter shall be considered a public record and access to the reports shall not be denied for any reason.”

What Happened When We Requested 2025 Records from GBHS:

And from Government Officials:

Most large operations like GBHS share data online (see Huntsville’s reports, for example). but GBHS ceased publishing data on their website some years ago.

GBHS is noncompliant in all three of the counties in which they are a contracted service provider (Jefferson, Walker, and St. Clair). Government officials have stated that GBHS does not provide the required records to them either.

Any Alabama resident may request Animal Census Records from Ivana Sullivan or from Jefferson County Commission, Walker County Commission, St. Clair County Commission, or any of the municipalities which contract animal services to GBHS, including Jasper, Pell City, and every Jeffco municipality that contracts with GBHS ACC.

Do You Have a Correction, Addition, or Comment?

Please see the note at the top of this page.