Inside Cincinnati Animal CARE: The Shelter That Took Over Hamilton County's Dog Warden

According to Cincinnati Animal CARE's own About page, the organization is Hamilton County's only open, stray-intake municipal animal shelter. It is responsible for the county's dog warden and animal control services, and it is the sole taxpayer-funded provider of those services in the county. It is also a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which means it relies on donations to support its work. It operates from 3949 Colerain Avenue in Cincinnati, serving all of Hamilton County.

Open-intake matters as a distinction. It means the shelter takes in animals from the public without turning them away, which is the key difference between a municipal shelter like CAC and a limited-intake rescue, which accepts only the animals it has room and resources for. For more on that difference, see Goldie's answer on the difference between adopting from a shelter and a rescue , and browse the Adoption & Rescue hub for the wider local picture. The organization's About page is where CAC states these basics about itself.

The founding story comes from Cincinnati Animal CARE's own published account, "Inside the Industry: The Foundation of Cincinnati Animal CARE" (January 2024), with context from independent reporting by Cincinnati Magazine (February 2021) and the Cincinnati Enquirer (August 2022).

According to CAC's account, the organization began with a call to action. In 2016, the CEO of Best Friends Animal Society, the national animal welfare organization, issued a call about building no-kill communities. CAC's founding President and Executive Director, Carolyn Evans, responded, and concerned citizens came together around the Hamilton County Dog Warden and animal shelter contract.

To understand the scale of what they took on: Hamilton County covers roughly 450 square miles and is home to about 850,000 people, per the reporting around the takeover.

In 2019, the county selected CAC to take over animal services. In 2020, the organization began operating out of the former SPCA Cincinnati space in Northside, per Cincinnati Magazine's coverage of the transition.

The Enquirer's 2022 reporting, published after the takeover, is worth reading in full. It reported that the transition brought controversy and challenges alongside the reduced killing: the shelter's new model was not universally embraced, and the reporting documented criticism about how the transition unfolded. We present that fairly here, attributed to the Enquirer's reporting.

The numbers below are Cincinnati Animal CARE's own published statistics, released by the organization as part of its transparency reporting. They are the organization's figures, not an independent audit: Good Dog Cincinnati has not audited the underlying data.

CAC reports a live release rate above 90 percent every year since it opened in 2020, a level the organization describes as no-kill status. The site also states that nearly 9,000 animals come through the shelter annually.

As of the organization's July 2026 sixth-anniversary post, CAC reports 28,013 adoptions facilitated and more than 50,000 animals served through sheltering, community veterinary care, pet food and supply assistance, and trap-neuter-return (TNR) efforts.

A live release rate is the share of animals who leave a shelter alive, through adoption, foster, transfer, or return to owner, as a share of intake. It is the standard framing the organization itself uses, and it is the figure behind the no-kill claim.

These are the numbers as reported in mid-2026, and annual figures can shift, so treat them as a snapshot rather than a fixed record. The organization's statistics page is the place to check the current figures.

Each program below is described from Cincinnati Animal CARE's published program pages. We are not adding performance claims or endorsements; this is what the organization publishes about its own work.

Adoption. Adoption at CAC is same-day: no appointment and no pre-application required. As part of Hamilton County's April 2025 "20,000 Reasons to Adopt" campaign, the county announced a $20 adoption fee, and per the county's release the fee includes spay/neuter, a microchip, and vaccinations.

Foster. Fostering at CAC spans the range of animals who need homes, from adult dogs to neonatal kittens, and the organization matches fosters across situations. CAC describes fosters as the backbone that keeps animals out of kennels. If you are thinking about it, our beginner's guide to fostering in Greater Cincinnati is the companion piece, and Goldie has a full answer on what fostering a dog involves .

Community Cats & TNR. CAC's Community Cats program uses trap-neuter-return as the humane way to manage unowned outdoor cats: cats are trapped, neutered, and returned, which prevents population growth and improves the lives of the cats themselves, per the organization's program page.

Pet food pantry. CAC's pet food pantry provides free emergency pet food and supply assistance for Hamilton County residents, per the organization's published listings.

Lost & found. CAC also runs lost and found services to reunite lost pets with their owners.

This section is Good Dog Cincinnati's interpretation, clearly separated from the organization's own description of itself.

What makes CAC remarkable is not just the building on Colerain Avenue. It is the model: a county service run by a nonprofit with a published commitment to transparency, releasing its own "noses in/noses out" data monthly. It is the shift from animal control as enforcement to animal support as community service. And it is the fact that the whole thing depends on community members fostering, adopting, donating, and sharing.

To be honest, the story is not a simple one. The Enquirer's 2022 reporting documented criticism about practices and pace as the transition unfolded, and a community-shelter story that ignored that would not be honest. The transformation has been real, and so has the friction.

If you want to be part of the work, the organization publishes the obvious starting points: adopt from CAC, foster, volunteer, or donate. If you have lost a pet, its lost and found services are the place to start.

Before you adopt, Goldie has two practical guides worth reading: what to ask before adopting a dog and what to know before adopting a dog . And our beginner's guide to fostering covers what it actually involves.

We are not making claims about the impact of any one action beyond what the organization itself publishes. The shelter's own pages are the source of truth for current programs and needs.