On November 8, 2020 a Howard County Resident lost her dog, a senior 15 1/2 years old female Labrador that is limping, has medical issues and is both deaf  and cannot see without light.
The resident reached out to the community and soon after discovered that someone has called Howard County Police that took the dog to the Howard County Animal Shelter. 

The owner and many community members made multiple unsuccessful attempts to plead with the Howard County Animal Shelter and Howard County non emergency police to be allowed to retrieve the dog due to her serious medical conditions to no avail due to “shelter not being open to public on Sunday”.  The shelter however has employees coming on Sundays to work and could have accommodated this request if approved by the Administrator and the supervisor of the kennels which was not done.  This is cruel and shows lack of empathy both for an animal with medical needs that is taking multiple medications but for her human family as well that is desperately trying to reunite with the dog. 

I am asking that the Howard County officials  named in this petition amend existing policies and regulations and prevent these types of cruel situations in the future.  While the Howard County shelter can remain closed for non-emergency routine situations it should accommodate requests for retrieval of dogs with medical needs upon confirmation of owners on any day of the week.