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Partnership that works - LHS and the City of Lynchburg.



The Lynchburg Humane Society has had a long standing relationship with the
City of Lynchburg.  We are very lucky to have a positive association with both animal control and city officials. 


In the State of Virginia every locality needs to have a public animal shelter. Here in our area we are the only public animal shelter that is run by a private humane organization.

The code states: The governing body of each county or city shall maintain or cause to be maintained a pound and shall require dogs running at large without the tag required by § 3.2-6531 or in violation of an ordinance passed pursuant to § 3.2-6538 to be confined therein


So what does that mean? The definition of pound or “public animal shelter” is “a facility operated by the Commonwealth, or any locality, for the purpose of impounding or sheltering seized, stray, homeless, abandoned, or surrendered animals or a facility operated for the same purpose under a contract with any locality.”

The primary role for public shelters in our state is to confine dogs running at large without tags. Public shelters do not have to take in cats or owned animals unless there are local ordinances that require them with the exception of cats or owned pets that are in physical danger. Now with that being said, most public shelters in the state do take in cats and owned animals so it is a common practice even though we are not mandated to do so.

In our city contract it says that owner surrenders are subject to approval by the Society and that we do not have to accept feral cats unless in cases of bite holds and injured animals.  We are so fortunate that the City of Lynchburg understands and supports our programs geared towards helping pet owners and our efforts to curb and manage the community cat population.  It is because of this partnership we have been able to do so much more here in Lynchburg than what is mandated.  Our current 97% save rate is directly related to us working so well together.


We receive a contracted fee from the City of Lynchburg in the amount of $351,697 a year.  Our total budget for just our shelter operation is $1,585,022, this does not include our spay/neuter clinic.  The City’s fee pays for 22% of our entire sheltering budget.  The city does not pay for our no kill programs.  The community and our donors through private donations and grants from foundations are how we are able to continue to provide our services and help over 3,300 pets each year.  We literally need the public to keep the lights on; our utilities costs us around $50,000 a year. 


So what does all this legal budget stuff mean?  We work very closely and cooperatively with the animal control officers in the city.  They investigate pet related cases, they save lost dogs, they manage bite holds, they assist with educational presentations and generally make sure the laws for pets are being followed.  In return we house those pets for the city and take in strays from the public.   But we do much more than what is legally required in regards to what we provide the pets in our center. We do this because it is the right thing to do. We do accept in owned pets but ask that they work with us to try and fix their problems first and allow us to bring the pet in when we have space unless it is an emergency situation, in which we don’t make the pet wait to come in.  We do take in cats, both stray and owned, and we also offer free spay/neuter for outdoor cats living in the city.  Every pet receives vaccinations, screening, vet care and every pet is fixed. As an added bonus we have begun microchipping the adopted pets in hopes to reduce the amount of lost pets in our community. We provide training classes, educational and volunteer opportunities, we provided major medical care for 1,015 pets last year and fixed 7,000 dogs and cats at our spay/neuter clinic.

We are doing great work because of the support and assistance given by you, our constituents and because of the long standing partnerships with the City of Lynchburg. Thank you for making us one of the nationally recognized successful no kill humane organizations doing the contracted work of the city.



A section from our contract with the city about what we accept in as a contracted public shelter.




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