About Us
Friends of the Linda L. Kelley Animal Shelter is the official nonprofit organization directly affiliated with the Calvert County Animal Shelter. Our mission is to accept and distribute public monetary donations for the betterment of Calvert's homeless animals. The vision of Friends of the Linda L. Kelley Animal Shelter is to create and sustain a safe and humane environment for all of Calvert's homeless animals.
In September of 2018, four long-time animal welfare advocates, good friends, and Calvert County residents decided to join forces to create the “Friends of the Linda L. Kelley Animal Shelter and Calvert County Animal Control, Inc.”
We've all volunteered in shelters before, fostered countless homeless dogs and cats, adopted our own pets from rescues, transported animals to safety, fundraised, promoted and worked tirelessly for over 20 years each to assist various rescues here in Calvert County. With the new county shelter opening soon, we knew that they would soon be receiving animals with serious medical issues and not have the necessary funding. County-run shelters are funded with tax dollars. Because animals are rarely ever given priority when it comes to funding, animal shelters across this nation operate on severely limited budgets. We’ve seen it all too often where a shelter cannot properly care for a severely injured or ill animal due to a lack of funds. No animal should suffer or be denied treatment due to a lack of funding. Most citizens do not realize the bare-bones budgets that most animal shelters are given for their operations. Shelters across this great nation rely on donations from the public to provide everything that is truly needed to provide the best care possible.
To do this, shelters partner with a non-profit organization, made up of volunteers, whose sole purpose is to raise the necessary funding to ensure that every single animal living at the shelter receives the medical and behavioral care they need. We are that group for the new Calvert County animal shelter, and we are ready to see to it that ALL of Calvert’s homeless animals receive everything they need!
So, we hit the ground running, spent our own hard-earned dollars, and did everything we had to do to legally form this non-profit to partner with the new county shelter! We called everyone we knew and before we knew it, we had an amazing board in place to properly manage our organization.
On October 9, 2018, the late Linda L. Kelley’s birthday, the Friends of the Linda Kelley Animal Shelter received its Maryland charter! To us, this was a sign from our dear friend, Linda, that she approved of the work we were doing.
The vision of the Friends of the Linda L. Kelley Animal Shelter is to create and sustain a safe and humane environment for all of Calvert’s homeless animals.
Your donations will:
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Pay for veterinary care for sick and injured animals at the shelter for which the shelter itself cannot afford. We have a veterinarian on our board of directors who will make prudent and appropriate decisions regarding the most affordable options available.
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Pay for behavioral treatment for animals that are capable of being adopted once training has commenced.
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Pay for necessary supplies for the shelter’s approved foster homes such as crates, food, leashes, collars, and other basic needs.
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Pay for supplemental, unfunded items that the Calvert County Animal Control Department must have to properly conduct animal cruelty investigations. It is our sincere desire that all forms of animal cruelty WILL BE prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
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Pay for any and all additional supplies, treatments, assessments, and other needs in order to provide humane, ethical and appropriate care for the animals at the Linda L. Kelley Animal Shelter.
