09/04/2026
Clallam County No Longer Has an Animal Shelter
A statement from Clallam County’s animal rescue organizations
There is a common misconception in our community that Clallam County still has an animal shelter. It does not.
For many years, Olympic Peninsula Humane Society (OPHS) operated under contract with Clallam County as an open-admission shelter. Following its closure and subsequent reopening, OPHS fundamentally changed its intake model. It is no longer an open-admission shelter and currently maintains a small population of animals in care, with limited to no capacity for strays, animals with behavioral challenges, and many owner surrenders.
We want to be clear that this is not a criticism of OPHS, but we are requesting transparency and honesty to our community. Every organization has to determine what it can responsibly take on. The important point for the community is that the function people associate with a county shelter is no longer being provided.
To fill in the gap, local rescue organizations are each caring for upwards of 30–40 or more animals, and each of us is receiving approximately 30–60 requests for assistance every month. These requests include stray animals, owner surrenders, and animals involved in law-enforcement cases.
We are able to help with only a small percentage of those requests.
The reason is simple: rescues are not shelters. We are private nonprofits with limited facilities, staffing, foster homes, funding, and capacity. None of us is equipped or funded to serve as the county's open-admission shelter.
When a resident finds a stray dog or cat, needs to surrender an animal, or law enforcement needs somewhere for an animal to go, there is currently no countywide shelter with the capacity and responsibility to receive that animal.
That leaves residents, law enforcement, and rescue organizations trying to solve a problem for which there is no adequate system.
We believe the community deserves to understand this reality. Clallam County needs a sustainable animal-services system that provides a true safety net for people and animals—including stray intake, reunification, owner surrenders, law-enforcement cases, veterinary care, affordable spay/neuter, behavioral support, foster and placement resources, and adoption.
The local rescues will continue doing everything we can. But we cannot collectively replace the shelter system Clallam County no longer has.
About this statement:
This statement was developed collaboratively by Peninsula Friends of Animals, Welfare for Animals Guild (WAG), Rise Rescue Alliance, Friends of Forks Animals, and Pawsitive Animal Impact Rescue (PAIR) who all share a commitment to developing a comprehensive, sustainable animal services system for Clallam County. United we stand for the animals and people of our community, with integrity, compassion and strength.
