Lincoln County’s Only Animal Shelter On Its Last Legs, Staff Say

Midcoast Humane Executive Director Jess Townsend believes animal shelters provide a vital public service. However, with her organization’s Edgecomb shelter deteriorating, Townsend and her team are concerned about whether that service will continue to be accessible to Lincoln County residents, both human and animal.

“There’s a reason why there’s a shelter in Lincoln County. We need a shelter in Lincoln County. The community needs it, and the animals do too,” Townsend said during a Thursday, Nov. 21 town hall meeting organized by Midcoast Humane at the Central Lincoln County YMCA in Damariscotta.

Operating between two shelters – one in Brunswick and one in Edgecomb — Midcoast Humane serves 39 towns from Falmouth to Somerville and cares for nearly 3,500 animals yearly, according to the organization’s website.

Services range from adoptions to low-cost wellness clinics, behavior programs, a pet food pantry, and more. Every town within Lincoln County contracts with Midcoast Humane to accept and care for stray, seized, and surrendered animals.

Townsend, who stepped into the role of executive director in 2021, would like to expand the variety of services Midcoast Humane offers. However, one barrier to the feasibility of this within Lincoln County, she said, is the state of their Edgecomb facility.

Staff, volunteers, and board members said conditions at the deteriorating facility created a defeating working environment, impeded their relationship with the greater community, and made for suboptimal conditions for the shelter pets waiting for forever homes within its walls.

The 27 Atlantic Highway building, originally built as a residential home, was given to Lincoln County Animal Shelter in 1987. The Coastal Humane Society and Lincoln County Animal Shelter merged in 2016 and adopted the name Midcoast Humane in 2018.

Midcoast Humane Community Outreach Manager Tammy Walsh, who works from the Edgecomb building, said that after decades of use as a shelter, the surrounding marsh is encroaching on the building, the septic system is failing, and rats and snakes – drawn in from the marsh – make every day a struggle.

“The snakes seem to be getting bigger every year,” Walsh said at the shelter on Monday, Nov. 25. “And we’ve had to change many things here because of the rats.”

These changes range from purchasing expensive chew-proof totes to protect donated animal feed to giving animals housed at the Edgecomb facility additional vaccinations to prevent rat-borne illnesses.

Inside the converted residence, walls and kennels are falling apart. Though Townsend credited the ingenuity of volunteers and staff with keeping the facility together, she noted these fixes – like patching holes in chain-link kennel walls with panels ripped from dog crates – cannot be expected to last forever.

Though Townsend said the time remaining until conditions at the building become untenable is difficult to guess, operations may have to cease within a handful of years. In that event, Lincoln County would be left facing a potential state of limbo in which residents would be forced to drive out of county to other adjacent shelters, located in towns like Brunswick, Augusta, or Thomaston for services.

Townsend believes a shelter with room for additional services – from affordable veterinary care to dog training classes, meet-and-greets, and even community events like puppy yoga – would benefit Lincoln County residents for years to come. Whether Midcoast Humane is able to realize that vision will depend on the organization’s ability to find a site and fund the project.

Rebuilding on the existing site would leave the shelter still combating marsh rats, snakes, and struggling with water quality and septic, said Townsend. Furthermore, changes to wetland zoning since the building was first constructed would limit the shelter to rebuild within its existing footprint, preventing any expansion.

Due to the intense cleaning chemicals used at animal shelters, a site with town sewer is far preferable to a septic system, Townsend said, which makes the towns of Wiscasset, Newcastle, Damariscotta, and Boothbay – all with public sewer – attractive options for a potential new site. However, as audience members noted at the town hall, land in those areas may be difficult to acquire.

Furthermore, any hypothetical project would require fundraising efforts, said Townsend. Currently, she said, the organization does not have the capital on hand to take action to address the problems with the Edgecomb campus.

“I know what we need, but here’s the kicker. I can’t fund any of it right now,” she said.

Townsend pointed to the recently completed construction of Midcoast Humane’s new Brunswick shelter, which Townsend said preceded the Edgecomb project because it was needed even more urgently. When Townsend joined the organization in 2021, work on the new shelter was well underway.

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Though Townsend acknowledged a capital campaign to fund a Lincoln County campus may be in Midcoast Humane’s future, she did not have an estimated cost for such a project. At this phase in the process, she said, the organization is chiefly interested in gauging what community members desire from an animal shelter, provided they are interested in retaining a Lincoln County shelter at all.

The least expensive path forward would entail closing the Edgecomb facility to consolidate services in Brunswick. While Lincoln County towns could still contract with Midcoast Humane, many people may not be willing to travel the distance out of county to reach Brunswick, Townsend said. Other nearby animal shelters are already at capacity.

This situation, said Walsh, would leave locals with limited options. From an animal welfare standpoint, she said, it was imperative that Lincoln County not be left without a shelter.

“Where would all these animals go? My biggest fear about it all would be that we’d find a lot more dogs thrown out in the woods,” she said. “We’d find a lot more cats that are not getting care, that are dying because they’re not being vaccinated … And even for people, having a lifeline in the area is essential.”

Walsh said she sometimes receives upward of a dozen calls per day inquiring about assistance, including inquiries about Midcoast Humane’s pet food pantry, low cost veterinary services or other support. Sometimes, she said, access to the pet food pantry is enough to keep pets and their owners together, preventing a traumatic separation and keeping animals out of shelters.

“We don’t want peoples’ pets if they’re loved and cared for,” said Townsend.

Walsh and Townsend said responses from the public at the town hall left them believing community members were in favor of a continued Midcoast Humane presence in Lincoln County.

“I think they definitely want to still have a shelter. They definitely want us to be open for adoptions again, to be able to go in and meet the animals,” said Walsh.

Midcoast Humane’s Edgecomb campus is currently open on an appointment-only basis. Reopening fully, said Townsend, would boost the shelter’s presence in the community.

The community also seemed to be open to more services, including low-cost spay/neuter clinics, which could curtail the booming population of feral cats in rural Lincoln County towns, Walsh and Townsend said.

However, Townsend also said the town hall also revealed “varying levels of awareness” about Midcoast Humane’s role in the Lincoln County community. Board member Mickey Gerhard similarly said she believed there was a misconception among members of the public that the Edgecomb location had closed entirely.

“The public can’t be invested in what they’re not aware of,” said Townsend, adding communication and spreading the word would be priorities among staff as they work to find a path forward. “I hope to reengage the community in the shelter, get their support and awareness, and just being on our side that this is a thing that needs to happen.”

For more information about Midcoast Humane, go to midcoasthumane.org or call 449-1366.