Caring for animals in need

Hamilton County has two major animal welfare organizations, the 153-year-old SPCA Cincinnati and 6-year old Cincinnati Animal CARE. Both are humane societies and no-kill organizations. Cincinnati Animal CARE also runs Hamilton County’s animal shelter, which the SPCA used to operate.

M&M recently sat down with Carolyn Evans, president and CEO of Cincinnati Animal CARE, and her counterpart at SPCA Cincinnati, Chris Seelbach, to help the public better understand the role of each organization, their common ground, differences and challenges.

Where were each of you born and raised and your backgrounds that lead to your current positions?

Evans: I was born and raised in Chicago by a mother who was very passionate about animals. We had dogs, cats, bunnies, reptiles, even a tarantula.

I initially was a road warrior and did management consulting. Then I started a pet photography business and began doing adoption events for groups and got connected to the animal welfare community in that way. 

Eventually, I turned my boutique photography into photographing shelter animals to give them more visibility. I also started an organization called Happy Tails and put together a website where people could see animals up for adoption.

I got involved with the folks at UCAN (United Coalition for Animals) in 2002. Their mission was to address spay/neuter at the time. We got to the point where they were giving out vouchers and working with veterinarians, paying a portion for a lower cost [spay/neuter], but it wasn’t very efficient. 

When they had more funds and wanted to do something different, I became board chair and we opened the first UCAN clinic in 2007, a low-cost, high- volume clinic for dogs and cats. Initially it was in Queensgate and then moved to Camp Washington. 

In 2012, I founded My Furry Valentine, a mega adoption event. We just surpassed 10,000 adoptions in our two-day annual event. 

In 2017, I was at a Best Friends conference where the CEO Julie Castle issued a declaration that we were going to be a no-kill nation by 2025. I came back and shared this vision and after a few months, I realized if somebody was going to do it, it was going to be me.

At the time, [running] the Clermont County Animal Shelter was going to be up for bid. and it was a very high-kill shelter. I pulled together a ragtag team of people committed to saving animals in our community. We bid on the contract and ran Clermont municipal shelter from 2018 to 2020 when it became clear that we [Clermont Animal CARE] were not going to continue because the politics were not aligned with lifesaving. I began looking around.

In 2020, the Hamilton County [municipal shelter] contract was open and looking for change. It was a good opportunity for us. We put together a new organization, Cincinnati Animal CARE, to legally bid on the contract in Hamilton County. We started running the shelter on Aug. 1.

Seelbach: I was born and raised in Louisville but moved here when I was 18 to go to Xavier University, then University of Dayton Law School. I worked for a federal judge and a large law firm in town, but then David Crowley ran for Cincinnati City Council and I worked for him at City Hall. When he passed, I ran for City Council in 2011 and was elected.

Animals had always been a passion of mine. When I got on Council, we immediately repealed the ban on pit bulls. We started an animal task force and banned exotic animals from performing here in circuses, strengthened our tethering laws, and banned the sale of rabbits and cats bred for sale in pet stores.

I was term-limited in 2022, and I met with a lot of people and asked, “What should I spend the rest of my time doing?” I heard a million different ideas, but in every conversation was “Your love for animals makes you happy.” 

Someone told me that Ohio Alleycat was looking for a new executive director. I am a cat person and thought this sounds like heaven to me. It’s cat only, high-volume spay/neuter [clinic], and exactly what I needed. I applied, got the job and was there for two years. 

I was not looking for another job, but SPCA CEO Mike Retzlaff was near retirement age and in January 2025, he came to me and asked, “If I endorse you for my job, would you consider it?” The board and I had frank conversations, the challenges of the animal welfare system, the opportunities that I thought SPCA Cincinnati wasn’t taking advantage of at the time. I started as CEO in March of 2025.

Let’s clear something up right away. Being a no-kill organization doesn’t mean that animals in your care don’t die. Talk about that.

Evans: Yes, there’s a lot of confusion around that language. As the municipal shelter, we have to take in every animal that comes through our doors. For instance, sometimes they have been hit by a car and by the time they get to us and we get them on the operating table, they die or have to be euthanized. The national designation to be called a no-kill shelter is that 90% of your animals come in and go out alive. We have been at 94% for several years.

Seelbach: At SPCA, the animals that come in, at least 98% go out alive. Some have to be euthanized for humane reasons. They are too dangerous or are at the end of their life. Euthanasia is a better word than kill, because it’s about ending their suffering. Like Cincinnati Animal CARE, animals we take in are never euthanized to free up space.

Let’s get right to the basics. What services do each of your organizations provide?

Seelbach: The most basic things we do at SPCA is that we take animals that their owners surrender to us as well as transfers from dozens of other shelters that are overcrowded. 

We get those animals healthy enough to be adopted and then we adopt them out. It takes medical, sheltering, food and then adoption.

Behavioral care also is incredibly important for dogs. Many of the dogs surrendered to us already have behavioral issues which make them harder or impossible to adopt. 

Every one of our dogs is in a structured play group where they interact, get out a lot of energy, and check each other. It helps them get adopted. 

We also have the Chow Now Pantry for people who reach out to surrender their pet because they can’t afford food or vet care. 

We gave away 150,000 pounds of free pet food throughout the region last year. We do it at satellite locations throughout Cincinnati so most human food shelters have an SPCA section where you can get free pet food. It’s a huge driver in keeping pets in their homes. We also do free vaccine clinics.

We‘re in 150 classrooms every year, teaching kids how to be good pet owners. We do a lot more than just shelter pets and get them adopted.

Evans: At a high level, we’re wearing two hats. We’re a humane society, but we also hold the county shelter contract, which is only about dogs. So all the work we do with cats and other surrenders falls under our humane society hat, animal intake, providing care for them while they are with us and then trying to adopt them out. 

We brought in four key programs when we became the municipal shelter in Hamilton County: A behavior and training program; fostering because there wasn’t a fostering program; completely expanded our medical care and began doing spay and neuter surgeries in-house, which was quicker and cheaper [than an outside veterinarian]. And we provide surrender prevention services, too, to help owners keep their pets.

We also have humane agents who respond to calls about animal cruelty and neglect.

Are your full-time humane agents retired from law enforcement?

Evans: A lot of folks who have worked at Cincinnati Animal CARE have military, law enforcement or security backgrounds. We are not actively looking for a chief dog warden at the moment because we’re rebuilding that department. The person overseeing it now, Meaghan Colville, is one of our founders and a certified humane agent and dog warden. 

We both work with the sheriff’s department and the police in certain cases. They have the ability to do a lot of this work, but it’s not their priority.

Seelbach: That was my frustration when I was on Cincinnati City Council. We could pass laws but if the police didn’t understand the law and there was no training on animal welfare, and the law was not a priority, it didn’t mean anything. That’s why our own humane agents are so important.

Our chief humane agent, Brandon Corcoran, has been in this work for 30 years. He has more experience in humane enforcement than anyone in Hamilton County.

Is there much contact and cooperation between your two organizations?

Seelbach: I can only speak to the last 16 months, but I think and I’ve heard that we’re working together more and better than we ever have. I hope that’s true and I’ve worked hard at it. We intake and transfer from Cincinnati Animal CARE. When there are medical or behavioral cases, we try to do our best to help when we can on an ongoing basis. I feel good about our relationship.

Evans: There’s room to improve, but it’s definitely been better since Chris has been onboard. He’s really committed to supporting the Hamilton County shelter. If people in the community want a life-saving, no-kill community, it has to start with the municipal shelter because that’s where the strays are brought.

At any time, the majority of dogs both of your organization take in are pit bulls or pit bull mixes. How easy is it to get them adopted?

Seelbach: Their “bad reputation” is less widespread than the media make it seem. There is more of a community of people who love bully-type dogs than any other community of animals that I’ve seen, but the media often portrays pit bulls in a way that overemphasizes fear. I also think in some people’s minds, there’s bias in what animals look like.

I wish there was a simple answer as to why pit bulls dominate shelters, but it’s not simple. They are incredibly cute puppies that get big and strong and that makes them harder to adopt.

Evans: I would say that definitely 65-70% of dogs we have in the municipal shelter are considered some mix of bully breed. People support what we’re doing and don’t want them to die, but many don’t want to bring them into their home. A hundred years ago, pit bull-looking dogs were very welcomed into people’s homes. The Little Rascals dog was a pit bull. Today, they are definitely the most bred and most euthanized, and not everyone is willing to bring one into their home. 

What’s the public’s role in ensuring the success of each of your organizations?

Seelbach: We don’t get a single dollar from a government or tax-funded source. SPCA is incredibly fortunate to have had financial support from the philanthropic community who have given lots of money to animals through the SPCA for 153 years.

We also have 400 volunteers who are incredibly active, working a shift a week. They are primarily walking dogs and trained to facilitate our play groups. We have volunteer teachers who are in our public schools every week. We have people working with our cats and a ton of people fostering.

Evans: Fostering and volunteers are the lifeblood of what we do. We have about 1,200 volunteers who donate around 60,000 hours of their time a year. And we could not do what we’re doing without that support. 

We do get government funding for the contract work [as the municipal shelter] we do, but we heavily rely on additional support from the community.

When we took over the shelter Aug. 1, 2020, we had zero dollars in our bank. To be able to build up to the point where we can do the other things we want to do [as a humane society], we absolutely rely on the public to do that.

So, does that mean you are competing for the same dollars?

Seelbach: I don’t see it like that. I would never ask someone to donate to us and not to Cincinnati Animal CARE. I would encourage them to do both. I think Cincinnati is incredibly lucky to have these two organizations. In my mind, I’m never competing for dollars with another animal welfare organization. There was a perception that we were competitors, but I have worked incredibly hard internally and with Cincinnati Animal CARE to abolish that. We are here to support and cheer each other on.

Evans: I don’t know if it’s competing but there are limited dollars out there. I do think there are a lot of organizations, not just ours, doing a lot of good work. 

There are 75 to 80 smaller animal welfare organizations in the Cincinnati area doing important work that are much less funded than either one of our organizations. It’s important that people understand what each organization is doing and fund what’s important to them. 

What does the future look like for your two organizations?

Evans: We’re always operating behind the eight ball. Our facility was built 65 years ago for a very different community and time of animals sheltering in our county, the dog pound era. It was a catch-and-kill model that was accepted then and the norm in our country. 

The county is finally at a point where they are talking about building a new shelter by 2030. They acquired land last year. 

There will be a huge shift when we have a new animal shelter that Hamilton County can be proud of. This community cares about animals and wants to see them treated better.

The week of Sept. 28, “Shelter Me,” a PBS series will premiere a full-length documentary featuring Cincinnati Animal CARE and how it has transformed municipal animal sheltering in Hamilton County with the support of the community.

Seelbach: We just announced a new $3.5 million medical center in Sharonville, a 4,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility with dedicated surgery space, dental care, isolation and holding spaces for dogs and cats, and a pharmacy.

Our current medical space will become our new foster center that will make fostering at the core of who we are in trying to get every single animal into a home while they are with us. 

We also are opening an adoption center in the heart of the city, in [Over-the-Rhine,] Sept. 17, that will bring our adoption services to where people are living, working, and playing in the heart of the city. It will be a storefront on Main Street where you will be able to see dogs and cats in the window. 

To wrap up our conversation, tell me about your pets?

Seelbach: We have three of our own cats, Jerry, Doe and Dottie. We adopted them from my cousin’s farm when they were 6 weeks old. And we are fostering a cat, Pumpkin, to get her healthy enough for adoption. She was 25 pounds, but she’s lost almost 2 pounds. She’s a media star.

Evans: I have two bully breeds in my house, Sanchez and Toby, one adopted from Clermont County Shelter and the other from the Hamilton County Shelter. I’ve also been fostering a pit bull-boxer mix, Cassidy, for two years, who would never survive the shelter.

To learn more about these two organizations, check out cincinnatianimalcare.org and SPCACincinnati.org.