The nonprofit Flagler Humane Society is running out of room. Small wonder. The shelter, operating since 1982, serves homeless, abandoned, and stray animals across Palm Coast, Bunnell, Flagler Beach and the rest of the county.
It’s become a big enough problem that the county government and the city of Palm Coast are considering building their own, government-run shelter. Right now, the two entities have until September to make up their minds.
“There’s capacity issues,” said Palm Coast Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri in an interview with the News-Journal. “We’re growing as a community, and we’re running out of space.”
A joint public meeting between the elected leaders of the city of Palm Coast and Flagler County will be conducted Wednesday, Aug. 6, at 5:30 p.m., to decide the issue. (See below for details.)
Overcrowding attracts activists
The shelter reported having 109 dogs at the beginning of 2024. There are only 56 kennels, according to Amy Wade-Carotenuto, the executive director of the Flagler Humane Society. However, Wade-Carotenuto said that the number includes puppies housed with their mothers, meaning there could be four to 10 puppies in one kennel at a time.
An inquistive kitten peers out from her cage at the Flagler Humane Society, Friday, July 11, 2025.
About 18 months ago, Animal Refuge Flagler was formed to address the shortage of animal care in the area.
“Flagler is one of only 13 counties in Florida’s 67 counties to not have a municipal shelter,” wrote Cameron Orr, one of the lead organizers at Animal Refuge, in an email to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “We have not built a single new kennel space in 22 years.”
But opening a new shelter would be expensive.
Start-up costs
The start-up cost for the first year was estimated to be about $419,000, according to Flagler County Administrator Heidi Petito, who presented the figures to the Palm Coast City Council in early July.
However, she emphasized it is a rough estimate due to issues in gathering data. Over six years, the program was estimated to cost over $2 million. The estimate includes salary for officers, a technician, buying and maintaining vehicles, training, and uniforms.
Plan criticized as overly expensive
“I just can’t believe it’s a half a million dollars to get started in the animal control business,” said Kim Carney, Flagler County commissioner for District 3. “… two vehicles so that two people can drive around. Where are these people sitting all day until they get their phone call that they got to go pick up a dog? What are they doing all day?”
The lack of clarity and action has frustrated Flagler County Commissioner Leann Pennington.
“We’ve been working towards knowing that we wanted to look at a different animal control situation for a year,” said Pennington. “And we’re down to August now, again, and up against this contract. We purposely took that contract from two years to one year, last year, so that we can anticipate moving animal control possibly over to us.”
The Flagler Humane Society currently receives about $466,000 from contracts with Flagler Beach, Flagler County, and the city of Palm Coast, according to a budget provided by the nonprofit. In 2023, the shelter reported about $2.6 million in revenue, mainly due to its merchandise sales and program services. After accounting for expenses, the nonprofit’s net income was about $210,905.
For reference, the Halifax Humane Society, a nonprofit animal shelter in Volusia County, reported about $8.5 million in revenue and had a net income of about $3.6 million.
Support for a new shelter
During a joint meeting between Flagler County and Palm Coast, Pontieri and Councilman Charles Gambaro both signaled support for extending the contract and stricter reporting requirements from the Humane Society.
A new, temporary agreement with the Humane Society could give the city and the county breathing room against the looming contract expiration in September.
“We want to be mindful of definitely not entering into a contract for more than a year,” Pontieri said. “But I think the county is very strongly considering not renewing their animal control services with the Humane Society, but rather either starting their own in-house animal control or using the city’s animal control through an interlocal agreement.”
Pontieri also said she wants more financial and medical accountability from the Humane Society.
“We pay fees as soon as an animal gets brought in through those doors at the Flagler Humane Society, regardless of whether they’re there for 30 minutes; we pay fees, and that’s just not a good use of taxpayer money,” Pontieri said.
Currently, the Humane Society also offers various services, like microchipping, neutering, vaccinations, dental care, and animal surgeries for animals that it takes in. The shelter performs surgeries from Wednesday to Friday beginning at 8:30 a.m., according to Joelene Osterhout, the medical manager for the Humane Society.
The Flagler Humane Society’s tax forms are publicly available.
An official decision is expected at the joint meeting of Palm Coast and Flagler County representatives on Wednesday, Aug. 6, at 5:30 pm. The meeting will be conducted at the Government Services Complex, 1769 E. Moody Blvd., Building 2, Board Chambers. The meeting is open to the public.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Flagler: New shelter or expand Humane Society as deal expires?
