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������Ƶ worry, without the thousands of hours they spend walking dogs, cleaning kennels and promoting adoptable pets every year, the animals will suffer. Over the past few weeks, they have sent at least a dozen emails to County Council members and the health department, which oversees the shelter.

“I can’t think of any shelters in the area or beyond that operate without volunteers,” said Meagan Estep, who has donated her time at the shelter for a little over a year. “It’s so confusing to me.”

But St. Louis County officials said they need some time to take stock of the staff and programs as they take back the shelter in Olivette from the nonprofit Animal Protective Association, which has been running it for two years.

“While we work to hire new staff, implement new training, design new programs, procure essential resources and build upon a new vision, we ask for your trust and support in this process,” Dr. Kanika Cunningham, the county’s health director, wrote in response to people who emailed with concerns. “We value the work that volunteers have contributed and look forward to welcoming volunteers back to the shelter when foundational and essential operations are in place.”

Doug Moore, spokesman for County Executive Sam Page, said there’s no timeline for when volunteers might be welcomed back.

For the past two years, the county has paid the APA $3.2 million annually to operate the shelter, which for years had suffered from poor conditions, understaffing, overpopulation, euthanasia scandals and disagreements with volunteers.

When the APA of Missouri took over operations in December 2022, its staff found the shelter in shambles: layers of feces in kennels, dogs that hadn’t been walked in weeks, a lack of vaccinations and some animals so aggressive staff had no options but to euthanize them.

The nonprofit turned operations around: cleaning, painting, boosting adoptions and intakes and overseeing renovations.

But in August, the organization announced it would pull out of its contract with St. Louis County — three years early. The APA had improved the shelter and wanted to turn its focus elsewhere, President and CEO Sarah Javier said in an email to donors.

The county health department has not fulfilled a Post-Dispatch open records request submitted in early September seeking internal emails about the APA’s decision.

The county will take over shelter operations from the APA on Feb. 21. Cunningham said she did not anticipate hiring the organization’s 50 shelter workers.

Page recommended 54 employees in the $5.2 million animal care and control budget for next year, according to county budget Director Paul Kreidler:

• Two adoption specialists.
• 27 animal control officers.
• Two animal care and control leads.
• One animal care and control supervisor.
• One animal population manager.
• One community outreach coordinator.
• One animal operations manager.
• One environmental manager.
• Two office managers and eight office workers.
• One public health administrator.
• One public health coordinator.
• One public information manager.
• One quality improvement specialist.
• Two veterinarians.
• Two veterinary technicians.

In 2022, prior to the APA taking over, the county had 53 positions in the budget, with just 38 of them filled, said Moore, the county spokesman.

Once staff are hired, the county might first ask employees to volunteer time at the shelter, Moore said. Eventually, other volunteers could come back depending on how much help is needed.

Volunteers are skeptical.

Dale Shuter leads St. Louis County SAVE, a group of volunteers who support the shelter. She said without volunteers, it’s impossible to care for the hundreds of animals there — it typically houses about 230 cats and dogs — or to promote adoptions. SAVE posts pictures and profiles of adoptable animals on social media, not to mention doing the dirty work.

“You can imagine the volume of laundry that needs to be done, doing the dishes, feeding, watering hundreds of animals daily,” Shuter said. “Those things are now being done by volunteers, so I’m just trying to imagine how it will work.”

Currently, 389 people volunteer at the shelter, together donating about 27,800 hours so far this year, said APA spokesperson KT Stuckenschneider.

County Councilwoman Lisa Clancy, a Democrat from Maplewood, believes Cunningham and the health department want the best for the animals. But Clancy has received about a dozen emails from people worried about the lack of helpers, and she shares some of their concerns.

“I don’t see how a strong shelter program can run without volunteers,” Clancy said. “I think that’s a very heavy lift for the shelter staff.”

Cunningham, the health department director, started her job in January 2023, roughly eight months after the county approved the contract with the organization. She declined an interview request, but she answered questions about changes at the shelter at a health department budget hearing last month.

“How is this going to avoid the problems we’ve had in the past with care and staying out of the headlines?” Republican Councilman Mark Harder, of Ballwin, asked Cunningham.

“I am aware of a lot of the problems that took place before,” Cunningham said. “It’s not going to be ran how it was before. It is going to look completely different with a different mission and a different vision.”

Clancy said she hasn’t seen detailed plans yet.

Editor's note: This story was updated Tuesday morning to reflect the correct number of APA volunteer hours so far this year. The organization initially provided the average volunteer hours by month.