What Are You Doing Mobile? Animal Welfare Crises on Top of Active Crime
Updated: Aug 22, 2025
City of Mobile Animal Shelter in a crisis.
This is bringing it back home for me. I’m from Baldwin County, just outside of Mobile, so I’ve spent my life visiting this city and county. For years, the people of Mobile have been contributing to the nation’s growing crimes and violence so much so that social media pages post egregious incidents daily.
For example, robbing stores and murdering fellow community members, and these crimes are gradually making their way across the bridge to Daphne, Alabama.
A very close friend of mine recently experienced a neighborhood shooting in Daphne.
Mobile, it’s time to get it together.
Today, we’ll dive into the animal welfare crisis that is running rampant in Mobile City. Something I know for sure about my home area is that the general thought process surrounding animals is that they are property and we can do what we want with them.
So, If we want to sell puppies, we get some dogs and do it. If we want to permanently chain them up outside as a “deterrent” we will do it without a second thought. Even abandoning dogs for convenience -they can be thrown away like trash.
The entire deep south of Alabama needs some serious education on proper animal ownership.
Animal Shelter Crisis.
If Mobile residents are going to handle their animals in such ways, there absolutely needs to be local regulations and adequate funding for the shelter. For the incredibly large city of Mobile, there is only one shelter and the general consensus is that it’s inadequate and severely underfunded.
In 2017, the building was inspected by the city which concluded that it’s very old and needs many repairs and renovations. Built in 1967, the equipment and building are now considered to be hopelessly outdated and non-functional.
The city said if the shelter follows through with the necessary renovations, such as lead testing and adding support beams in the extra dog and cat kennels, they could continue to operate.
Mobile is the fourth most populated city in Alabama with irresponsible pet owners, so at some point the shelter is going to fall apart, and the community needs to step up for them.
Are we sure it's a crisis?
Mobile residents tend to abandon their dogs on a regular basis, so much so that individual residents have started turning their homes into mini shelters. Denise Grier, a mobile resident, shared her experience at a city council meeting a month ago. She had turned her home into a shelter, and claimed to be somewhat of an animal hoarder. After city officials discovered her shelter operation, they seized most of her dogs and they were believed to be euthanized due to the shelter lacking space.
She has observed stray dogs packing up and shared a story about a time she stopped to feed a dog and twelve more came out to meet her. The danger level is off the charts, right? You can't have packs of a dozen dogs controlling an area. This is an older disabled woman so imagine if those dogs were aggressive; she could've been mauled.
This has turned into a public safety crisis.
She was not supposed to be running a rescue and she did not have the means to care for the high number the dogs, but it's not her fault. This type of rescuing will stay in the forefront of people's minds because, as citizens, what are they supposed to do? Their family and friends are put into dangerous situations because city officials won't put their heads together and find a solution for this danger.
That's it, right?
Of course not -it's Mobile
This Wednesday, May 7, a complaint was made to the public safety department leading them to investigate what seemed to be a backyard breeding operation. Animal Control rescued 34 dogs from a Mobile home in the Trinity Gardens neighborhood, 4 of which needed veterinary attention. Several of the dogs were kept in whelping boxes, a boxed pen that breeders normally raise puppies in.
After viewing the pictures provided in the city's inspection report, it looks as though they have about 18 dog kennels located outside. After this week's rescue, they are at 160 animals. The news clip shows dogs free roaming in a fenced area because they have no where else to put them.
The shelter is so overwhelmed they have a number posted on the front gate for individuals to call when dogs get out. Because of this, dogs are euthanized on a regular basis. Mobile Animal Shelter attempted a no kill policy years ago, but quickly became overwhelmed as it proved to be unsustainable.
Shelter staff are desperate for help at the moment, so if you can adopt, foster, donate, or volunteer, contact them immediately. Adoption fees are currently being waived because of the urgency.
Plans for a new shelter.
The city council has been sitting on plans for a new shelter for 2 years now, but Mayor Sandy Stimpson says it simply isn't a priority. In August of last year the city civic center was closed down and prepared for demolition due to safety reasons. The building was genuinely falling apart and the one time I was in it years ago , I did not feel safe in there.
Mayor Stimpson says the city is losing money without the civic center, so it has to take first priority, but the cost is $300 million, with 83% of the cost being financed, and the estimated building time being 2 years.
Mobile currently has four large construction plans on the decision board right now: the civic center, a waterfront park, new police/fire training facilities, and an animal shelter. A site located in central downtown Mobile was cleared out with the plan to construct a brand new building. But, they seriously underestimated the cost as it came out to more than double, at $20 million, after thoroughly designing the buildings and kennels.
I have to say, the city may not know how expensive construction costs are today because this is a consistent theme throughout these building plans. Other than the civic center, each construction plan came out to be more than double the original estimated cost after a thorough design.
"I do believe that 20 million is not an outrageous number. I think people think that an animal shelter is supposed to be like a pole barn out in the field somewhere. But whereas an animal shelter, in truth, is a hospital; it's a classroom; it's a jail, in some cases. It's a community outreach facility." -Anna Bush, President of Friends of the Mobile Animal Shelter
Anna is exactly right. The original plan budgeted for $8 million which could definitely work for a shelter taking in a few dogs a month, but Mobile is taking in a dozen at a time some months. This facility needs to be large enough to house and care for at least 150 animals at any given time.
On April 8, the city council agreed to purchase the vacant Trinity Broadcasting Network building, on the side of I65. While it's not the most ideal area, Councilman Ben Reynolds says it's centrally located and seems to have plenty of room. Reynolds is sponsoring the purchase of the building and advocating for the shelter to be relocated there.
Stimpson has said that the police and fire training facilities remain adequate, so unless they're really serious about expanding the waterfront park, the shelter should take second priority. Hopefully, it can be built simultaneously with the civic center.
Can you do anything?
If you live in Mobile, you can absolutely help -if you're able to. Right now, the shelter will take any support they can get. If you're looking for a fur baby to adopt, see them first before checking the Baldwin County shelters. Fostering for a week or two will lift some weight off of staff's shoulders. And donations are always needed, even if it's bedding or food -anything will help.
Sources
City of Mobile. (October 17, 2027) Facility Condition Assessment. https://www.cityofmobile.org/pdf/PC60828394%20-%20359%20-%20Mobile%20Animal%20Shelter%20-%20FCA%20-%2010-17-17.pdf
Kirby, Brendan. (April 1, 2025) With construction costs escalating, Plan B for Mobile Animal Shelter may be old TV studio. Fox10 News. https://www.fox10tv.com/2025/04/01/with-construction-costs-escalating-plan-b-mobile-animal-shelter-may-be-old-tv-studio/
Kirby, Brendan. (April 8, 2025) Mobile City council votes unanimously to buy building for new animal shelter. Fox10 News. https://www.fox10tv.com/2025/04/08/city-council-votes-unanimously-buy-building-new-animal-shelter/
Mallory, Ariel. (May 7, 2025) City of Mobile Animal Shelter takes in 34 dogs after alleged abuse in Trinity Gardens. Fox10 News. https://www.fox10tv.com/2025/05/07/city-mobile-animal-shelter-takes-34-dogs-after-alleged-abuse-trinity-gardens/
Scheurich, Hal. (May 6, 2025) Daphne PD: Drugs, fake money spark shooting at apartment complex; 3rd suspect arrested. Fox10 News. https://www.fox10tv.com/2025/05/06/daphne-pd-drugs-fake-money-spark-shooting-apartment-complex/
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