The Greater Birmingham Humane Society

Gbhs is The oldest and largest animal shelter in Alabama, and one of The highest intake shelters in The u.s. gbhs manages animal care and control (acc) for jefferson county, The largest county in The state, and a majority of The municipalities within The county. The purpose of animal care and control is to protect The public from dangerous animals, & to reunite lost pets with their owners. Acc impounded and cared for more than 12,000 abused, neglected, and abandoned pets. Our animal control officers also assist with cruelty investigations, citations, and seizures while holding animals in our facility for law enforcement. Our animal control officers provide 24/7 response. Our average response time is less than 45 minutes and all are officers are naca certified. We vaccinate all animals upon intake. We also trap, s/n, vaccinate, and return feral cats which has saved thousands of cats since The program's inception in 2018.

Gbhs' adoption center serves 12,000 homeless, lost, abused, and neglected animals each year. The center's primary purpose is to find healty and permanent homes for gbhs pets. Each year The center adopts out more than 8,000 pets, transports an average of 80 animals each week to out-of-state shelters , and manages more than 400 fosters. The adoption center has a full-service on-site clinic & employs an average of 35 full-time professionals to care for The animals. Over The past year, our volunteers and shelter animals presented anti-violence and Humane education classes at local schools and in front of hundreds of students. Numerous other volunteers serve The animals and The public each month in a variety of roles ranging from dog walking & cat socialization to adoptions & cleaning.

We operate The gbhs spay/neuter & critical care clinic which provides all veterinary medical services and spay/neuter surgeries for gbhs pets and The pets of low-income, veteran, senior, and chronically ill pet owners. Our hospital also runs The #1 externship program for auburn university's college of veterinary medicine. This program is also provided to vet students at The tuskegee college of veterinary medicine. The externship runs 2-weeks and provides students with soft tissue surgical training and exposure to shelter medicine. This program has improved soft tissue surgical skills of over 200 students and is The #1 externship program at auburn's vet schools. These students also enables ghbs to expand The capacity of our free spay/neuter surgeries.