Greenbelt Animal Shelter Temporarily Suspends Open Hours

The will suspend some of its activities temporarily, including open shelter hours, Celia Craze, Greenbelt's Director of Planning and Community Development, said Thursday.

An animal control officer is temporarily out of work for health reasons, Craze said, so the shelter is working with reduced staff for the time being. Craze said she could not provide more details due to privacy.

Craze, who overseas animal control for the city, said that they will focus on core functions and suspend open shelter hours and the TNR, Trap-Neuter-Return program.

But Greenbelt residents wishing to see animals can still do so by scheduling appointments.

"We're certainly not abandoning any of our initiatives or programs. We've reorganized given our temporary reduced staffing," Craze said.

Adoptions will continue, as will animal care, shelter upkeep, and the shelter will still run calls for service, according to Craze.

For now, animal control officers Susie Hall's and Lauren Derise's schedules have been reorganized to work around the shortage. Once the shelter has a better idea of how to manage workloads and knows when the worker on leave will be returning, it will resume all of its programs and activities, Craze said.