Our Mission

​Friends of Anne Arundel County Animals (formerly Friends of Anne Arundel County Animal Care & Control) exist to help the thousands of pets that arrive each year at the Anne Arundel County Department of Animal Services and to reduce pet homelessness. It is an IRS-approved nonprofit that was created in 2014 by volunteers at this open-access shelter in Millersville, MD to do what the shelter itself cannot do: Ask donors for funds to supplement the shelter’s slim county budget, solicit in-kind assistance from businesses and individuals and promote the many good things being done by Animal Services for needy pets in Anne Arundel County, both in and out of the shelter.

Thanks to its donors, Friends of AACA helps to improve and SAVE the lives of animals by paying for major surgeries and veterinary specialty care that is beyond the scope of what the shelter itself can provide, adding for improvements to the quarter-century-old shelter itself and supplying enrichment items for the animals there. Because the member of Friends of AACA are all shelter volunteers, we see the needs up close, and we look every day into the eyes of frightened animals that need our help — and yours.