A Facebook post showing unsanitary kennels, moldy pet food and dead dogs piled into an incinerator at the Durham County animal shelter began circulating Wednesday afternoon, shared more than 100 times before the organization that runs the shelter pushed back on what the images actually show. The Animal Protection Society of Durham, which operates the East Club Boulevard facility, says the photographs are historical and do not reflect current conditions inside the building.
The photos were posted by a former shelter employee who, according to a statement from the organization, had been separated from shelter employment for more than four months before the post went up. As reported by CBS 17, the Animal Protection Society of Durham says the conditions pictured did not occur during that employee's final months on the job. The shelter did not dispute that the images are real, only when they were taken and whether they represent the facility today.
A Building Showing Its Age
The shelter itself is decades old. The facility on East Club Boulevard was built in the 1970s, according to The News & Observer, which has reported separately on the county's long-running effort to replace it. Durham County approved plans for a new shelter back in 2019, hiring a design contractor and selecting a site on Junction Road in East Durham, and a Colorado-based architectural firm later recommended the county invest $28.2 million in a replacement facility, the newspaper reported.
The scale of the operation helps explain why conditions can be strained. The shelter saw 4,667 animals last year, per the same News & Observer report, and during the week before that report was published it housed 112 cats and 106 dogs inside the building, with another 227 cats and 67 dogs placed in foster homes. The report notes that aging infrastructure and crowding make sanitation harder and contribute to disease concerns inside older facilities like this one. Durham County commissioners approved a $1.2 million budget request in June to support shelter operations, according to the report.
Leadership Changes Since Spring
The Animal Protection Society of Durham says its board of directors placed interim leadership in charge of guiding improvement back in March. Since then, the organization says it has made staffing and leadership changes, expanded training and coaching for employees, established clearer performance expectations and stronger accountability, and increased transparency with volunteers, community partners and the public. The group describes the shelter as having faced aging facilities, insufficient resources and operational problems — the same pressures reflected in the county-level data on its building and budget.
Stacy Bluth, the organization's interim executive director, is positioned as the point of contact for anyone with questions. The shelter says it will host community tours led by its leadership team in the coming weeks, with dates and registration information to be announced on its website, and that it welcomes individuals, community partners and media to arrange visits at other times. Bluth can be reached at [email protected] to set up tours or raise concerns directly, according to the organization's statement.
State Oversight and How Inspections Work
The Animal Protection Society of Durham is subject to inspection by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Animal Welfare Section, which evaluates animal shelters against the state's established requirements. The organization says its inspection reports are public records. Statewide, that same Animal Welfare Section conducted 2,089 inspections last year, resulting in about 50 disciplinary actions, according to CBS17. The outlet's reporting does not detail what those actions involved or tie any of them to Durham County specifically.
North Carolina's administrative rules spell out exactly what inspectors check for. Dog and cat enclosures and exercise areas must be properly cleaned at least twice a day, with full sanitizing required at least weekly if the same animal has stayed seven days or longer. Daily removal of animal and food waste, soiled bedding and debris is also mandated, and food must be free from contamination, wholesome and sufficient in quantity for the animals' needs, per the North Carolina Administrative Code's Subchapter 52J governing the Animal Welfare Section. The same rules require shelters to document the date, signs of illness and cause of death whenever an animal dies, and to retain those records for three years. State agriculture employees are authorized to inspect any area of a regulated facility during normal business hours under the same code.
CBS17's broader investigation found a recent example of enforcement nearby: an inspection at the Wake County Animal Shelter on October 15, 2025 resulted in a $1,400 fine and a warning over cited facility violations, the station reported. No Durham-specific inspection report has been made public alongside this week's photographs, and the statewide figures and Wake County case do not establish what, if anything, state inspectors have found at the Durham facility.
Fundraiser Lands Amid the Fallout
The timing lands awkwardly for the nonprofit. The shelter has a fundraising event, Home for the Holidays, scheduled Saturday at the Washington Duke Inn in Durham, arriving just days after the photographs began spreading online. The Animal Protection Society of Durham maintains that meaningful progress is being made, though it says the work is far from finished, and separately acknowledged that it remains under-resourced with more work ahead. The organization has invited the community to visit, volunteer, foster, adopt, donate or otherwise partner with the shelter going forward.
