For Guilford County Animal Services, Greensboro is the whale in the room.
At the Thursday, May 21 meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, the board is scheduled to approve a new round of interlocal agreements that will keep Guilford County providing animal shelter and animal control services for Greensboro and a long list of smaller Guilford County towns through June 30, 2029.
And while those agreements cover everybody from Sedalia to Summerfield, the numbers quickly show where the real money is.
Greensboro alone is expected to pay Guilford County about $956,458 annually under the proposed agreement – nearly 89 percent of the approximately $1.08 million in total revenue the county expects to receive from all participating municipalities combined.
The rest of the municipalities are paying far smaller amounts:
- Jamestown – $13,098
•Oak Ridge – $29,002
•Pleasant Garden – $17,477
•Sedalia – $2,355
•Stokesdale – $21,802
•Summerfield – $38,577
•Whitsett – $2,045
All of the agreements are scheduled to run for three years beginning July 1, 2026 and end on June 30, 2029.
There’s one notable wrinkle: High Point isn’t part of this batch of agreements because High Point handles its own animal control services. However, Guilford County Animal Services still houses High Point animals at the county shelter – and county officials say that agreement is still being negotiated and will come before the board later.
The structure of the agreements is a little different depending on whether you’re talking about Greensboro or the smaller towns.
Greensboro’s agreement is based on actual operating costs: Under the proposed deal, Greensboro pays 50 percent of Guilford County’s actual animal control expenses. The agreement notes that annual “true-ups” could occur if major mid-year changes are needed to improve services.
The smaller towns get charged using a much simpler formula: $3.44 per resident.
So, while Sedalia’s estimated annual payment comes in barely above two grand, Summerfield’s larger population pushes its annual cost to nearly $39,000.
The agreements also shed some light on how Guilford County Animal Services actually operates behind the scenes.
Under the Greensboro contract, Guilford County agrees to enforce both county and city animal ordinances within Greensboro city limits. The county also agrees to provide weekday animal control services from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and maintain 24-hour emergency response capability.
The agreement specifically states that Guilford County Animal Services will:
- humanely secure and protect animals
- attempt to safely return animals to owners
• promote responsible pet ownership
• reduce euthanasia
• provide “courteous, professional, efficient, productive and cost-effective” service
Guilford County also agrees to provide quarterly reports showing response times for dangerous animal complaints, bite reports and other service calls.
Another interesting detail tucked into the Greensboro agreement is the lingering history of the old animal shelter arrangement between Guilford County, Greensboro and High Point.
Guilford County now carries the full financial responsibility for operating the current Guilford County Animal Shelter on Guilford College Road, including capital expenses.
The agreements also make it clear that Guilford County retains full authority over the employees operating animal control services. County employees working under the agreements remain county employees – not city or town workers.
And if something goes wrong legally, Guilford County – not the municipalities – handles the claims and legal defense related to animal control operations.
Loose aggressive dogs, bite incidents, neglected animals, stray cats, rabies concerns, abandoned pets and injured wildlife calls all eventually land somewhere. These agreements determine who answers those calls and who pays up for them.
For smaller towns, especially, outsourcing the service to Guilford County is unquestionably dramatically cheaper than trying to create independent animal control departments complete with officers, trucks, kennels, dispatching and after-hours emergency response.
Even Greensboro – despite being the county’s largest city – appears to have concluded that continuing to partner with the county makes more sense than rebuilding a standalone operation. A few years ago, there was some tension between the city and the county as to how those services were paid for and for a short time some Greensboro City Council members considered having the city do its own thing.
The new agreements to be approved next week also continue a broader pattern that Guilford County has leaned into for years: regional service delivery.
Rather than every municipality duplicating every service independently, Guilford County often acts as the centralized provider for things like animal services, public health functions and other operational areas where economies of scale matter a lot.
In the case of small towns in Guilford County, the wisdom of the economics is pretty obvious.
It would be hard to justify Sedalia building its own animal control department for roughly what amounts to a $2,355 annual county contract payment.
Even Summerfield’s nearly $39,000 annual payment likely wouldn’t cover very much standalone staffing or emergency coverage if the town attempted to fully operate its own department.
Once the agreements are approved next week, Guilford County Animal Services will remain the primary regional animal control operation for most of Guilford County through at least mid-2029.
