Severna Park Resident Brings Experience To Administrator Role With Animal Care & Control

Two weeks after Anne Arundel County residents testified about turmoil within the county’s Animal Care & Control agency, Severna Park resident Claudia Roll started as its new administrator on Monday.

Roll joins the agency during a time of needed leadership. A void was created after longtime administrator Robin Catlett and Animal Care & Control parted ways in May. The shelter’s veterinarian, already on leave, submitted her resignation effective August 20. Also, the shelter’s kennel superintendent, an employee with almost 30 years of experience, will retire September 1.

If there is optimism, it is because of Roll’s experience. She most recently served as chief of staff for the Humane Rescue Alliance in Washington, D.C., where she supervised a staff of more than 80 employees. In that position, she oversaw a variety of shelter functions, including animal care, behavior, animal control, humane law enforcement and volunteers. She led the operations team through the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining essential services while increasing foster placement by over 70% and implementing a virtual adoption process.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Animal Care & Control team,” Roll said in a statement. “I’m especially excited for the opportunity to bring my experience to serve the citizens and animals of the county I call home.”

Prior to her work in Washington, Roll worked as a kennel supervisor and as a program manager for the City of Albuquerque’s Animal Welfare Department. In those roles, she oversaw spaying and neutering, fostering and volunteer programs. The department operates two municipal shelters with an annual intake of 24,000 animals.

Her addition to Animal Care & Control may come as a welcome sign to members of the Friends of Anne Arundel County Animal Care and Control charity who raised concerns about the agency during the Anne Arundel County Council meeting on July 15.

“Just today, I literally just came from the shelter … I’m there trying to get help for my kittens that I’m fostering right now that have been sick for two weeks with diarrhea,” said Annapolis resident Lauren Kesslak, who has volunteered with the agency for three years and fostered for four years. “No one knows what’s going on. No one can help.”

In a July newsletter, County Executive Steuart Pittman disputed the notion that Animal Care & Control was in turmoil and that animals were suffering. He opined that the public safety work of Animal Control officers should remain with the Anne Arundel County Police Department but that the shelter function should be separate because “personnel policies, budget priorities, and management style don’t align well.”

“Like shelters across the country, ours has evolved from primarily a euthanasia center to a shelter and adoption center, but unlike most shelters, it’s also responsible for permits and licensing and enforcement of laws,” he said. “It has officers trained to protect the public from animals, and to protect animals from humans who abuse or neglect them. In both cases they bring animals to the shelter, often against the will of their owners.

“When you embed these diverse functions into the police department and house them in a building staffed by a mix of union, non-union, and volunteer human beings who all believe that they are sacrificing for the welfare of voiceless animals, and then you connect those humans with an online army of animal lovers through social media, it’s a recipe for stress, or as has been reported by departing employees in recent years, ‘a toxic work environment.’”

With the hiring of Roll, Pittman and animal advocates hope the agency is in good hands and improves from being a “toxic work environment.”