Twenty-one years ago, local volunteers joined together to create the Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter. At the time, it was a unique idea – a municipal animal shelter devoted to both public safety and to pet adoptions, with regional reach and support.

Today, we have grown beyond what anyone might have imagined two decades ago. Each year, 500-1000 animals come to the Shelter, are cared for, and adopted to loving families from across the Shoreline and Beyond! More than 20,000 people visit the Shelter each year! In 2023, after extensive renovations and an expansion, we re-opened the Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter which now includes an adoption center and a wellness wing.

In the past few years, we have seen such a huge increase in the number of animal surrenders, abandonments, and neglect cases and many of them arrive at the shelter requiring medical care. Unfortunately, the cost for Veterinary care for all these animals has increased dramatically over the last few years. These animals now often require surgery, medical care and/or physical therapy and wellness care before they can begin their journey of adoption to a loving family. The Dan Cosgrove Shelter provides extraordinary care to all of these animals and we want to ensure the same care for all our animals for years to come.

We have partnered with the Branford Community Foundation to create the Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter Medical and Wellness Endowment Fund. With your help, we can grow this fund to our goal of $2,000,000 so that we can care for the animals that will come to our shelter in perpetuity.