The Cleveland Division of Animal Care and Control trapped 436 more “critters” — groundhogs, raccoons, opossums and skunks — in 2024 than in the previous year, an increase of almost 20%. The increase from 2022 to 2023 was less than 3%. Are these animal populations suddenly exploding in the city, or is the division just getting better at catching them?
“That’s a good question,” said division manager Bruce Campbell. “I have no idea. Nobody tracks the movement of nuisance wildlife.”
Signal Cleveland caught up with Campbell to follow up on Animal Care and Control’s presentation during Cleveland City Council’s 2025 budget hearings. Council members voiced no opposition to the planned $3.8 million budget — a 30% increase, one of the largest increases in the Department of Public Safety — and a few mentioned that they hear frequently from constituents about animal-related issues.
“When you talk about council people being on a firing line, everybody at this table is dealing with this issue,” said Council Member Mike Polensek, who chaired the hearing.
“I know that people think that it’s a small issue,” said Council President Blaine Griffin, “but I can tell you every week I have some elderly person who tells me how these groundhogs have eaten through the foundation of their house and everything else.”
Public Safety Director Dornat “Wayne” Drummond told council that he, Campbell and others in the city have been talking about different ways to approach the critter crisis and would return to council when they know more about the scope and cost of those plans.
In the meantime, Campbell told Signal Cleveland, city residents can do a lot to protect their property — and to keep critter populations down — by denying them what they’re looking for most: food and shelter. He advised residents to secure trashcans against raccoons; to fence in or otherwise protect their gardens from four-legged poachers; and to patch holes in porches, garages and other places where small animals can move in and start families.
“Removing them really just sets it up so that another one will fill its space … unless you do something that’s corrective,” Campbell said. The division has more advice on its web site.
In addition to the critter captures, Animal Care also took 3,535 stray dogs off the streets — 518 more than in 2023, an almost 15% increase. At the same time, adoptions at the City Dogs kennel decreased by roughly the same amount. This problem is not unique to Cleveland, but it’s straining the city’s already overburdened system. City Dogs can hold 156 dogs at a time. In early March, the kennel took in 20 dogs on a single Saturday, Campbell said.
The good news is that all of the division’s management positions are filled for the first time in five years, and the 2025 budget increase provides for six new positions, including two animal control officers and two animal care workers. That will bring the budgeted staff total to 37.
“We have a large task ahead of us every day that we come in,” Campbell said. “But it is what it is, and we just keep moving forward every day and doing the best that we can with the people that we have.”
