History

Since 1970

Saving Animals & Finding Them Loving Homes

Our History

In 1970, Dr. Clark Fincher Sr. recognized a growing need for animal sheltering in the community and began housing animals out of his veterinary clinic in Galax. By the mid-1970s, the City of Galax responded to the community’s needs and constructed the area’s first official animal shelter, which still serves today as our dog kennel area.

In 2019, Friends of the Shelter launched a capital campaign to expand our facility. Thanks to a generous grant from The Petco Foundation and the support of dedicated donors, that vision became a reality—resulting in the expanded shelter you see today.

After working closely with Friends of the Shelter, Carroll County, Grayson County, and the City of Galax we were able to renovate and modernize our interior dog kennels in the fall of 2025. We are currently in the early stages of phase 3, which will be to renovate and update the exterior areas of the building to help with the health and safety of the animals, staff and volunteers.

The Galax-Carroll-Grayson Animal Shelter provides services for three different animal control agencies. We are an open-admission, managed-intake shelter, meaning we accept animals from the areas we serve on a managed basis but must sometimes make difficult euthanasia decisions when space becomes limited.  We humanely euthanize medically or behaviorally compromised animals that we cannot treat or rehabilitate within our resources. We strive to ensure that every animal entrusted to us is given the quality of life they deserve.