We are a dedicated group of volunteer citizens of Manatee County creating a community. Our goal is for the animals, staff and volunteers at the Manatee County Animal Welfare Bishop trailer kennel property to have the safe, functional, efficient municipal shelter they deserve. Manatee County must have a welcoming facility that prioritizes animal welfare, behavioral enrichment, and low-stress housing. As our only municipal shelter, serving more than 460,000 county residents and 742.8 square miles of land area, is an essential core function, a public safety issue and an important part of our county infrastructure.
Join us at Manatee Shelter Watch on Facebook and help us achieve our goal of having a brick and mortar kennel building at the Bishop Facility in Bradenton, FL.
Why Manatee Shelter Watch Began
By Julie Madison
On December 17, 2025, the county held their ribbon cutting for the prefab kennel trailers. I attended and was horrified. On December 26, 2025, a longtime volunteer, another concerned citizen and I went to take pictures and document the concerns we saw. Two of us brought these issues to the January 6, 2026 BOCC Regular Meeting where Commissioner Kruse told us we were lying. The issues we spoke to on that date include, but are not limited, to:
1.) The layout and design – The 8 prefab kennels are too close to each other, creating blind / tight corners and dangerous spaces. The prefabs are also too far from the yards to be efficient, The distance causes the most common and basic task of taking dogs out to take exponentially more time than it took at Palmetto.
2.) The amount of exposure to the elements- This facility is 95% outside… in Florida… The facility is not designed for any inclement weather days. NOTE: They moved dogs into the prefabs with NO SHADE on the outside half of the runs. They have since added shade, but the tents lock the heat in (documented in May outdoor runs were clocking in at 93 degrees); they aren’t secured properly; and even if they were secured properly, they still aren’t going to withstand any significant weather. It has been confirmed the plan is to take them down and put them back up if winds become intense. We have been through 2 rounds of shade. At minimum we will be going through at least one more round until they figure out it’s not going to be enough to accommodate for all the other mistakes that were made. The yards also don’t have enough protection, right now they are grass which makes them a muddy slop whenever we get rain. As they stand, if they add astroturf the astroturf will get too hot. Most yards only have a 10×10 sq in the middle of the yard for shade. The yards were documented at 107 in the sun in May.
3.) The density – All dogs housed in such close proximity to each other increases risk of mass disease outbreak.
4.) The drains on the outside runs are immediately in-front of the doors. There is also no back stop, so water and debris go over the drains and into the ground further increasing the risk of disease outbreak.
5.) Every basic standard operating task is harder to execute. For example, the sinks are too high to lift the mop buckets full of dirty water. There are no real counters to put food/cleaned bowls on. They don’t have a laundry room for towels. They don’t have a bathing area for dirty dogs.
6.) All the doors are solid, rendering it impossible to see hazards coming in and out of the prefabs. This error has resulted in volunteers not being allowed in the kennel areas. Again, this makes everything more difficult and time consuming.
7.) The ground is uneven and unstable making walking large, strong, untrained dogs more difficult. The risk of ankle sprains/strains has increased drastically for staff and volunteers.
8.) Originally, they did not include corrals around the outside kennel area of each trailer to contain a loose dog. They have now been through 2 rounds of corrals and they didn’t secure the fencing appropriately with concrete. The first round of corrals was so improperly done that it forced volunteers walking dogs directly up against kennels with other dogs barking and lunging.
9.) The gate opening/closing devices are at the top of the 6 ft gates and require 2 hands which is nearly impossible with a dog leash in hand. The difficulty of these gate locks is resulting in volunteers and staff being locked in the yards and needing assistance to get out
10.) There are no real noise reduction materials in the kennels. The noise is loud enough to drive the dogs, staff, volunteers and surrounding neighbors nuts. The trailer kennel dogs can be heard from Blake Medical Center. There have been no notable noise complaints due to barking dogs at the concrete block intake/vet building on the property. The trailers cannot be renovated enough to matter.
11.) The hallways are too narrow. This results in dogs being primarily left outside when weather permits. Currently, they are having to lock the dogs inside between 11-3 due to heat. This is creating additional access issues and makes it more difficult to get all dogs out 2x a day. Additionally, they had to drop capacity down to roughly 50 dogs instead of using the 120 kennels because of how difficult the facility is.
12.) Currently, there is no bathroom close to the kennels. There will be one in the adoption center, but right now volunteers and staff have to hike to the adoption trailer if they have to use the restroom. There are no laundry facilities and is no hot water.
This isn’t a comprehensive list. This is just what I have off of memory. Despite what the county says, these are not growing pains, they are catastrophic failures in design.
All of these issues make this facility at least 4x more difficult to work. They have not hired additional staff. In fact, they recently lost staff. They have lost a lot of volunteers because it’s just not safe. According to an ex-military volunteer, this facility is comparable to a deployment in Afghanistan. That’s a direct quote. This is going to lead to the dogs eventually going kennel crazy, because most are lucky to get out 2x for 10 minutes.
The only way to salvage this facility is to add a concrete addition to the adoption center currently in its final stages. We could add a hallway, with 10 offshoots, each off shoot would have 12 kennels. Each off shoot could empty directly into a yard with an overhang to make tasks efficient and easy during extreme weather (heat and storms).
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