“Anne Arundel County Animal Shelter,” a woman says as she picks up a phone, “How can I help you?”

A flurry of activity surrounds the front desk, where two other women work with customers. Another employee walks a dog through the lobby to a waiting groomer.

The back door swings open, pushed by a woman with cardboard cat crate in each hand.

“I thought they should be in different boxes,” she says to the cat’s new owner, “They only met an hour ago.”

Among the cats, dogs, rats, rabbits and the occasional exotic pet is an increasing number of chickens.

Down the hall are the administrative offices, and one has an open door with a dog gate spanning from jamb-to-jamb.

Behind a paperwork-covered desk, Robin S. Catlett, the shelter’s administrator for the last five years, is busy.

“We handle between six and eight thousand animals a year,” she said, adding that her staff is just 30 people.

On November 18, 2013, the Anne Arundel County Council passed Bill 79-13 loosening the restrictions on lot-size requirements for poultry. Since then, the number of people raising chickens has steadily increased, according to Catlett, and in turn so has the number of chickens coming into the shelter.

In a typical year, the shelter can see about 50 chickens, but last year the shelter took in more than 200 birds, mostly for protective custody as part of an animal cruelty case, according to Catlett.

Most chickens in the shelter are not part of pending legal action.

“The bulk of them are stray chickens, but we do certainly have some that are taken in,” says Catlett. “Just like a cat or a dog.”

According to Catlett, while some people can’t care for chickens, others can’t have them where they live.

For the shelter, the cost of chicken food and bedding is relatively cheap, however the birds take up space, and their care requires staff time.

While occasionally sick chickens are euthanized, Catlett says that they tend to be place chickens.

Catlett explained that people usually surrender chickens because they haven’t done their research. Some problems people run into are not knowing the sex of their new chickens and violating zoning laws or just annoying their neighbors.

“I think a lot of people may not have researched [...] how to properly care for them, what would be required for them, and what they’re really getting when they purchase a chicken,” she said. “So people end up with some surprises.”

To prevent surprises or to see the requirements for owning chickens, check out the information packet on the county's website.

Also, visit Carl’s Chickens regularly for more information on backyard chickens in Anne Arundel County.