30 Range Road    Brunswick, Maine   04011
207-725-5051
hours and directions




About Us
The Coastal Humane Society is a private, nonprofit charitable corporation founded in 1950 and incorporated in 1965. The society exists to help prevent cruelty to animals and to provide shelter care and protection for the area's stray, abandoned and abused animals. CHS receives no federal or state funds, and local funds only through animal control fee-for-service contracts with 12 local towns. Animal control fees amount to less than 20% of our total income. All other funds must be raised through events and private sources. We serve as many as 2500 animals a year.



Our Mission:
  • To assist by all means the prevention of cruelty to animals
  • To alleviate and relieve the suffering of animals occasioned by any cause or causes whatsoever.
  • To establish, operate, and mainain shelter facilities for stray, homeless, or unwanted abandoned small animals.
  • To educate the population in the area served by the corporation and disseminate information and materials pertaining to humane principles in the treatment of all animals.
"The worst sin to our fellow creatures is not to hate them but to be indifferent to them - that's the essence of inhumanity."
George Bernard Shaw


Our History:
  • 1950 Professor Stanley Chase of Bowdoin College served as the Society's first president. The volunteers lease and renovate a barn (near the current shelter site) to serve as an animal shelter. Mrs. Fredericks, who owns the property, is also the first shelter manager.
  • 1955 Mrs. Robert Poland, a local animal lover, purchases the property and agrees to help run the facility. Mrs. Poland served as the Shelter manager for many years.
  • 1966 The board led by Mrs. James Harvie sets up a building committee to construct a new facility. They raise $20,000 for the project.
  • 1975 The current building is expanded to meet increasing demand for space.
  • 1991 The Shelter serves over 2,000 for the first time.
  • 1995 The Shelter develop plans and specifications for a new and larger facility.