FMAS is a 501-(c)3 non-profit organization that provides critical medical care, food, shelter, and comfort to the stray and homeless animals of Manchester, NH. Last year we took in 1,300 cats and dogs and provided them with the care they needed before adopting them back out to loving homes. Every dog and cat that comes through the shelter is inoculated against common diseases and then spayed or neutered to ensure that they will never again contribute to the overpopulation problem.

FMAS is currently under contract with the city of Manchester to provide animal sheltering services. As such, the shelter works closely with the Manchester Police Department's Animal Control Division. The shelter is not run by the city, hence FMAS relies upon public donations to maintain the shelter and its animal care programs.

FMAS operates the Manchester Animal Shelter located at 490 Dunbarton Road. The organization consists of 2 full-time staff, 2 part-time staff, and 80-100 volunteers who collectively perform cat care, dog care, medical care, foster care, and reception duties.

Because the shelter operates with such a low overhead, donations to FMAS go almost entirely toward animal care, food, veterinary and medical costs, and facility maintenance.

Management Team:

• Ken Murphy, Shelter Manager
• Shelley Greenglass, Asst. Manager

Board of Directors:
FMAS has an all-volunteer board of directors.

Board Officers:

• Dave Jagodowski, President
• Cassandra Gatsas, Vice President
• Kathie Gosselin, Treasurer

• Journey Ewell
• Barbara Jellie
• Kara O'Donnell
• Holley Ackerson-Uz (director at large)
• Therese Zimmerman (director at large)

FMAS No-Kill Philosophy

The Manchester Animal Shelter is a limited admissions facility. We do not euthanize animals to make room for more. If the facility is full, we stop taking in additional animals and resort to a waiting list to bring in animals on a space-available basis. We currently accept stray or homeless animals only; no personal pets.

This shelter is operated by the Friends of the Manchester Animal Shelter, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. As an organization, we are fully committed to a No-Kill Philosophy which we define as follows:

A No-Kill shelter is a place where all healthy, adoptable, and treatable companion animals are saved and where only those animals that are non-rehabilitable are euthanized.

• Healthy. Animals that have manifested no sign of disease, injury, or a congenital or hereditary condition that would adversely effect their life span, or that is likely to do so in the future. For example, healthy animals may be old, deaf, blind, disfigured, disabled, untrained, or unsocialized.


• Adoptable. Animals eight weeks of age or older who, at the time they are admitted at the shelter, have exhibited no sign of a behavioral or temperamental defect that could pose a health or safety risk to the adopter or any other cohabitants or companion animals in their home. Animals with certain diseases that are not yet exhibiting symptoms are considered adoptable, and it is the policy of the Manchester Animal Shelter to fully disclose any known medical conditions and educate potential adopters about the risks associated with adopting any animal with special needs.


• Treatable. Any animal that is not healthy or not adoptable but that could become so through the administration of medication, special diet, routine surgical procedures, rehabilitation, socialization, or foster care. An animal shall be considered treatable as long as there is the expectation that such efforts would both improve the quality of the animal’s life and extend its longevity, and not just artificially prolong its suffering.


• Non-rehabilitable. Non-rehabilitable animals are neither healthy, adoptable, or treatable. They include: 1) animals for whom euthanasia is the most humane alternative due to an irreversible injury, a disease that has transgressed beyond a treatable state, or advanced age that has affected the animal’s ability to adequately maintain itself in a safe or sanitary manner; 2) vicious animals, the placement of which would constitute a danger to the public; and 3) animals that pose a public health hazard.

These definitions are those established by the Friends of the Manchester Animal Shelter, a non-profit organization based in Manchester, New Hampshire. FMAS believes that all companion animals are deserving of life, respect and care and strives to control local animal over-population through its spay/neuter program and services that focus on education, fostering and adoption.