Volunteers Needed

We have a wonderful group of people working together to try to help lost and stray animals and to try to better the lives of animals. If you are a compassionate person concerned with the health and welfare of animals, and are looking for a rewarding way to contribute, than please join us in our continued efforts. We are looking for people with new ideas, help in Fund Raising, Community Outreach, Humane Education and Grant Writing. Please email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or come to one of our meetings which is posted on this website. This is a community effort and we can all make a difference!

Bowie CLAW Meeting

09/14/2010
10/12/2010
11/09/2010
12/14/2010

Bowie Community Center |    Huntington Community Center
3209 Stonybrook Drive              13022 8th Street
Bowie, MD 20715                       Bowie, MD 20720
301-464-1737                             301-464-3725

General Council Meeting Information

All meetings begin at 8 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at

Bowie City Hall
2614 Kenhill Drive
Bowie, MD 20715

Regular Meetings are held on the first and third Mondays of each month.

Call the City Clerk's Office at 301-809-3029 to sign up to speak at a Council Meeting. You are allotted five minutes. You do not have to use the entire time, simply indicate that you support BowieCLAWs’ effort and encourage our city government to better protect our animals.

Meetings are broadcast live on the City government channel (Comcast Channel 71 and Verizon Channel 10). The meetings are rebroadcast on Wednesday and Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. and may be viewed form the city’s website.

City of Bowie Website

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Bowie Citizens We Need Your Help

Dear Bowie Citizen:

The Bowie Citizens for Local Animal Welfare (BowieCLAW) need your help.  The issue is concerning the limited services currently being directed towards helping our city’s lost and stray animals. Currently the County facility must handle over 10,000 cats and dogs each year. Of these animals, only 40% are ever returned to their owner, adopted, or even fostered. At the County facility, dogs and cats have less than five days to be found, adopted, or fostered. Sadly, this leaves over 6500 dogs and cats that are euthanized each year right here in our own Gorgeous Prince Georges County. This amounts to 25 cats and dogs euthanized each work day!

Bowie has played a role in this sad destruction. Over 300 dogs and cats are picked up each year by our Bowie Animal Control office and over 400 if you include families that give up or surrender their pets to the County facility. Fortunately, due to hard work, the BAC staff are able to unite almost a third of these animals with a family. But two-thirds of these animals are still sent to the overcrowded County Facility.

Bowie’s animal ordinance currently mandates that all animals handled by Bowie Animal Control be sent to the County Facility. Further, since Bowie does not have a holding facility or temporary shelter, there is little that can be done when a dog or cat is found. However, our local government can change this.

The City of Greenbelt has shown us that we can reverse such an ordinance. Greenbelt, a city one-third the size of Bowie, took the initiative of establishing a variance in the ordinance and constructing a small temporary shelter in order to provide more time for lost and stray animals.

The city of Bowie can do something to prevent the large number of dogs and cats that are being fed into the County’s overcrowded facility. Bowie is the fourth larges city in Maryland, and the largest city in Prince George’s county. We must set an example for others and represent ourselves as humane citizens.

Several recommendations will be made to the Bowie Council. Above all, we will request a variance in the current city animal control ordinance.  Further, among others, we will request that the council support the construction of a small holding facility for Bowie Animal Control. This small facility will provide a few more days for the lost or stay animal to be united with a family or placed somewhere safe.  Five days is not enough. We need this facility just to give our animals a fighting chance.

Every first and third Monday of the Month at 8:00 PM at City Hall, the Bowie City Council holds city hall meetings. We invite you to support our efforts on your behalf by attending these meeting and signing up as a participant speaker.  

Whether or not you are able to attend city council meetings, please send a letter or e-mail to the Mayor, the two Council members at large, and your district Council member to show your support for Bowie animals or call their office to register you support with staff.  A sample letter is provided below and the e-mail addresses of all of the council members are provided after the sample letter.  Working together we can make a very strong statement in support of humane efforts for the animals of Bowie. Please forward this letter on to everyone who could help in our effort to persuade the Council to support efforts to better serve the Bowie’s animals.

Sincerely,

The Bowie Citizens for Local Animal Welfare
(BowieCLAW)

Bowie City Hall
2614 Kenhill Drive
Bowie, MD 20715
301-262-6200 or 301-809-5013 (TTY)
301-809-2302 (FAX)

To determine which district you live in:

View the map of the district and a sample wording for email or letter.

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