Our History

Midcoast Humane once existed as two separate, neighboring shelters, each with long histories of saving animals. Coastal Humane Society and Lincoln County Animal Shelter officially merged to become one organization in 2016, and, in 2018 came together under one name: Midcoast Humane.

Coastal Humane Society, Brunswick

Brunswick Animal Shelter c. 1950

Brunswick Animal Shelter was founded in 1950 by a group of Brunswick citizens concerned with the welfare of the area’s stray animals. The modest accommodation was operated and maintained by volunteers in an old barn at 30 Range Road. Stanley Chase, Professor of English Literature at Bowdoin College, served as its first President.

In 1965, the Brunswick Animal Shelter was dissolved to be replaced by the Brunswick Area Humane Society which was incorporated as a non-profit. That same year, a small two-room facility was built with kennels to care for a few hundred dogs and cats per year.

Lincoln County Animal Shelter, Edgecomb

30 Range Road Facility in the 1960s

Boothbay Region Humane Society was founded in 1959 by community members Lorraine Nickerson, Robert Boyd, Rena Higgins, Estella Walbridge and Daniel Howard.  Since its founding, the organization cared for stray and abandoned animals in the Greater Lincoln County and Sagadahoc County regions of Maine.

The shelter has served the public from its present location at 27 Atlantic Highway in Edgecomb since 1987, and changed to “Lincoln County Animal Shelter” in 2007.

Coastal Humane Society took over operations for Lincoln County Animal Shelter in July of 2015, and officially merged operations in October of that year.