ConchoValleyHomepage spoke with Animal Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden on the shelter's plans for 2023. The reporter did not share statistics on dog intake since the city shut that down in November 2022. Their story stated:
“Statistics show that if I impound your pet within six months you’re just going to have a new dog,” said Chegwidden, “In six months I still may have your dog.”
In seven years the shelter may still have your dog.
The promise of a mandatory microchip ordinance included Animal Services Officers scanning lost pets and taking them home without a trip to the shelter. City Council passed that in 2016. San Angelo Live reported:
“We’ll scan that dog and take it back to your house,” Flores (Morgan's predecessor) stated. Additionally, whatever issues arise with that pet in regards to spayed/neutered and licensing will be dealt with at that time.
He continued and said that with the microchip, no tag or veterinarian is involved.ConchoValleyHomepage reported in 2019:
Micro-chipping is required by city ordinance and can help relocate your pet if they ever go missing.
“If your dog gets out and we pick it up, a rescue picks it up, or anybody, a vet’s office can scan that microchip and get a hold of you. That’s how we register pets in San Angelo and we just want folks to have this opportunity,” said Morgan Chegwidden, Assistant Director for Neighborhood and Family Services.
No after hours vets will scan lost pets for microchips. That puts the burden on Animal Services, which spent the last four years reducing services to tax paying citizens via the Pets Alive program. The shelter will not accept owner surrenders due to illness, moving into a senior living facility or death.
A People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) representative offered this after the shelter closed dog intake, per ConchoValleyHomepage.
“Closing a shelter’s doors during a homeless-animal crisis is like shutting down a fire station during wildfire season, and churning out more litters of animals is throwing gasoline on the fire."
The City's new solution to San Angelo's legions of loose dogs? QR code technology.
In order to promote returning lost animals to their owners Animal Services is working on a program affectionately called, “No Naked Dogs.” This program is currently in the fundraising phase and was created to provide a collar and tag for every pet in the community.
When the program launches, the hope is to serve 500 pets in the community and each collar will come with a QR code tag.
Rather than an Animal Services Officer scanning the dog for a microchip the citizen gets to use their phone.
Flashback to when the city moved from issuing metal tags through area veterinarians to a microchip:
"That tag is not a good type of system to ID this dog,” Flores noted. “Very seldom does a dog have its collar when it's loose.”City Council representatives and the City Manager have noted San Angelo's significant loose dog problem. That came about from years of Pets Alive strategies which choked off intake from citizens needing to surrender their pet.
Pets Alive does not prioritize spay/neuter of shelter pets and the City of San Angelo released 1,500 unaltered dogs over the last two fiscal years. The City Attorney's office is researching those for potential citations for failure to spay/neuter their pet per city ordinance.
Animal Services has asked the city for facility improvements, additional Animal Services Officers for the 2023 fiscal budget and a low-cost spay/neuter assistance program funded by the city.
Those funds were not granted in the current budget, so it seems an odd thing to include in the article.
Shelter adoption/veterinary service provide Concho Valley PAWS stopped their low cost spay/neuter voucher program for December and January. Prior to ceasing the program PAWS had 30 dog and 28 cat spay/neuter vouchers available for the month of November. Their website promises an updated program will be announced in February.
Morgan did not share the lengths Animal Services will go to not serve citizens. A loose dog was shot by a retired SAPD officer on Oxford Street. There are conflicting narratives about the circumstances. The City is yet to clarify the situation for citizens concerned about public safety and animal cruelty.
Another San Angelo resident recently had two pet cats killed by loose dogs. The resident was later able to restrain the dogs and called the city for assistance. Between SAPD and Animal Services they determined the dogs were not a danger to the community, despite them having killed two small pets. The resident wanted the dogs away from their home and thought they were a safety concern. After expressing their wish to drive the dogs to the Animal Shelter they were informed they would be arrested for trespassing if they did so.
Years ago I called the Animal Shelter after my mother-in-law was attacked by the neighbor's dog. The shelter had no interest in the case.
In 2017 an aggressive dog pack killed over thirty pets around Glenmore Park. Former Standard Times editor Jack Cowan and the mother of KLST's Carolyn McEnrue live in the area. The Shelter did nothing to address this problem, other than accept the dangerous dogs we trapped.
PETA's letter also stated:
Astonishingly, residents are reportedly now being asked to house stray animals for the city, a plan that’s dangerous for animals and residents alike when untrained laypeople try to do the job of trained animal care and control professionals.
Shirking the city’s responsibility and obligation to protect animals and residents is not a solution to animal homelessness.
The future of the Animal Shelter is less service for tax paying citizens
and more misery for the loose pets they refuse to serve.
“We recognize that first and foremost we were created to keep this community safe…We think we can keep this community safe and save a good many cats and dogs,” Chegwidden said in closing.
Threatening to arrest someone for delivering dogs that killed a number of their pets is the opposite of making the community safer.
Update 1-30-23: Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden informed City Council on 11-1-22 that 70% of shelter animals came from citizens finding stray pets and bringing them to the shelter. That has been severely restricted.
Science based solutions would have had the shelter micro-chipping and fixing every animal since City Council enacted mandatory spay/neuter and mandatory microchip. That didn't happen. The City Shelter released roughly 1,500 unaltered pets over the last two years and is combing through records to issue citations to adopters.
Council heard only 10 out of 178 shelter dogs had microchips or tags on 11-1-23. The city is now pursuing tags with QR codes so citizens can use their phones to scan for owner information.
Update 2-7-23: City Councilman Larry Miller said he believes Animal Control will have an update at the next Council meeting. It is scheduled for 2-21-23 at 8:30 am.
Update 2-12-23: Shelter intake for January was 193 animals. Animal Shelter Advisory Committee will consider the proposed No Naked Dogs QR code tag program at an estimated budget of $6,025.
Update 2-22-23: The February ASAC meeting did not occur as the committee failed to reach a quorum. Hopefully, the ASAC will hold their first meeting of 2023 on April 20, 2023.
Update 5-15-23: The city explained why it releases a euthanasia list. That has long been part of Pets Alive strategies which the shelter adopted in 2019. The families I talk to in San Angelo share how the shelter does not help citizens who've found a loose dog. SAPD officers say similar things about the lack of support from Animal Services.
In 2016 City Council heard how "No Kill" along with mandatory spay/neuter and micro-chipping would transform the city shelter. Staff waited six years to begin serious enforcement of shelter pet spay-neuter. In between staff enacted a series of intake diversions that make it nearly impossible for a citizen to drop off a found or unwanted dog at the shelter. Citizens have been threatened with arrest for trespassing for doing that very thing.
Update 1-17-24: Shelter Chief Morgan admitted to Council that changes at the Animal Shelter "led to pet owners dumping their animals at the Animal Shelter or letting them loose." This was predictable.
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