Council to "Accept" Animal Shelter-PAWS Update

City Council will hear from Concho Valley PAWS and Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden on their partnership at Tuesday's meeting.  Together, the Shelter and PAWS adopted Pets Alive and Best Friends Animal Society programming which pushed responsibility for loose pets on to the community by choking off shelter intake.  

The City contracted with PAWS for adoption services in 2017 and the push for Pets Alive/BFAS "managed intake" began in 2019.  Nearly five years later San Angelo has a significant loose dog problem.  

Last month Council asked staff to bring back a prioritized list of strategies with corresponding costs to tackle the crisis.  That is not on the agenda.  This is:

Discussion and review on Animal Services' partnership with Concho Valley PAWS (Presentation made by Neighborhood and Family Services Assistant Director Morgan Chegwidden and Concho Valley PAWS Executive Director Jenie Wilson)

The background packet states:

Summary/History:  Concho Valley PAWS is local 501c3 non-profit organization and a contracted vendor for San Angelo Animal Services to facilitate adoption services for shelter pets, but also provides many other support services. The purpose of the presentation is to provide the council with additional information and knowledge regarding the services offered and how the public-private partnership functions.

Financial Impact:  As a contracted vendor, Concho Valley PAWS will receive $73,792.00 in FY 2024 for the purpose of providing two full-time adoption specialists to promote pets for adoption and facilitate their placement. However, Concho Valley PAWS provides additional services at no-cost to the city, such as medical care for pets arriving or residing at the shelter. All program funding outside the vendor contract is raised by Concho Valley PAWS via donations & grants. Through adoption and low-cost spay and neuter programs, Concho Valley PAWS seeks to reduce the number of animals entering the shelter. Over time, we expect this to help conserve city resources.

Other Information/Recommendation:  Concho Valley PAWS would like to encourage the City Council to support furthering spay and neuter initiatives in San Angelo, as Concho Valley PAWS strongly believes that spaying and neutering pets is key to decreasing the number of stray pets and reducing the burden on city animal services.

The "presentation" is not included in the packet made available to the public.  I hope it includes key performance measures like the number of adoptions.  City provided data shows adoptions fell 49% from FY 2022 to FY 2023:

Staff informed the Animal Shelter Advisory Committee that pets adopted or transferred from the shelter dropped 32% from the prior year.  

The background packet shows staff recommends Council "Accept" the item that has no attachments and nothing under "funding source."

PAWS strongly believes spaying and neutering pets is key to decreasing the number of stray pets and reducing the burden on Animal Services.  They should be happy to explain why PAWS stopped issuing low cost spay/neuter vouchers for two multi-month periods since the September 2022 roach infestation/horrific hoarding conditions crisis.  At that time PAWS promoted their "Be the Change", "Please Spay/Neuter Your Pets" campaign.

The calendar is from December 2022 to September 2023.

PAWS should also be happy to share data on the their spay/neuter programs.  In November 2022 I asked PAWS via e-mail:

I am interested in learning the # of Dog and Cat SNIP vouchers PAWS issues per month. What is the current number issued and does PAWS plan to increase that number to serve the City Animal Shelter?

PAWS did not respond.  

We'll see what questions City Council asks of PAWS and Shelter leadership, the two groups that strategically steered San Angelo into its current crisis.  It's been years in the making and will be years in undoing.