Minutes Miss the Animal Crisis Mark

City Council minutes went light on San Angelo's loose dog crisis.  The minutes omitted a number of comments about the crisis and the problems with unrestrained dogs on city streets.  Two of those came from Councilmembers.  

Citizen Mary Robinson--“I have never witnessed an animal crisis like I've witnessed here."

Councilman Harry Thomas--“There are more dogs on the streets than there’s ever been.” 

Councilman Tom Thompson--“The dog that bit my wife still has an open gate where it can get out.”

Council minutes also failed to note the number of Concho Valley PAWS people mentioned on page 4.  Two are members of PAWS leadership while the other two are board members.

The city and PAWS partnered on Pets Alive and Best Friends Animal Society programs that choked off shelter intake and pushed "animal sheltering" back on the community.  That's the community PAWS Executive Director frequently calls as having "a large number of irresponsible pet owners."

Flashback to 2019 when Wilson said:

"San Angelo still has a population crisis coupled with a population of irresponsible pet owners which makes it a constant struggle for the shelter and PAWS to prevent euthanasia for space.”--Jenie Wilson, San Angelo Live

Five years of choking off intake put more dogs on the street.  

Combine that with owner failure to spay/neuter and the problem is of another order of magnitude.

City Council learned in June 2023:

Owners claimed 956 cats and dogs in FY22, 282 of which were already spayed/neutered. 44 pet owners have since provided proof of spay/neuter. 24 provided proof of an exemption, such as moved outside city limits, pet is medically fragile, pet has died, etc. This leaves 606 pets still reporting as unaltered. 

We’ve cited or filed a complaint with municipal court for almost 400 animals and are moving through the remaining backlog.

Staff had seven months to work this backlog further, but the shelter's releasing unaltered dogs back to irresponsible pet owners compounds our loose dog issue.

Council also set an expectation that management would hold a Town Hall meeting on animal issues for the purpose of citizen input.  That too did not make the minutes.

The city's "let them roam unaltered" policy for loose dogs has harmed both pets and people.  There are no signs that is going to change.