Shelter Still Lacks Compliance Data on Spay/Neuter Ordinance

The City of San Angelo Animal Shelter does not know how well the shelter complied with the city's spay/neuter ordinance for 2020.  I submitted a public information request:

Please provide information on the animal shelter's compliance with the mandatory spay/neuter ordinance during 2020. Please indicate:

1. Total animals adopted
2. How many were already altered before arriving at the shelter?
3. How many adopted animals had their spay/neuter surgery prior to leaving the animal shelter?
4. How many adopted animals left with an appointment for spay/neuter surgery?
5. Of those that left with an appointment, what was the wait time between leaving the shelter and the spay/neuter appointment (minimum, maximum and average)?
6. How many animals in this category made their appointment and were successfully spayed/neutered as required by city ordinance?

The city responded they don't have the information, despite following a data driven Pets Alive program.  It will take four hours for city staff to calculate the number adopted and how many were spay/neutered.

No records exist for items 2-5.

Labor Charged: $60.00 (estimated four hours to compile at $15/hour 

Estimated Total: $60.00. 

The cost estimate above is for compiling the number of animals adopted and how many were spayed/neutered.

In 2019 Assistant City Manager Michael Dane suggested this information could be part of a monthly report at an Animal Shelter Advisory Committee.  The City Clerk wrote:

Assistant City Manager Michael Dane indicated this information could be considered for mandatory reporting in the new adoption services RFP to be executed in 2020.

Apparently, that never happened.

Oddly, the city was able to provide raw data on item one and two in 2017 from their PetPoint system.  That data showed 75% of dogs left the shelter unaltered with a veterinary appointment, often weeks or months away.  Area veterinarians complained of high missed appointment rates from shelter pets.  

For the first nine months of 2019 only 149 out of 879 pets arriving at the shelter had been spay/neutered.  That's 17.5% fixed upon entry to the City's Animal Shelter.  Had they been adopted nearly 83% would need surgery.

Pets Alive states "sharing data with full transparency builds trust with your community." 

That has not been the case for spay/neuter ordinance compliance for many years, despite vague commitments by city executives.  

I should not be surprised given city leaders once referred to following animal control ordinances at "the red tape way."  

Update 6-21-21:  The city issued the Animal Services RFP in April 2020 and City Council approved Concho Valley PAWS for a new expanded contract in August 2020 via a Zoom meeting.  Shelter Director Morgan Chegwidden told Council changes were made to be more flexible for the vendor and to further the Pets Alive initiative.  PAWS original bid came in at $96,000 per year.  Changes included:

1.  Assigning the spay/neuter and rabies vaccine expense of adopted pets to the selected vendor

2.  Allowing the selected vendor to set and collect their own adoption fees

3.  Opening the hours of operation to be set by the selected vendor

4.  Hosting counseling appointments for owned pets jointly by both the selected vendor and city staff.

The city did not add any the production of compliance information as suggested by Assistant City Manager Michael Dane.  However, the arrangement means PAWS must meet the city's standard contract language from April 2018 on ownership and production of documents.  PAWS had difficulty complying with the city's building permit ordinances during the RFP request and approval period.

PAWS will get $60,000 the first year of the contract and then a five year adjustment will raise the annual contract amount to just below $70,000.  After that the fee escalates 3% per year. 

Also, PAWS can set the adoption fee "at what ever is appropriate for the market or the specific animal."

Update 7-11-21:   Area rescues are spay/neutering animals adopted from the Animal Shelter via Concho Valley PAWS.  Pet owners with new sets of puppies or kittens say the shelter and PAWS refused to help them.  

Update 11-8-21:  The ASAC agenda for October 2021 had a compliance report from Concho Valley PAWS on its spay/neuter compliance with city ordinances.   This is the first such report since the city engaged PAWS as its adoption contractor in early 2017.