Animal Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden included the following spay/neuter information in the ASAC meeting packet for 10-20-22:
Our prior practice was to educate citizens on the requirement to spay/neuter and refer families to low-cost options, such as Concho Valley PAWS' SNIP voucher program. We’d prefer pet owners avoid court fees and instead invest in their pet. After a 10 days’ grace period, we’d follow up with the citizen to collect proof of compliance and write a citation if no progress was made. With FY22’s large influx of canines under 6 months of age entering the shelter, we had to make a change.
Morgan is a former budget manager and knows numbers. In the just ended fiscal year the shelter released 760 unaltered animals, 688 returns to owner/guardian and 72 adoptions.
That's 63 unaltered pets per month or more than two unaltered pets per calendar day released to the public.
Citations for failure to spay/neuter averaged four per month since the ordinance passed. It is hard to believe 59 of those 63 pet owners in San Angelo actually got their unaltered pet fixed within the ten day grace period, given the characterization that many are irresponsible.
Shelter records show a Husky with two former shelter stays giving birth in June, two months into its third stay. That owner got slated for a citation only after their third violation which resulted in seven puppies.
City documents from 7-27-22 state writing citations for failure to spay/neuter pets would be "kicking an anthill." That doesn't jive with the city's stated practice of issuing citations for citizen noncompliance.
Just after the last ASAC meeting the shelter was closed for days due to a roach infestation. The public saw pictures showing shelter animals under horrific hoarding conditions.
Shelter adoption/veterinary service provider Concho Valley PAWS publicly lamented its lack of audience with city leadership, the city's not taking PAWS up on its many offers to help mitigate the disgusting conditions animals endured and the city's poor pay/working conditions for shelter staff.
The roach infestation, overcrowding, disgusting conditions and PAWS defense for its complicit role are not on the agenda. One might expect an update.
That may happen at City Council as Councilperson Lucy Gonzales asked for a shelter update in today's meeting.
Update 10-20-22: Three citizens attended today's ASAC meeting and asked questions about shelter cleanliness, spay/neuter statistics and plans to comply with the new space restrictions. Most of their questions went unanswered as there was no corresponding agenda item.
Update 10-21-22: Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden said 671 of shelter animals returned to owner remain unaltered, i.e. the city has no documentation showing the pets received spay/neuter surgery. She said the city had about 100 complaints filed/citations written for failure to spay/neuter. Those statistics show the city's practice has been not to write citations 85% of the time. Morgan did not know the amount of fine citizens would have to pay at municipal court for the automatically generated citation.
The shelter is full again and needs help to prevent euthanizing dogs for space.
Update 10-27-22: The City issued a press release with "A message from our adopting agency Concho Valley PAWS." It's on the shelter being full again and has pictures of long stay, large dogs.
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