One public information request provided long sought after information regarding the number of citations the City of San Angelo issued for failure to spay/neuter pets that had been in the Animal Shelter.
In a series of memos Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden informed City Council of progress in reviewing unaltered shelter animals returned to owners.
The City Attorney's office created a process that issued citations for citizens who'd retrieved their unaltered pet from the shelter and had not yet provided proof the pet had been fixed.
Information from Morgan's memos to Council officials is below.
October 2022
In FY22, Animal Services adopted out 1,144 cats and dogs, 18 of which we’re working to collect proof of spay/neuter. Owners claimed 956 cats and dogs from us, 674 of which have yet to prove spay/neuter.
December 2022
We’ve cited or filed a complaint with municipal court for over 200 animals and are moving through the remaining backlog.February 2023
Owners claimed 956 cats and dogs in FY22, 282 of which were already spayed/neutered. 31 pet owners subsequently provided proof of spay/neuter. This leaves 643 pets still reporting as unaltered. Several of these have died, moved out of city limits or provided an eligible exemption such as medically fragile.
We’ve cited or filed a complaint with municipal court for almost 300 animals and are moving through the remaining backlog.
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.
November 2023
In FY23, Animal Services adopted out 586 cats and dogs, 20 of which we’re working to collect proof of spay/neuter. 19 of the 20 were too young to have spay/neuter surgery when adopted. For those few remaining, we’re working through the legal process to spay/neuter the final pets.
We’ll update you on FY23 owner redemptions’ progress next month.
Releasing unaltered pets from the shelter is not a new practice. The numbers are below:
FY ended 2021 - 708
FY ended 2019 - 730
Eight month period in 2017 - 500
In the past the city and contractor Concho Valley PAWS counted a spay/neuter appointment as good as having the surgery. Several years ago they eliminated that practice and track appointments and completed surgeries separately.
Morgan's memos to City Council have data that has not been shared with the Animal Shelter Advisory Committee or the public. Recently, I submitted a public information request for spay/neuter compliance data for the last two fiscal years. I received a 58 page document for 2022 instead of the information below.
The following memo was produced one week after I submitted my PIR. The City's response to my PIR for 2023 was a 31 page document.
Adoptions are down from 1.144 in 2022 to 586 in 2023. That's a 49% drop. That should be very concerning.
Update 8-7-24: A former BFAS PR person noted their lack of focus on spay/neuter:
When asked about Best Friends’ spay/neuter initiatives, she answered that they were “not talking enough about spay-neuter, and they've sort of pushed that to the side, and that was one of the things I was told should not be my focus as a PR person and I was very frustrated by that…” Martin also believes that people need to spay and neuter their pets.
Endless loose dogs, endless fundraising opportunities....
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