Rapidly Growing Pet Population within San Angelo

Concho Valley PAWS announced a special fundraising opportunity where donations would be matched up to $25,000.  The story by Concho Valley Homepage referred to a "rapidly growing pet population within San Angelo."

The City of San Angelo and Concho Valley PAWS teamed up in 2017.  This was several years after City Council passed mandatory spay/neuter for pets and a microchip requirement.  Director of Neighborhood and Family Services Bob Salas suggested these moves would mean fewer strays in the streets and reduce litters of unwanted puppies and kittens.  Citizens wanting to breed their pet needed to obtain a breeder's permit.  Staff stated they'd give citizens a year to comply with the new ordinances and then begin enforcement.  PAWS suggested their work as shelter adoption coordinator would free up staff time for ordinance enforcement.

San Angelo's street animal population grew with each shelter intake restriction (2019).  Owner surrenders went from nearly 3,000 in 2016 to 77 in 2021.  That same year Fox West Texas reported:

San Angelo has been known for having an influx of stray cats and dogs roaming the streets. 

Western Veterinary Hospital owner Dr. Gary Hodges said he gets about 30 calls at his animal hospital about stray dogs walking through the streets. He says it has been worse than ever over the last few years.

In that news report Animal Services recommended citizens not approach a stray dog  and for people to call Animal Control Officer to handle the situation.  Carlos Carillo instructed citizens, saying "We'll go out there and try to get the animal off their property."  

The stray problem got much worse after Council capped the dog population at 180 dogs (2022).  Getting the shelter to make a stray pet visit went from difficult to nearly impossible.  The shelter became a long stay hotel for large, unaltered dogs.

Owners continued to retrieve their unaltered dog(s) from the shelter.  A city effort to track and fine pet owners for failing to spay/neuter their shelter stray went mostly nowhere (less than 10% impact).  Of 674 unaltered pets released from the shelter in FY 2022, 606 remained still reported as unaltered as of June 2023.  

Puppies became a major cause of shelter overcrowding (rising from 507 in FY 2016 to 883 in FY 2022, an increase of 75%).  Only a handful of owners bothered with the required breeder's permit and the city was sparse in issuing citations to offenders.

The rapidly growing street pet population in San Angelo came from years of partnership between the City, PAWS, Pets Alive and Best Friends Animal Society.    Spay/neuter is not a Pets Alive measure and Best Friends was fine with Petsmart allowing unaltered animals    The New Yorker reported:

... Best Friends opposes laws requiring that pets be sterilized, on the ground that such laws are costly to poor people and difficult to enforce, and it did not object to a recent decision by PetSmart Charities, which has been a funder of Best Friends, to suspend its requirement that young animals be fixed before being adopted from a PetSmart store.

Many members of the public are tired of city leaders foisting falsehoods and City Council's "get along-go along" approach to Animal Services not serving the public.  The rapidly growing pet population within San Angelo has no end in sight.  That's a bad path to be on.

Update 6-29-24:   Citizens of Danville. Virginia are in the early stages of dealing with Best Friends.  The Humane Society leader there stated:

“Point A is where we are now with too many animals, too few good homes, and so much neglect and cruelty.  Point C is what every animal welfare organization wants: To not euthanize healthy animals because of space. No-kill proponents want to go from Point A to Point C now. The only immediate way to do that is to close shelter doors.

We have to go through Point B which is to spay/neuter and make sure animals are not neglected or abused. We do not believe animals should be warehoused in shelters for years. Adoption partners, and we have very good ones, do not take animals they believe they won’t be able to find homes for.”

Regarding her dealings with Best Friends Animal Society:

“The misinformation and outright lies astound me.”

Welcome to our world.  City Council should revisit Animal Services in their strategic planning sessions.  

Update 6-30-24:  Concho Valley Homepage reported on a PAWS adoption event at Petco.  The story stated:

Concho Valley Paws is dedicated to saving as many pets as possible from the San Angelo Animal Shelter by facilitating adoptions and running various volunteer and foster programs. 

The lines between the city shelter and PAWS can be difficult to discern.  I imagine there is some fatigue regarding the shelter's frequent publication of dog euthanasia lists.  That may have rubbed off on local donors.  

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....