12/03/2023
📣 CALL-TO-ACTION 📣
We have had enough! Please consider sending an email and speak up for the shelter pets of San Antonio who can not speak for themselves!
You can use the following draft (be sure to sign it with your name and district number if applicable) or you can write your own!
Here is the draft:
Dear elected officials of San Antonio,
We, the residents of San Antonio, Texas and members of the greater national rescue community, are writing to you today to express our sincere concern with the number of healthy, adoptable dogs that are being destroyed by Animal Care Services, under the leadership of Director Shannon Sims.
Yesterday (March 11, 2023), 14 dogs were destroyed by ACS, including four, one year old, Belgium Malinois mixed breed dogs along with a two year old female (who may have been their mother), who had only been at the shelter since the prior night.
The Belgium Malinois breed is incredibly intelligent, which is why they are so commonly selected for canine police academies. With these dogs at the shelter for less than 24 hours, there simply was not enough time for rescues that specialize in this breed to be notified and given the opportunity to save them.
The previous day (March 10, 2023), a dog named Cooper, who was owner surrendered for medical reasons, was given a final notice by ACS and slated to be destroyed. Cooper’s need of placement caught the attention of many and he quickly had an abundance of offers including two rescues who submitted hold requests, several foster offers, several adoption offers, and a San Antonio resident who had been at the shelter waiting since 10:30 am to adopt Cooper.
ACS placement staff assured everyone that Cooper had a hold and was safe but only minutes later, their report updated to show that Cooper had instead been euthanized. ACS staff claimed it was due to declining medical state and that he had been humanely euthanized earlier in the morning, however this statement was made just minutes after staff had claimed he was safe.
The destruction of Cooper and the five Belgium Malinois dogs brought the weekly number of dogs destroyed to 47 and those are only the ones we are publicly aware of. The number is likely much higher if we consider the dogs destroyed without due process or public notice (the dogs being kept in the locked 200 building) and the dogs that the ACS medical clinic have destroyed due to the clinic’s inability to provide even the most basic services, such as an X-ray.
We are especially concerned to learn that the shelter's live release rate dropped to 83.7% for the month of February, the lowest it has been in the last six years and down from 90.8% from February 2022.
We are also troubled to learn that ACS has not once made their yearly intake goal of 30,000 since 2019. The shelter continues to take in fewer animals and destroy more. This is unacceptable and we are tired of the excuses that Director Shannon Sims continues to use to justify the shelter’s poor performance.
To date, Director Sims has blamed “a lack of funding,” “not enough staff,” “the national vet shortage,” “the pandemic,” “high daily intake numbers,” and “the irresponsible public.”
The Fiscal Year Budget was approved for 21.4 million dollars, the highest it has ever been and municipal shelters elsewhere, who serve a similar size population, do so on smaller budgets and with less staff.
Staffing levels are the direct responsibility of the Director, their commitment to staff retention, and a clear reflection of the Director’s performance as a whole. Why is it that, historically speaking, staffing levels were never a roadblock to the shelter meeting its performance goals, in the past?
Despite the challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, shelters across the nation have had to navigate the same challenges as ACS. But those who were previously committed to no-kill and ensuring life affirming options for every shelter pet they served were among the most resourceful, innovative and creative at forging a path forward, without compromising their no-kill principles or reducing their live release rate.
Despite Director Sims stating on record that his staff is stretched thin by the number of pets coming into the shelter daily, “between 80-100 a day,” published intake levels remain at an all time low, rendering his claim to be false. For ACS to be taking in between 80-100 pets a day, they would be closer to their yearly intake goal of 30,000, but their total intake for the 2022 FY was only 25,834, down from 32,630 in the 2019 FY. In other words, ACS is not overwhelmed with intakes as they claim to be, evidenced by their historically low intake numbers.
Director Sims states that the irresponsible public is driving the issues he faces at the shelter. WE are the public and we show up every day to help support ACS and find placement for these shelter pets. We are volunteers, fosters, adopters, and helpers and we are tired of being told that we are the problem when in fact, we are working to be the solution.
We are tired of the excuses and we demand that you immediately intervene and insist on accountability at Animal Care Services. As a tax payer funded organization that aims to "promote and protect the health, safety, and welfare of the residents and pets (of San Antonio) through education, enforcement, and community partnership" ACS is obliged to use that money transparently and effectively. We need your help to quickly reverse this current regressive trajectory and get back on track to becoming the no-kill city once envisioned and embraced by both the former directors of ACS and previous elected officials.
Sincerely,
(Your name)
(Your district number if applicable)
EMAIL ADDRESSES, please send to ALL! (look in the comments for a copy/paste version):
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
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[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
