SAN ANGELO, TX (Concho Valley Home Page) – Concho Valley PAWS representatives presented several solutions to address the ongoing pet overpopulation crisis as part of their discussion with the San Angelo City Council during the council’s Feb. 19 meeting. 20 meetings.
The discussion, held as an agenda item Calling it a “discussion and review of Animal Services’ partnership with Concho Valley PAWS,” it began with CVPAWS Executive Director Jenie Wilson detailing the organization’s history and partnership with the city of San Angelo.
The past
According to Wilson, CVPAWS began in 1961 and operated under the Tom Green County Humane Society. She also emphasized that the humane society, and by extension CVPAWS, is concerned with rescue services and is not responsible for processes such as animal control, ticketing and licensing.
“We’re a separate entity from animal control, but we work very closely,” Wilson said. “We chose to work not as opponents, but as an alliance with our animal control because we can focus on a common goal, and that is to save lives.”
Since its inception, CVPAWS has been able to accomplish its mission to “reduce the homeless pet population in the Concho Valley and end the killing of adoptable pets” through donor-supported implementation of programs and services aimed at accessibility.
The partnership forged between CVPAWS and Animal Control helped reduce San Angelo’s pre-2016 euthanasia rate by 76% – a number that marked the city as having one of the highest animal killing rates of shelters in Texas – to 49% since 2017 when PAWS formally became. the city’s dealer for pet adoption services.
“San Angelo was one of the highest kill shelters in the state of Texas, so it was a pretty bad situation for our shelter animals,” Wilson said.
Since then, this number has gradually decreased to 15% by 2022, with 28% of the shelter’s animal intake adopted and 24% transferred outside.
The present
Despite the efforts of CVPAWS and Animal Control, however, San Angelo is currently facing a growing pet population crisis that has flooded the shelter in recent months. According to Wilson, studies conducted by the University of Flordia suggest that the problem of the animal population has developed due to a 10-year setback in spay and neuter efforts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are in a deficit of several hundred thousand spay and neuter surgeries, which has left the entire country to face a population explosion that, unfortunately, San Angelo is not immune,” Wilson said.
CVPAWS has taken several steps to help curb the increase in the pet population, doubling down on its affordable spay and neuter initiatives, as well as its multitude of adoption programs.
Despite this, the increased influx of animals has always forced the organization to risk the euthanasia of parts of its shelter population in the past due to limitations caused by the legal maximum capacity of the building. Shelter animals at risk of euthanasia are put on “euthanasia lists” and are fought by CVPAWS staff, who campaign for the animals on social media, put on special events, waive fees of adoption and more in a last ditch effort to save early. are required to be put.
The shelter also recently began hosting open houses where the public can see the partnership of CVPAWS and Animal Services at work first hand while also asking questions they may have.
The future?
Noting the ongoing problems, Wilson said uneducated and irresponsible pet owners are the biggest problem when it comes to overcoming the crisis. But they are also one of the best shots that San Angelo can face directly, in their eyes.
“We have backyard breeders, pet owners who want instant results and pet owners who refuse to have their pets spayed or neutered,” Wilson said. “But if you identify them as our biggest concern, I think it’s also fair to identify them as our biggest opportunity.”
Wilson suggested that the City should focus on spreading awareness of the crisis and educating citizens about the implications of animal overpopulation with the hope that residents will better understand that “pets are worth worth saving,” bringing more lawyers and volunteers into the fight as well. creating a more caring city in the process.
“We want San Angelo to be a better place for pets and the people who love them,” Wilson said.
The City Council agrees with Wilson’s position on spreading awareness about the overpopulation crisis and the problems it causes and expressed the desire that CVPAWS further push its current outreach initiatives.
“It’s a big problem, and it’s great that we’re putting our hands and programs around it and improving the statistics about it, but the work isn’t done,” Mayor Brenda Gunter said. “Communication needs to be more aggressive and out there for people to better understand what’s going on.”
CVPAWS is not against adopting a more rigid approach to addressing the crisis, however. Wilson also suggested that the city should hire an animal control officer specifically to enforce existing ordinances, from ticket to enforcement.”
“I think that’s probably the most beneficial thing you can do in your posts, is to endorse this,” Wilson said. “It’s important to recognize that even though those tickets have been issued, we haven’t reached completion.”
The City Council appeared to disagree with the notion, however, with concerns being raised that the increased spending and workforce would stretch the city too thin.
“The City has many responsibilities, and we put a lot of money toward our responsibilities and toward the citizens,” Gunter said. “We can’t continue to throw more dollars and more people after the problem, the budgets just don’t allow it.”
Additionally, Wilson asked the City Council to consider revising the City’s existing breeder permit to disallow breeding for breeds that make up 10% or more of the shelter’s population.
“I’ll tell you right now, if you go to the shelter, you’re going to see mostly German shepherds, shepherd mixes and pit bulls,” Wilson said. “That’s why we ended up with these euthanasia lists. We have more large breed dogs in our community than we can house.
Finally, Wilson asked the City Council to consider joining CVPAWS’ efforts to increase accessibility for free or low-cost and neutral payment.
“I think if there’s ever an opportunity to throw money at something, spaying and neutering is the direction they need to go,” Wilson said. “We’re doing everything we can, but if the City wants to come alongside us and strengthen this, I think that would be a big step in the right direction.”
With the lives of hundreds of animals in San Angelo on the line, the partnership of CVPAWS and Animal Services must face the national pet overpopulation storm together – for better or for worse.
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