Animal Control Memo 0828

							                                                                   MEMORANDUM
To: Ron Olson, City Manager

From: Troy Riggs, Assistant City Manager

Date: August 28, 2012

Subject: Animal Care Services Update


   In January, the supervision of Animal Care and Control was moved from the Health Department to the Police
   Department. Assistant Chief Mark Schauer and Captain Denny Asbury began an intensive review of Animal
   Control’s operations (administrative and operational), including interviews with all supervisors, staff, and
   community volunteers. As a result of their review, numerous issues were addressed. The following
   information was compiled by DeAnna McQueen, with information provided by Chief Schauer, Commander
   Todd Green, and Captain Asbury:

   One of the biggest concerns was the hurricane plan which was to euthanize all of the animals. This was
   immediately addressed. Animal Care Services now has a reliable hurricane evacuation plan in place
   which includes; transporting animals and supplies, including food, vaccinations, and carriers to mutual
   aid agencies for housing, while employees will keep in constant communication with the City’s
   Emergency Operation Center.

   In June, Dr. Anne Whitlock was hired on contract basis to provide temporary spay/neuter services,
   vaccinations, and routine health evaluations for the shelter animals. Outside spay/neuter services were
   temporarily suspended pending the hiring of an interim Veterinarian. Dr. Whitlock has been a tremendous
   asset to our Department and city and we would not have been able to continue to provide the same level of
   service to our citizens without her dedicated assistance.

   Dr. Melissa Draper, who has an outstanding reputation including previous experience as Veterinarian for San
   Antonio and for the New Orleans SPCA, began work for us on August 6th. Dr. Draper has agreed to an
   interim position during which she will help us adopt best practices and identify her replacement. Dr. Draper
   has an impressive resume in shelter medicine and should help towards our goal of opening a second vet clinic,
   controlling our stray population and driving down our euthanasia rate. She is a very impressive person, who
   has already offered many positive suggestions to improve our facility. Low cost spay/neuter services to the
   public should resume within the next two weeks as a result of her hire.

   We have discontinued the ten day quarantine period we formerly followed, based upon the advice of local
   vets, a twenty city survey of Texas cities, and on the advice of the San Antonio shelter, which we visited. This
   will allow more animals to be placed in adoption quickly and fewer animals euthanized.

   The kennel which had housed the 10 day quarantine dogs has been turned into a second adoption kennel. The
   number of dog kennels increased from 26 to 56. We plan on keeping these cages full instead of the previous
   situation where usually only 6 to 8 dogs were available for adoption.

   A four foot high hurricane fence was installed around the two adoption kennels; signs were installed, and we
   designed a visitor “brochure”, to allow the public to visit the area unescorted to view the adoptable dogs.
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Customers wishing to adopt a dog can simply remove a small numbered card from the outside of the cage and
take it to the office for further information or to adopt. The kennels and gates are kept locked to prevent
visitors from releasing animals or entering restricted areas.

Working through City Building Maintenance, we had the main hallways, doors, and exterior window trim
painted at the main AC building. Staff and volunteers are proceeding with painting interior offices. We also
conducted a thorough deep cleaning of the floors and contracted for weekly cleaning by McClemore services.

We have purchased and installed a big screen Monitor and DVD player in the reception area for customers. It
is used to show PowerPoint about proper animal care, city ordinances, state laws, animal care videos, etc.

People Assisting Animal Control (PAAC) paid to have two dog runs built, donated a large quantity of dog
food, and have assisted greatly with general clean-up, painting, and assisting with tours of prospective
adoptions.

We contracted to have three small kennels built inside a small food room. These will be used to places
puppies so we can get them away from other dogs until we can find a home or have them fostered. (Puppies
are extremely susceptible to contracting diseases if not kept separately from adult animals).

We applied for Homeland Security Grant to purchase two Air Conditioned Truck Bed “Shells” to transport
Animals, in addition to the six “shells” included in the 2012/2013 budget. This will allow AC Officers to
remain in the field for longer periods after picking up stray animals, rather than having to immediately return
to Shelter to drop off animals.

We have improved the quality of dog food and the dogs are being provided with water on regular, humane
intervals. The foods they used previously did not contain enough protein for the dogs to gain weight.

We designed a quality control policy to ensure dogs and cats are checked for microchips immediately before
they are euthanized.

We designed a training evaluation/checklist to assure all staff being trained properly.

A washer and dryer, donated by PAAC, were installed in storage area.

With assistance from Fleet maintenance, we have conducted an inspection and evaluation of all AC and
Vector Control vehicles.

All new hires must pass a CJIS criminal history background to be eligible for employment. Discovered we
were not conducting thorough background investigations prior to this and AC had several employees with
felony backgrounds. Those employees have since been transferred to other city departments.

The number of temporary employees has been reduced from eight to four. An Animal Control officer
position is posted and if enough qualified applicants are found, we will reduce that number to one shortly. We
are waiting for HR to approve transitioning one of the vacant temporary ACO positions into a full-time vet
tech position. Our goal is to have no temps working in the Shelter or the vet clinic.

We are working with Solid Waste to improve our response to dead animal calls.

We are coordinating with Health Department to identify room to create a second Vet Clinic and adoption
room for cats.

We obtained approval from City Council for a $250,000.00 increase to Animal Control's 2012/2013
Operating Budget. The additional funds will be used to purchase improved dog and cat food, additional
vaccinations for adoptable animals, additional cat cages, and six air conditioned truck bed caps for the Animal
Control Trucks.

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