05/07/2024
Effective tomorrow, July 2, we have made the very difficult decision to close intake. Exceptions will be made for animals with life-threatening illness or injury, or those that present a clear public safety risk. Previously scheduled appointments will still be honored; no further appointments will be scheduled at this time.
If you find a sick or injured animal:
1. Call 311, advise them that you need assistance with a sick or injured animal and ask to speak with an Animal Protection Officer.
2. Wait for an Animal Protection Officer to pick up the animal. Do not bring the animal to the shelter.
If you have found a loose pet that is not injured, please visit our Lost and Found Pet website for guidance: bit.ly/lostfoundaac
We did not make this decision lightly.
Post-pandemic life looks very different in animal welfare. Shelters everywhere are struggling; adoptions have slowed down, particularly for dogs. The average length of stay for dogs since 2019 has doubled nationally, and it’s no different for us. Our average length of stay for all dogs in 2019 was 19 days. This year, it is 37.8 days.
In the past few months we have:
- Filled two temp positions to help with our foster program.
- Offered rescue partners $500 to pull any medium/large dog, $250 for a small dog, and $50 per cat.
- Contracted extra days with a high volume spay/neuter veterinarian to expedite surgeries for adoptable animals.
- Launched a VIP adoption program to provide an option similar to foster-to-adopt.
- Put 24 dogs in boarding at a cost of $5-6,000 per week since the end of April.
- Launched a finder-to-foster program.
Adoption fees have been waived since June 2023.
On July 18th, we will have an item in front of City Council to approve a contract with another organization (in addition to our contract with Emancipet) to provide more community spay/neuter services.
We need your help, Austin. Achieving the level of no-kill that we do (over 95% live release rate) is simply not possible without our community’s assistance.
