City Council voted on consent at its meeting on Thursday to amend the city code regarding animal services, heeding recommendations from a recent audit that found the Austin Animal Center in far East Austin was struggling to maintain quality of animal care because of overcrowding and other issues.
The code changes include:
- Replacing the current three-level bite scale with the six-level Dunbar Bite Scale used by the Association of Professional Dog Trainers;
- Allowing for euthanizing dogs with a bite history of Level 4 or higher;
- Excluding wildlife animals, such as bats and coyotes, when calculating the live-outcome rate; and
- Updating the impoundment period – a three-business-day hold after a stray animal comes into the shelter system but cannot yet be put up for adoption or transferred to another facility – to include time spent in foster care as a space-saving measure.
Despite assurances from city staff and outside consultants that the code changes would not affect the mandated 95 percent live-outcome rate – part of the city’s no-kill policy – some Austin residents protested the code changes.
“The (Austin Animal Center) process is broken,” Christopher Summers said during public comment. “I urge you in the strongest possible terms to reevaluate Austin Animal Center and reject this proposal.”
Others, including Michelle Bohls, who said she was attacked by a dog with a bite history who had spent time at the Austin Animal Center, supported the changes.
“While I would truly love nothing more for every dog who comes to the attention of shelters and rescues to get to the point of health and stability and become the perfect addition to a loving family, the reality is that is not always a possibility,” she said. “Some dogs are tragically beyond the help that can be provided.”
Deven Desai, a consultant hired to implement the recommendations, told Council during Tuesday’s work session that the shelter’s struggles date back to the mid-2000s. Austin voters approved a bond measure in 2006 that funded the current shelter, with fewer kennels than the one it was replacing. In 2010, after construction on the shelter was already underway, Council adopted a no-kill policy that required at least a 90 percent live-outcome rate. Council updated this policy in 2019, raising the threshold to 95 percent.
“The more animals you take in and the less you euthanize, theoretically, you’re going to start running out of space,” he said. “So now, maybe, you’re doubling or tripling up animals in a kennel where there should only be one in there.”
More recently, Council ordered an audit of the Animal Services Office in July 2022. The resulting report, released in September 2023, found the city’s animal welfare priorities were in conflict with each other as well as strained relationships with partners.
“Serving as an open-intake shelter for the community while providing humane care for the animals in its possession and maintaining its goal live release rate (95 percent or greater) do not all appear to be currently achievable at the same time,” according to a press release announcing the report. “While (the Austin Animal Center) has consistently met and exceeded its goal live release rate for cats and dogs, these successes have come at the expense of animal care, and AAC has had to close its intake of new animals due to overcrowding.”
For example, due to limited space for medium- and large-sized dogs, the shelter has restricted intake of such animals except in emergency circumstances. Desai added that the shelter, designed before the no-kill policy was adopted, has an inadequate medical recovery unit, which houses animals that have received veterinary care and, barring the policy, might otherwise have been euthanized.
To address these challenges, Desai and city staff pointed to ongoing operational changes, including increasing the number of shelter volunteers and community foster placements. But they also asked Council to consider code changes and said they were looking into potential locations for a second shelter, which also would require Council approval.
“We don’t think there’s any one single reason why the shelter’s in the situation that it’s in, and so there’s not any one single solution,” Desai said Tuesday. “What we hope is that the ordinance changes … we’re asking you to make, and the operational changes we’re currently making, all lead to the solution that we want our animal center to be in.”
Local 1624 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union representing city and county employees, threw its support behind the proposed code changes while advocating for increased wages for shelter staff.
“Employees at the Center have experienced severe bites on too many occasions, and the changes … will protect animal care staff, animal protection officers, and all other workers who participate in animal handling,” business manager Carol Guthrie wrote in a Jan. 29 letter to Council. “Increased safety and decreased workload will assist in the recruitment and retention of additional employees, which will have an outsized positive effect on the conditions of both the animals at the Center and the people who spend their careers caring for them.”
Photo by SteelMaster Buildings made available through a Creative Commons license.
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