Can Austin Animal Center Be No-Kill and Humane?

An unadopted cat at the Austin Animal Center (Photo by Jana Birchum)

Last week, the city released its audit of the Animal Services Office, authorized by City Council in 2022, and the results are consistent with what employees of the Austin Animal Center have been saying for years. The auditor found that the city's animal welfare priorities are in conflict: AAC has consistently maintained or exceeded Austin's pioneering goal of adopting out or transferring 95% of its animals (only euthanizing 5% due to serious medical conditions or violence), but doing that as an open-intake shelter and providing quality care are too many balls to juggle. AAC's success at maintaining a no-kill policy has "come at the expense of animal care."

Council voted in 2010 to become a no-kill city with a 90% live-release rate and upped the standard to 95% in 2019. AAC is exceeding that goal, but consistent overcrowding in the last few years has caused living conditions at the shelter to deteriorate, and management "does not have a strategy or clear direction" to address that problem.

During surprise visits, the auditor found concerning conditions at the shelter: Some animals were too big for their pop-up crates and did not have space to move around, contributing to stress and the spread of disease. (In recent months AAC has been plagued by a life-threatening disease called canine distemper.) There aren't enough staff members per animal according to national standards, resulting in haphazard cleaning without proper protective gear, further worsening the spread of disease. The physical conditions of the shelter – algae in outdoor pools, waste on the ground, spilled food – are also a result of too few staff, the auditor suggested.

The auditor also found administrative issues, such as conflicting data that leads to AAC possibly making uninformed decisions. For example, data on AAC's spay and neuter program varied "dramatically depending on the source," and how often enrichment activities like walks happened were hard to determine. AAC doesn't have a staff member dedicated for data; they rely on Austin Public Health staff. The auditor wrote that "the public may lose confidence in AAC when it reports conflicting and inaccurate information."

There has long been pervasive distrust between the community, AAC, Austin Pets Alive!, and city leaders. Last summer, the Animal Advisory Commission passed a vote of no confidence in AAC leadership, and many staff members told the Chronicle they believed the shelter's disarray was caused by bad management. Eileen McFall, who runs Final Frontier Rescue Project, a nonprofit that serves behaviorally challenged dogs, says AAC Director Don Bland "runs ASO like a conventional pound, not like a No-Kill shelter," citing decisions like restricting intake and being closed on holidays and Sundays, as well as "restricting the work of the Behavior Team."

So how to get these issues under control? Animal services has received funding for four new animal care staff members in fiscal year 2024, but the auditor suggests that AAC should also increase its roster of temporary homes, meaning its foster program. They also suggest that AAC has been underutilizing its partnerships with other organizations meant to help alleviate overcrowding. For example, in FY 2022, AAC had a goal of transferring 4,500 animals to its partners but only reported transferring around 2,750. During the same period, Austin Pets Alive!, one of AAC's main nonprofit partners, was taking fewer than its agreed upon number of behaviorally challenged dogs each month. (Though APA! disputes the auditor's calculations there.)

By the end of next year, the auditor's recommendations – which AAC management and Council have agreed to – are for AAC to develop a new strategic plan to balance all of its priorities, not just maintaining no-kill. AAC has agreed to improve its data tracking, better train its volunteers, develop a strong sanitation plan, and work with a third party to repair its relationship with the community by holding regular meetings with stakeholders so they can suggest shelter improvements. In a memo attached to the audit, Bland responded that as "adoption and transfer rates have declined nationally and locally, a new strategic plan is warranted" and promised to establish a cleaning schedule and enhance training for volunteers and staff as well.

Meanwhile, ASO and APA! have finally reached a deal for improving APA!'s Town Lake Animal Center shelter, after six years of negotiations. Though the deal will improve conditions for animals at APA!'s shelter, it won't increase capacity at all. APA! CEO Dr. Ellen Jefferson told the Chronicle that the current state of the shelter is in disrepair and that APA! had hoped to keep all of its operations on-site, but "because of significant limitations with power lines and water mains on the property, we cannot renovate what's already here." They're looking for locations to hold animals while they rebuild TLAC on a smaller footprint. APA! will continue to take around 3,500 animals from the community and AAC a year and to provide emergency medical care and behavioral training, but new locations outside of TLAC will take the bulk of those programs, while TLAC will be for adoption and foster services.

McFall says the TLAC renovations are "a distraction from the main problem," which she says is Bland's leadership. "Every decision is made from the mindset of an old-school pound that has killing for space as a normal part of business; when killing for space is off the table, those decisions produce overcrowding even when intake is severely restricted."

All pet adoption fees at AAC will be waived throughout the month of October.