EDITOR’S NOTE: Concho Valley PAWS issued an urgent press release on Friday afternoon announcing financial incentives to any area rescue operations that can take in dogs, which are currently overwhelming the shelter in San Angelo.
The organization has been issuing red alerts via social media and email regularly as of late due to this serious problem with overcrowding.
According to the release, PAWS is seeking any 501(c)3 organizations that can help these dogs in San Angelo avoid euthanasia.
PAWS stated that the effort is made possible through Best Friends Animal Society, which is offering a $150 stipend, per dog, or $300-per litter of puppies, to qualified organizations that transfer dogs from the San Angelo Animal Shelter for adoption.
Organizations in a position to assist are urged to contact PAWS immediately, as the situation has become even more dire in recent weeks.
If you like to donate to help Concho Valley PAWS in this effort your can donate at https://cvpaws.org/give/
As the City of San Angelo’s newly-created Animal Services Task Force sets about brainstorming ideas to cope-with and improve conditions at the local animal shelter, Concho Valley PAWS finds itself in more demand than ever as their position in the animal continuum-of-care reaches into so many areas.
Currently, PAWS is looking for a pair of trustworthy, competent drivers to carry a group of dogs to Michigan, where they will be relayed further north to forever homes in Canada.
The transport is slated for Feb. 7, and the drivers would be using the PAWS express van, and will receive some pay on the backend. There is one overnight stay provided, after the pups are transferred to the relay team. As of late Friday afternoon, they were still waiting for volunteers.
PAWS Executive Director Jenie Wilson said another kind of help they could use more of right now are pet-friendly households willing to foster dogs awaiting transport.
“We would love to have more short-term transport fosters,” she said. “Because once we know a dog is going on transport, it’s usually about three weeks… so once they are selected for transport, those dogs are adopted, and they are going to an agency that’s going to place them in their new homes… so if we can find someone to foster the dogs for just three weeks, it can free up a kennel at the shelter, and maybe help us save another animal.
“So we really have a need for short-term fosters, and we would love to see people sign-up for that.”
Transporting adoptable dogs to waiting homes outside West Texas has long been a strategy of the organization, but Wilson said there have been fewer opportunities for transports since the pandemic.
“We were doing a couple a month up until COVID hit,” Wilson recalled. “That slowed us down… so now we are doing about one a month now, but I’m hoping to see an increase.
“The issue that we run into, is that COVID changed the world for everybody. During the COVID shutdown, so many shelters and vet clinics were shut down, and so, something like three-million pets — nationally — that were going to get fixed, did not in fact get fixed, which led to more reproduction, and a population explosion.
“As a result, some of the communities that did not have a population crisis, that were taking pets from us on transport, are now inundated with people requesting transport, or they themselves are facing a population increases that they are having to combat. That has really slowed down our transport operation.
Wilson cited a study by the University of Florida looking at the effects of COVID on animal welfare, which she said was very interesting.
“During COVID, you have a lot of people — not so much in San Angelo — who adopted pets, and then when they had to go back to work, they wanted to surrender their pet. We didn’t really see those kinds of numbers here, but in many other areas of the nation you did, and all of that just adds to the population.”
Wilson said PAWS then initiated a strategy to help defray costs of pet ownership for people facing the unwanted prospect of having to surrender a pet because they can’t afford to keep it any longer.
“We started a Pet Pantry because we saw a lot of people who feel like they just can’t afford pet food, with the 13-percent increase in prices or whatever it is,” she said. “Increases in the cost of pet care, like vet fees are a real issue for people, so we have started offering some support programs to try to help people get through a difficult chapter in their lives, and keep their pets, and — hopefully — rebound.
Wilson said that while things in the world are kind of a mess, the local community has been instrumental in helping PAWS to help others.
“Adoptions are still happening, and there are a lot of responsible pet people who are out there making it possible for us to help people in need, which I think doesn’t get recognized enough,” she said. “San Angelo has a great pool of people who support rescues, and donate, and make the spay-and-neuter programs possible, they make the Pet Pantry program possible…so there is a lot of good still happening, it’s just a really big challenge.”
Wilson said the operation is also heavily-dependent on grants.
“We get some grant funding for spay-and-neuter… and we are fortunate to be a Petco recipient; they give us grant funding for veterinary care for shelter pets, preparing them for successful adoption, and what that means is that every animal that leaves our care and goes into a new home is spayed-or-neutered, and vaccinated.
Wilson said that is especially important for the dogs they are transporting to Canada, because crossing an international border requires meticulous paperwork.
Wilson took a couple of minutes to talk about ways her organization is helping the homeless community in San Angelo.
“We have a program called “Unsheltered Pets” that we started a couple of years ago,” she explained. “For a lot of the people that find themselves in homelessness, or who are barely sheltered…their pet may be the only family they have, and so, we want to try to keep them together.
She said the program, in cooperation with the Concho Valley Community Action Agency, aims especially at helping to provide spay or neuter services along with vaccinations, so that their pets can be accepted when they are making applications to find a regular address, in accordance with city ordinances.
She said they also provide food, sweaters for dogs and blankets, in addition to emergency pet care.
“More than once, we’ve been called by one of our homeless neighbors when their pet was, unfortunately, attacked by another dog… or got away from them and got injured,” Wilson said. “So we’ve been providing that service, because they don’t have the means to do it.”
Wilson said the pretty-complex program is receiving strong support from the community, which makes her feel encouraged about the outreach’s future.
“Its very touching to see how much the community cares about this,” she said.
On Partnership With The City
Wilson spoke about the working relationship between CV PAWS and the City of San Angelo.
“We have always chosen to work with them, rather than being an adversary,” she said. “But we don’t always agree, because our missions are different. The City of San Angelo’s mission is animal control, and we are a rescue; and we want to save them all. That’s not a question or a secret.
“But we don’t always agree with what the city does. We do, however, have a common goal, and that is to reduce the number of animals that are euthanized.
“Nobody wants to euthanize a healthy animal over there; so that’s what we work on, and we’ve enjoyed a good working relationship with them. We always strive to be totally professional in our interactions, and respect the rules, even if the rules aren’t something we support.
Wilson cited as an example “closed intake.”
“Closed intake” has never been anything we advocated for,” she said. “We think the shelter should be “open”, but the problem is that we’ve so many (animals) coming in, we can’t adopt them all out, and that means we’re going to lose some.
“So, we’re focusing our efforts on finding ways to get more of them out when they do come in…and we are working to provide alternatives to the shelter. So if you find out you’re going to be leaving in six weeks, and for whatever reason, you can’t take your pet with you. That’s a legitimate reason to have to rehome your pet, but you don’t have to take it to the shelter; we have programs where the pet can stay in your home while we market it for adoption. That way the pet never has to go into the shelter. We call that our “Second Chance” program.”
She said they also have pet training available for dog owners who are experiencing difficulty with bad behaviors.
“We will connect the owner with a trainer at no cost to them to try to salvage that relationship,” she said. Whether it’s food, or somebody needs a crate, or pet care; we have programs to support pet owners keeping their pets.”
Wilson went on to describe programs aimed at keeping pregnant dogs out of the shelter, finding homes for the puppies and making arrangements to have the mama dog spayed afterwards.
The Big Picture
As reported earlier, the new taskforce was created with the aim of curbing problematic dogs that are unkept or free-to-roam, which are frequently seen frolicking in neighborhood parks, and result in many complaint calls to animal services.
In an interview last week with the Concho Democrat, San Angelo City Manager Daniel Valenzuela spoke about the issue.
“Since the COVID pandemic we have ended up with more animals on the street than before.” He said. This has resulted in a frequent over-capacity problem at the animal shelter.
“The problem has gotten so bad that at times the shelter has to turn people away who bring in stray animals, and there is no room to take more animals caught by the animal services officers.
“The main problem has been with free roaming dog populations and many more complaints of bites. “We want to reduce dog bites, increase our spay and neuter rate and address the over capacity problem at the shelter.”
The City Council delegated the selection of the task force’s members to the city manager, who said he was seeking a diverse membership representing all the animal groups in the city.
Valenzuela said he interviewed everyone who was recommended to him, and came up with a list of nine people he thinks will be able to come up with some different ways to solve the problems at hand.
Valenzuela was complimentary of PAWS’ work in town, and said the city needs to focus on the shelter and animal services right now.
“The City of San Angelo Animal Shelter and Services contracts with Concho Valley PAWS (CVPAWS) to facilitate pet adoptions and promote animal welfare within the community. Concho Valley PAWS provides shelter adoption and rescue services through a coordination of efforts to place animals in homes, provide spay and neuter programs, reduce euthanasia rates of adoptable animals and support volunteer initiatives. While the contract with CVPAWS centers primarily on animal adoption and welfare, San Angelo Animal Services is committed to prioritizing citizen health and safety (and the measures necessary to do so). This is the principal and most important objective for the City of San Angelo.”
“We appreciate the work Concho Valley Paws does with animal adoptions.” Valenzuela said. But the City needs to address its policies for the animal shelter. “On our end we have to keep the shelter open and able to accept the intake of animals to keep roaming animals off the street.” He hopes that the task force can help identify the needs of the shelter and what the City should do to achieve this goal.
The task force is starting by reviewing the City’s ordinances and gathering facts.
Since the task force is advisory only, its meetings are closed to the public. An advisory board’s meetings are not required to be open under Texas open meetings laws.
The task force is expected to meet weekly, at least during this initial phase of the work.
Valenzuela expressed his thanks to the members of the Task Force and all volunteers working to help find a solution. “I am so appreciative of the volunteers who show up and help with solutions.”
What About The Cats?
While canine concerns dominate most civic discussions regarding animal services, San Angelo is also home to many cat colonies, and the care and maintenance of this population falls to the many volunteers who feed them.
Concho Valley PAWS helps out where it can.
“We have a very successful trap-neuter-and-return program, that was made possible through funding from the Rachael Ray Foundation,” she said. “The cats are dropped off, and then they are fixed, and then we return them to the neighborhoods they come from, and let me just say; you want to have a feral cat population in these neighborhoods. They help keep rodent and snake populations down, but you don’t want populations where its always mating season overpopulating your neighborhood.
“So trap-neuter-and return has been very successful, and the people in those neighborhoods who participate are very pleased with the results,” she said. “It really helps cut down on unwanted behaviors like marking and howling… and they can reproduce up to three times a year, with litters of eight or 10; so we want to fix them because that stabilizes that colony. And we are vaccinating to help control diseases, and we really are starting to see the benefits of the program already.
She said cats rarely end up on the euthanasia list from the shelter, and when overcrowding is a problem, it is almost always due to too many dogs.
