San Antonio Animal Care Companies says town’s roaming canine downside is enhancing, however metropolis officers acknowledged that restricted staffing and shelter capability nonetheless stop the division from responding to each free canine reported by residents.
Throughout a Public Security Committee briefing Thursday, ACS officers highlighted declines in roaming canine calls, aggressive canine experiences and shelter consumption that recommend there’s been enchancment. Further knowledge introduced to the division’s advisory board final week offered additional context on how town is measuring progress.
Based on the evaluation, roaming or stray canine requires service are down 9.3%, stray canine intakes are down 14.1% and aggressive canine calls have fallen 18.1%.
Aggressive canine calls have decreased 10.1% by way of April in contrast with the identical interval final 12 months, whereas the division’s essential name response charge has risen to 93.6% from 82.4%.
ACS Director Jon Gary mentioned all of those elements mixed point out that there are fewer stray and roaming canines in the neighborhood, whereas acknowledging that that might not be the truth most residents see.
“We absolutely acknowledge that we nonetheless have an enormous free roaming canine situation right here in San Antonio,” Gary mentioned. “I believe what this knowledge does inform us, although, is that it’s enhancing, and in order that’s the nice takeaway, however we’re nonetheless very a lot devoted to public security and to proceed to work in the neighborhood.”
On the similar time the division adjusted the way it calculates shelter intakes, which has resulted in a discount in total shelter consumption by 7.7% in comparison with the identical interval in fiscal 12 months 2025, with canine consumption declining by 11.3%.
Beforehand, animals assisted by way of diversion packages had been counted as consumption even when they by no means bodily entered the shelter. Underneath the revised methodology, solely animals introduced onto the ACS campus are included in consumption totals.
The report famous that whatever the adjustments, when a real comparability is carried out throughout years, shelter and stray consumption are nonetheless down for the fiscal 12 months.
At Thursday’s public security committee assembly, an abbreviated knowledge set was introduced to council members, who largely welcomed the improved metrics however questioned whether or not residents had been experiencing the identical progress mirrored within the knowledge.
Council members repeatedly returned to a central concern: free canines are nonetheless being reported throughout town, but not each name ends in an officer response.
Gary advised the committee that ACS prioritizes essential public security calls, together with aggressive canines, bites and cruelty investigations. Due to staffing and capability constraints, not all stray canine calls obtain a response.
“After we don’t have kennel house to deliver an animal in, and that animal isn’t sick, injured, or posing a public security menace. We’re not bringing them in each time,” he mentioned.
As an alternative that knowledge is collected and used to determine downside areas by way of warmth maps and information enforcement and outreach efforts.
“We’ve a sweeps crew that really will go into these areas of high-call quantity,” Gary mentioned. “These are notably simply somebody known as in and mentioned, ‘I simply noticed a roaming canine.’ It’s not a canine attacking anybody, in these cases we reply. Our response is set by the grievance that we obtain.”
The division’s six-member “Foxtrot” sweeps crew focuses on areas recognized by way of that knowledge. From Oct. 15 to Might 15, the crew had responded to three,756 requires service, impounded 1,040 animals and issued 400 citations.
By the primary seven months of fiscal 12 months, ACS investigators labored 348 harmful canine instances, together with 88 canines deemed harmful, 68 deemed aggressive and 22 instances during which critical bodily damage occurred. Town presently has 207 canines listed on its harmful canine registry.
ACS additionally reported working 317 chunk instances throughout April alone.
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez pushed ACS officers to determine what sources can be wanted to deal with these lower-level calls earlier than they turn into harmful canine investigations or chunk instances.
“The foundation of the issue is way additional down, and it begins at these low-level calls,” McKee-Rodriguez mentioned. “So what’s it going to take for ACS to reply to these earlier than they turn into greater points?”
Gary mentioned increasing responses would require greater than extra animal management officers. Bringing extra animals into the shelter would additionally require extra kennel house, medical employees and personnel devoted to adoptions and animal placement.
McKee-Rodriguez pressed the difficulty noting that regardless of earlier funding ACS had traditionally been underfunded and would require continued funding to fulfill town’s wants.
“ACS has by no means had the sources that it’s wanted to resolve these points, and just some years in the past in 2021, ACS’s funds was $15 million. It’s now about $30 million,” he mentioned. “We’re nonetheless not the place we must be.”
He known as for elevated advocacy from the division forward of the upcoming funds cycle and requested officers to determine whether or not extra officer pay, improved retention or a second ACS facility may assist enhance outcomes.
“It’s unclear what we have to do to enhance outcomes at ACS,” McKee-Rodriguez mentioned.
A number of council members described the difficulty as one of many metropolis’s most persistent public security challenges and questioned whether or not present enforcement mechanisms are successfully addressing harmful canine instances.
The dialogue adopted displays from ACS and Municipal Courtroom officers outlining the method for harmful canine investigations, harmful canine compliance hearings and animal cruelty instances.
Based on ACS, homeowners of canines deemed harmful should meet a sequence of necessities, together with sustaining a safe enclosure, carrying $100,000 in legal responsibility insurance coverage, retaining the animal microchipped and sterilized and complying with annual inspections.
By April, ACS reported an 82% compliance charge amongst harmful canine homeowners, barely above the division’s 80% goal.
Considerations about harmful canines have remained a spotlight for metropolis leaders for the reason that 2023 loss of life of 81-year-old Ramon Najera, who was killed in a canine assault on the West Facet. The incident prompted renewed consideration on harmful canine investigations, reporting necessities and proprietor accountability.
District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears recommended higher public consciousness may assist residents higher perceive present harmful canine enforcement instruments, whereas District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo raised issues about whether or not victims are receiving sufficient steerage on find out how to file affidavits and monitor instances by way of the system.
Assistant Metropolis Supervisor David McCary mentioned town is working to enhance transparency round animal management knowledge and is creating a district-level dashboard that will enable council members and residents to trace calls, response exercise and different ACS efficiency metrics.
“We’re not going to look the opposite means,” McCary advised the committee. “We’re going to proceed to work it and take a look at our greatest to enhance it.”
