Reform the Austin Animal Center Now!

We call upon our City Leaders to take immediate action by addressing the following key animal shelter issues:

(1) AAC Intake and Adoption Policy:
✔ Immediately reopen stray intake to provide assistance to animals in need 7 days a week as was customary prior to the appointment of the current Chief Animal Officer, Don Bland. This step is crucial to provide prompt assistance to animals in need and fulfill AAC’s Mission Statement.

✔ Remove all barriers to adoptions by remaining open for walk-in adoptions all during the week without restricting adoptions on two of those days to appointments only.

(2) Adequate Shelter Facilities and Staffing:
✔Approve emergency measures to augment shelter space, such as utilizing air conditioned temporary structures (i.e.: tough sheds, heavy duty outdoor tents, mobile shipping containers etc.) and/or partnering with boarding facilities.

✔ Approve the hiring of temporary workers through city-approved temp agencies when needed to ensure proper and humane animal care.

✔ Approve an increase in full-time permanent staff to effectively manage the shelter and provide support to community members in adoptions, fostering, and volunteering efforts.

(3) Holiday Shelter Accessibility:
✔ Remain open for all holidays, except Thanksgiving and Christmas (as previously practiced before Don Bland’s hiring). This approach serves two vital purposes:

a. It allows for increased adoption opportunities and reclaim during periods when individuals have more time to visit the shelter.

b. It provides crucial assistance to lost and abandoned animals, particularly during holidays marked by fireworks, such as July 4th and New Years Day, when a significant number of dogs and cats tend to go missing from their homes.

(4) Change in Shelter Management:
✔ Acknowledge the failure of current AAC Chief Animal Officer Don Bland and remove him from duty. Mr. Bland has shown that he is incapable of effectively managing the shelter as well as his predecessors, has made questionable decisions, gives excuses for the state of the shelter, has harmed relationships within the community, and lacks the motivation, fortitude and vision to effectively and humanely manage our shelter, support our citizens, and help our animals in need.

✔ Appoint a proactive and motivated Chief Animal Officer who can effectively manage a humane No-Kill shelter that includes a robust spay/neuter program and microchipping plan. Someone with a passion for animals and a servant mindset; an agent of change who possesses vision and creativity, and is unwilling to fail. Someone who can foster positive collaboration with local businesses, community organizations, rescue groups, volunteers, fosters, and citizens, and can cultivate a culture of respect, teamwork, and humane practices within and outside the organization.

IMPORTANT STATISTICS:
(from the Promoting Integrity in No Kill Sheltering Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/IntegrityNoKillSheltering)

-The following are statistics from the paper 'The Service Gap' (https://hyperhound.org/documents/TheServiceGap.pdf) prepared by Hyperhound, a Texas nonprofit headed by Christopher McFall, and details what AAC’s statistics are actually showing compared to what AAC upper management is saying.

➤ The Intake Gap
"For the past three years, intake to the Animal Center has been dramatically lower, even though Austin has grown (Figure 2 next page). An Animal Center employee hired in the past three years has no frame of reference for understanding what the normal intake volume to the shelter would be. Hence, Chief Bland has no context for understanding it, as he was hired a few months before the pandemic arrived and has never served through a complete annual cycle at full intake volume (Arredondo 2019). The shelter that was previously managed by Chief Bland had annual intake volume less than one third the historical annual intake of the Animal Center (Humane Society of Central Texas 2019).”

➤ Please review the graph in the following link which shows a visual representation of Austin Animal Center's intakes from 2014 to 2022 showing a 40% decrease: https://tinyurl.com/AACIntakes2014-2023

➊ AAC shelter intake levels have significantly decreased by 40% compared to 2019 when the current Chief was hired, particularly for medium and large dogs. This has resulted in an estimated annual population of 4,393 dogs and 2,965 cats remaining at large in the community, roaming the streets (p. 10).

➋ Prior to Chief Don Bland's appointment, there were only nine occasions over a span of five years when the number of impounded animals reached 10 or fewer, most of which were during Christmas and Thanksgiving. However, since Bland assumed the role, there have been numerous instances with intake numbers as low as 10 or less (refer to chart on p. 14).

➌ Both the rates of animals being returned to their owners (p. 17) and adoptions (p. 20) have declined, while the cost per animal has risen. The budget and staffing levels are higher than ever before, despite the decreasing number of animals.

➍ Bland and his management team claim the situation is similar elsewhere, however a comparison between Austin, neighboring Williamson County, and national data and trends reveals Austin is significantly underperforming in every aspect (pp. 26-30).

➎ Simply resorting to euthanizing long-stay dogs and severely restricting intake will not resolve the issue of shelter overcrowding in Austin. An analysis presented in the document indicates that if intake levels were to return to normal and "surplus" animals were put down, the live release rate would plummet to approximately 65%. Thus, alternative solutions must be considered.

➏ There is also clear evidence of a toxic workplace culture under Chief Don Bland, resulting in low morale among the staff and increased turnover of both staff and volunteers (pp. 23-26).

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City Leaders, we the undersigned citizens of Austin, implore you to prioritize the needs of our community's animals and compassionate citizens who try to help them.

Swift intervention is necessary to rectify the current state of the AAC and align it with a humane No-Kill approach.

We request your immediate attention and action to bring about the necessary changes and fulfill the Mission Statement of our city's animal shelter.

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