DATE:
September 5, 2023
TO:
Mayor and Council Members
FROM:
Rachel Molina, City Manager
BY:
Melinda Sayre, Deputy City Manager/City Clerk
SUBJECT:
Animal Shelter Update
RECOMMENDED ACTION
It is recommended that the City Council receive and file the following Animal Shelter Update report.
BACKGROUND
In June, Council Member Gregg requested that an item discussing the current state of the animal shelter be brought to a future City Council Meeting.
The shelter is located on Sante Fe Avenue in the industrial area of the City and is open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday (35 hours per week), and is closed on Sunday and Monday to allow for deep cleaning.
The shelter exists in a prefab retrofitted set of office buildings built in 1989 and can house 101 large dogs (inlcuding sick, stray and adoptable), 12 small dogs, 37 cats, 20 ferral cats in addition to space for livestock and exotic animals.
In 2019, over $800,000 was spent to make repairs and remodel a portion of the shelter to facilitate a safer and more comfortable environment to house animals in as well as create a more inviting atmosphere for the public.
ISSUES/AND ANALYSIS
Intake and Trends
Last fiscal year the shelter provided care for approximately 6,900 animals or approximlately 575 animals per month. That number is projected increase significantly this year on trend with previous years as depicted in the table below.
Animal Intake By Fiscal Year
Year
Intake
2020/2021
5,114
2021/2022
5,924
2022/2023
6,900
To address the high volume of animals entering the shelter, managed intake is used to regulate the “how” and “when” of intake regarding scheduling non-urgent intake to reduce instances of euthanizing adoptable animals for space. Managed intake is an industry best practice that has been employed with greater frequency at the shelter in recent years as intake numbers have dramatically and steadily risen.
It’s important to note that despite utilizing managed intake at the shelter, field staff remain engaged in responding to calls for stray, injured and aggressive animals.
Shelter Services and Programs
As stated above, the shelter is open 35 hours per week with all of those hours being visiting and adoption hours in which the public can view and visit animals with the potential to begin the adoption process. In order to further encourage adoption, animals can be adopted whether or not they are spayed/neutered. Customers who adopt unaltered animals who are too young to be spayed/neutered pay a deposit that is returned when the animal returns for surgery.
Adoption fees are $80 for dogs which inlcudes spay/neuter, vaccinations, micro-chip and e-collar. Adoption fees for cats are $50 dollars which includes spay/neuter and vaccinations. The shetler engages in many reduced or no fee adoption specials throughout the year in addition to off-site adoption events to increase the shelters live-release rate.
Currently, the shelter operates three programs highly beneficial to the community.
The “Pets for Vets” program provides up to two complimentary adoptions annually for active duty and veterans of the military armed forces.
The Foster program provides one free adoption per year to community members who foster sick or young shelter animals.
The Spay/Neuter/Release or “SNR” program allows residents to trap stray, feral cats to be spayed or neutered in order to curb undesired behavior and reduce the ferral cat population, followed by being released back into the area they frequent.
Staffing and Capacity for Care
It is the City’s goal to maintain animal health and maximize live releases at the shelter by synchronizing physical capacity at the shelter with staff capacity for daily care. Staff capacity is the number of animals that can be adequately cared for daily. Even if physical capacity is limitless, staff capacity limits the number of animals that can be provided adequate care.
The generally accepted simple formula to determine adequate staffing levels for animal capacity is to allocate 15 minutes per animal, per day to account for feeding and cleaning. Note, this figure does not include time spent providing medical care, transporting and retrieving animals from the veterinarian, enrichment, customer services to shelter visitors or networking the animal to encourage adoption.
Based on this method for determining care and the shelter’s average population of animals (approximately 170) not including livestock and exotic animals, the shelter would require 42.5 staff hours per day to provide a baseline of care (feeding and cleaning).
Focusing on the animal care portion of operations, staffing consists of the folliwng budgeted positions:
Animal Shelter Staffing
Position
Duties
Budgeted
Animal Services Supervisor
Oversee the care and treatment of animals as well as administrative/ clerical functions of the the shelter 1 Animal Services Specialist
Supervise the clerical functions of the
1 Animal Care Technicians
Customer service, routine feeding, vaccination, encrichment, euthanasia and networking of animals and facilitation of adoptions 6 full-time
3 part-time
Office Assistants
Facilitate adoptions, cashiering for adoptions, licensing, citaitons, etc. 3 full-time
2 part-time
Administrative Secretary
Budgeting, billing and liens
1 full-time
Volunteers
Currently, eight (8) dedicated volunteers regularly contribute three (3) to ten (10) hours of volunteer time weekly at the shelter walking dogs, playing with cats and assisting in cleaning.
Rescue Partnerships
Shelter staff has developed and maintained positive working relationships with many Rescues. Staff actively and consistently communicates with Rescue Partners to increase positive outcomes for shelter animals.
Inmate Crew
The shelter participates in the County’s community service program which provides out-of-custody inmate labor, however that program has very few inmates to assign to the shelter since the covid pandemic and is defunct at this time.
Veterinarian Services
The City contracts with a private veterinarian that occupies a portion of the shelter to provide spays/neuters, routine exams and medical procedures for animals as well as low-cost vaccination clinics for the community. While the current contract expires in 2025, the veterinarian recently provied a 30-day notice to terminate the contract with the City in order to pursue a more lucrative partnership with a private sector business. The City’s Finance department is actively pursuing a new contract.
Shelter Evaluation
The City has periodically solicited shelter evaluations dating back to 2003. Each evaluation has provided valuable diagnostic information that staff has used to implement improvements and shetler enhancements. Staff is currently engaging with the consultant who evaluated the shelter in 2016, Animal Shelter Services LLC for a comprehensive evluation to be conducted in the coming months.
Opportunities
Staff has identified key opportunities to aid in enhancing the services provided by the shelter:
Development of a Robust Volunteer Program - a robust volunteer program would serve to bulid a larger volunteer base to assist staff with important shelter acitivites including enrichment and socialization. Each of which contribute to higher adoption rates and higher live release rates. A robust volunteer program would require additional staff dedicated to the recruitment, training and supervision of volunteers.
Waive or reduce impound fees to increase live release outcomes for pet owners whose finances pose a challenge to reuniting with their animals.
ALTERNATIVE DIRECTION
Provide alternative direction to staff.
ATTACHMENT(S):
None
City of Hesperia STAFF REPORT City of Hesperia STAFF REPORT City of Hesperia
STAFF REPORT
City of Hesperia
STAFF REPORT
Staff Report to the City Council
Animal Shelter Update
September 5, 2023