TO: NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES FROM: Matt Cano
AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: 2021-2022 ANIMAL CARE AND SERVICES DATE: November 23, 2022
ANNUAL REPORT
Approved Date
11/29/22
RECOMMENDATION
Accept the annual report on Animal Care and Services for 2021-2022 related to ongoing operations, policies, and programs.
OUTCOME
Feedback provided during the presentation of this report will support the ongoing improvement of operations, policies, and programs of the Animal Care and Services Division of the Department of Public Works. Additionally, this report provides an update on the City’s approach to managing recent service level and staffing challenges at the Animal Care Center.
BACKGROUND
The annual report provides an update on the activities of the Animal Care and Services (ACS) Division of the Department of Public Works. ACS is responsible for sheltering, licensing, rabies compliance, and field services programs related to domestic animals. ACS provides services to the City of San José, and the other jurisdictions that contracts services from the City of San José, including the cities of Cupertino, Milpitas, Saratoga, and the Town of Los Gatos.
The Animal Care Center (ACC) is located on Monterey Road and provides shelter for stray domestic animals, reunites lost pets with their families, places animals in responsible new homes, works with rescue groups to transport animals, and when necessary, euthanizes animals that are suffering or are dangerous. Currently, the ACS Division provides animal care and services to approximately 64% of Santa Clara County by population (or approximately 1.2 million residents).
This report details the activities of Fiscal Year (FY) 2021-2022, unless otherwise indicated. The statistical information includes data from service contracts with the cities of Cupertino, Milpitas, Saratoga, and the Town of Los Gatos.
NSE AGENDA: 12/08/22
ITEM: (d) 1
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
ACS is part of the WeCare Alliance (founded in 2008). The WeCare Alliance is a group of six shelters in Santa Clara County. The WeCare Alliance partners include: Humane Society of Silicon Valley, City of Palo Alto Animal Services, County of Santa Clara Animal Shelter, Silicon Valley Animal Control Authority, and Town Cats. The goal of the WeCare Alliance is to place every homeless animal in homes within Silicon Valley.
Staffing turnover from late 2021 through early 2022 led to significant challenges in being able to meet the service levels that the Animal Care Center expects to meet, especially combined with the nationwide increase in animals needing shelter as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. This has been an extremely challenging year for City staff, the community, volunteers, and rescue partners. The following report provides information on service level accomplishments as well as activities underway to right-size staffing and restore service levels.
ANALYSIS
Field Operations
Field services responds to calls from the public and other agencies in need of specialized assistance; the most common service requests are bite investigations, animal neglect, quarantine release, patrols, and dead animals. Other calls for service include aggressive or dangerous animals, injured or sick animals, animal nuisances, pet shop inspections, animal crimes investigations, and municipal code violations.
Calls for Service – Animal Care and Services Division has 13 Animal Services Officers (Officers). Ten of the Officers provide services and emergency response primarily to San José and Milpitas. Three additional officers primarily respond to calls for service in the contract cities of Saratoga, Cupertino, and the Town of Los Gatos. Four officers are on duty during the day shift and three officers are on duty during the evening shift. For after-hours emergency calls, an oncall officer is scheduled from 10:00 PM until 7:00 AM. During FY 2021-2022, Officers completed 20,108 calls which was a decrease of six percent (-1,230 calls) when compared to FY 2020-2021 call completion of 21,338 calls. The decrease in call completion is due to Officer staffing vacancies. The calls for service are categorized into three priority levels and corresponding response times.
Call Priority and Response Times
Priority 1 (P1) - P1 calls are emergency calls that represent approximately 15% (3,071 calls) of total calls completed. Emergency calls include aggressive dogs, injured or sick animals, animal rescues, and other emergencies. The response time goal for P1 calls is one hour or less. The average response time to P1 calls for FY 2021-2022 was 27 minutes, which was the same as the previous fiscal year.
Priority 2 (P2) - P2 calls are non-emergency calls that represent approximately 56% of total calls (11,213 calls). Non-emergency calls and include animal bite reports, humane investigations,
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
confined animals, animals in traps, and agency assists. The response time goal for P2 calls is within six hours. The average response time to P2 calls for FY 2021-2022 was approximately 21 hours.
Priority 3 (P3) - P3 calls are calls that do not pose an immediate threat to public health and safety and represent approximately 29% calls (5,824 calls) of total calls completed. P3 calls for service includes loose animals and dead animals. The response time goal for P3 calls is within 36 hours. The average response time to P3 calls for FY 2021-2022 was approximately 24 hours.
As shown in Table 1, in FY 2021-2022 ACS continues to meet the performance target for Priority 1 calls. Staff will continue to look at ways identify a performance target and to increase the percentage of Priority 2 and Priority 3 calls for service over time, through a combination of process improvements and increased staffing levels.
TABLE 1: RESPONSE TIMES BY CALL PRIORITY
Target FY 2017-
2018
FY 2018-
2019
FY 2019-
2020
FY 2020-
2021
FY 2020-
2021
Priority 1:
w/in 1
hour
95% 95% 95% 95% 97% 96%
Priority 2:
w/in 6
hours
n/a 51% 58% 53% 56% 53%
Priority 3:
w/in 36
hours
n/a 77% 83% 71% 81% 76%
Shelter Operations
Shelter operations include adoptions, animal enrichment, animal feeding, owner surrender, spay and neuter surgeries, cage and kennel cleaning, and animal euthanasia (for medical and behavioral issues that affect the animal’s quality of life). Animal population within the shelter fluctuates from month to month, which is consistent with animal shelters elsewhere.
Generally in animal shelters, April through September are very high-intake months due to seasonal litters of kittens, November through February are typically low intake months due to seasonal trends, and March and October are transitional months.
City of San José shelter operations encountered an increase in staffing vacancies during FY 2021-2022. The low staffing levels and increase in animals being turned in affected overall operations. Overall dog intake increased by 25% while cat intake was down by one percent.
Other animal intake increased by eight percent.
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
Animal Intake – The Animal Care and Services (ACS) total animal intake for FY 2021-2022 was 15,530 animals, representing a five percent increase (+711 animals) from FY 2020-2021.
The five-year animal intake trends are illustrated in Figure 1.
FIGURE 1: ANIMAL INTAKE TRENDS
Live Release Rate – The Live Release Rate (LRR) or Live Outcome Rate is an industry term that measures the number of animals that leave an animal shelter alive. The current LRR goal for animal shelters is to achieve an overall LRR of 90% or higher for dogs and cats. The LRR is calculated by dividing the live outcomes by the total outcome. There are four categories that result in a live outcome for an animal: adoptions, rescues, transfers, and return to owner. Nonlive outcomes include euthanasia and animals that die due to medical reasons.
The combined (dog and cat) Live Release Rate for FY 2021-2022 at the Animal Care Center was 90% which was two percent lower than FY 2020-2021. The LRR for other domestic animals was 91%, which was three percent lower than the previous fiscal year. The overall LRR for dogs, cats, and other domestic animals was 90%. Figure 2 is a live release and intake trends for dogs.
Figure 3 illustrates the live release and intake trends for cats. Figure 4 illustrates a five-year trend of the Live Release Rates for both cats and dogs.
It should be acknowledged that while the overall LRR numbers are similar to past years, they did decrease in FY 2021-2022. Additionally, the relatively small percentage decrease in cats (90% to 88%) does not reflect the extreme difficulties that the shelter had in maintaining services levels from June to August 2022.
To date in FY 2022-2023, the overall LRR for all dogs and cats is 86%, which includes 81% for cats and 95% for dogs. The lower number for cats is a result of the shelter becoming 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22
Dogs 5,956 5,492 4,269 2,887 3,587
Cats 10,091 10,495 8,839 9,941 9,800
Others 2,470 2,597 1,983 1,991 2,143
Total 18,517 18,584 15,091 14,819 15,530
0 2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
18,000
20,000
Overall Animal Intake 5 Year Trend
Dogs Cats Others Total
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
overwhelmed with animals during summer 2022 while simultaneously being severely understaffed. Through a recent increase in medical and other staffing, combined with process improvements, staff is working to increase the overall LRR to 90% for both cats and dogs by June 30, 2023.
FIGURE 2: LIVE RELEASE TRENDS: DOGS – FY 2021-2022, LRR-96% FIGURE 3: LIVE RELEASE TRENDS: CATS – FY 2021-2022, LRR-88%
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
FIGURE 4: LIVE RELEASE TRENDS: DOGS & CATS - FY 2021-2022, LRR-90% Medical Operations
Medical Operations staff includes full-time and part-time veterinarians and Animal Health Technicians. The medical team provides medical care, treatment, herd health management, and emergency care. Medical staff perform procedures such as x-ray, blood analysis, dental procedures/extractions, major surgery, orthopedic procedures, and forensic analysis for criminal investigations, in addition to spay and neuter surgeries for shelter animals, owned pets, and stray community cats.
Public Spay and Neuter Surgeries - Animal Care and Services continued to offer limited spay and neuter services for cat trappers and rescues during the first part of FY 2021-2022. However, as discussed further below, these services were essentially halted during the second half of FY 2021-2022. Spay and neuter services for the public and rescue partners have not resumed.
However, alternative services and contracts have been evaluated to provide an option for rescue partners and cat trappers.
Spay and neuter helps with behavioral problems and increases protection against some serious health problems. Spay and neuter also helps reduce the overall stray cat population. Cats and kittens represent approximately 63% of the overall ACS intake of 15,530 animals. The majority of impounded cats and kittens are stray or feral. Spay and neuter surgeries help reduce the overall cat population within the community, and therefore reduce the number of cats and kittens impounded at the Animal Care Center every year.
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
Medical Staffing - A significant reduction in medical staffing occurred in early 2022, including the resignation of the two full-time veterinarians. Combined with an increase in animal intake, this resulted in a significant challenge in keeping up with the medical needs at the shelter.
Spay and neuter surgeries for the Trap, Neuter, and Return (TNR) program decreased and ultimately stopped in order to prioritize other medical procedures such as emergency medical care, medical treatments, vaccinations, and disease prevention. Some of the part-time veterinarians continued to conduct surgeries but they were also tasked with other medical responsibilities. ACS utilized a contract with an emergency clinic named MedVet to help with other medical procedures, including emergency procedures.
To address the urgent medical staffing challenges, Animal Care and Services prioritized recruitment for veterinarians and Animal Health Technicians (AHT). A Division Manager (Medical Director) position was approved by the City Council, recruited, and filled by August 2022. Additionally, the pay scale for Animal Health Technician was also increased to help with recruitment efforts. The status of Veterinarian and Animal Health Technician recruitments is summarized below:
• Veterinarians: Currently, one of the two authorized full-time Veterinarian positions has been filled and one new part-time Veterinarian has been secured. • Medical Coordinator: Using one of the vacant AHT positions, staff created and filled a new Medical Coordinator position. This coordinator provides experienced oversight over administration, scheduling and training of the AHTs, and serves as a point person in the medical division to coordinate with the rest of the shelter. • Animal Health Technicians (AHTs): Only one of the five full-time AHT positions has been filled. However, 15 part-time staff positions have been filled. Currently, the parttime staff members are enabling the shelter to keep up with medical treatments including vaccinations and emergency care. However, full-time licensed AHTs are required to assist in spay and neuter surgeries and other surgeries. In accordance with State of California Laws, only licensed AHTs are able to provide more advanced medical tasks including assist in surgeries. The Department of Public Works and Human Resources are reviewing options to fill these positions.
When the vacancies in medical are filled, ACS will resume spay and neuter services for rescue partners, cat trappers, and pet owners. ACS will continue to identify other medical resources to increase spay and neuter resources and service availability in line with five-year trends shown in Figure 5.
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
FIGURE 5: COMPLETED SPAY AND NEUTER SURGERIES 5 YEAR TRENDS Administration
The Administration unit is responsible for customer service, licensing, fees, accounts receivable/payable, billing, and budget tracking. Administration also includes marketing and the volunteer program. Volunteers help socialize adoptable animals, walk adoption dogs, help with some cleaning, provide enrichment, conduct play groups, and support other shelter activities.
Donations and Revenues – Throughout the year, Animal Care and Services conducts modest fundraising efforts through the Guardian Angels Program. These donations are used primarily to provide extra medical care for unowned animals at the facility along with helping rescue partners with animals that are rescued from the shelter. Treatments range from supporting foster care for newborn kittens, dental work, broken bone repair, and other major ailments. These funds also help provide enrichment for the animals while they are in the shelter and marketing for adoption promotions.
Total donations for FY 2021-2022 were $467,547 which was a decrease of $72,536 when compared to FY 2020-2021. The overall revenue for FY 2021-2022 was $3,763,342, which was an increase of $346,190 when compared to FY 2020-2021. Overall revenues resulted in a 38% cost recovery against the ACS operating budget.
Animal Licensing – FY 2021-2022 resulted in an overall revenue of $1,606,798, which was lower than the previous fiscal year by $102,973. Animal Care and Services will continue to evaluate on how to increase license compliance rates for pet owners within the City of San José.
FY 17-18 FY 18-19 FY 19-20 FY 20-21 FY 21-22
S/N Clinic Dogs 1,268 1,155 812 151 192
S/N Clinic Cats 4,064 4,487 3,580 3,876 3,543
Medical Clinic Dogs 1,852 1,470 1,214 695 803
Medical Clinic Cats 3,059 2,569 2,102 2,172 1,704
Total 10,243 9,681 7,708 6,894 6,242
-
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
S/N Surgeries 5 Year Trends
S/N Clinic Dogs S/N Clinic Cats Medical Clinic Dogs Medical Clinic Cats Total
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
ACS Staffing and Program Improvements
As noted in Manager’s Budget Addendum #5 issued in May 2022, the Animal Care and Services (ACS) Division within the Department of Public Works encountered an extraordinary level of staffing turnover from late 2021 through the first half of 2022.
This staffing turnover led to significant challenges in meeting the service levels that the Animal Care Center was expected to meet over the last several months, especially combined with the nationwide increase in animals requiring veterinary services as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. A significant focus on recruitment has occurred during the past 12 months to right-size staffing, which has led to the filling of 76 vacant full- and part-time positions.
This has been an extremely challenging year for our City staff, the community, volunteers, and rescue partners. Staff, volunteers, and partners should be commended for going above and beyond in their jobs and for deeply caring for the animals, despite the extreme pressures that they have been challenged with daily.
A significant number of resources and actions have been allocated to begin to restore service levels to appropriate levels. Key successes include:
• Two new senior management positions, a Division Manager with a focus on Shelter Operations and a second Division Manager to oversee Medical Operations, were approved by the Mayor and City Council as part of the annual budget process. Both positions have been filled. The new Division Manager over Shelter Operations started in late June 2022 and the Division Manager for Medical Operations started in late August 2022.
• Three existing senior management positions that had been vacant were also filled:
Administration Manager, Public Relations Manager, and Field Captain. • Six contractual custodial staff have been added to the shelter to provide kennel cleaning services.
• The Department of Public Works shifted a Maintenance Repair Worker to work full-time at the Animal Shelter to efficiently process and implement facility repair requests and prioritize work orders.
• With the support of the Mayor and City Council, pay increases have been approved for Animal Care Attendants, Animal Health Technicians, and Veterinarians. • Early this year, the City applied for a capacity of care review by Maddie’s Million Pet Challenge (“Maddie’s”). Maddie’s is the leading national non-profit animal welfare organization. In July 2022, the team from Maddie’s visited the shelter for on-site inspections, conversations, and interviews. A written report of their findings was completed in July 2022 and posted on the Animal Care and Services website1 .
1 www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/88891/637970477926600000
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
• A workplan has been created for implementing the Maddie’s report recommendations.
High priority recommendations, such as vaccination of animals upon intake, are already underway.
• Several medical partnerships have been developed with shelter partners such as the Humane Society of Silicon Valley, Foothill and Carrington Colleges Veterinarian programs, and non-profits such as Snip Bus and Whis-Purr Rescue. These medical partnerships have provided additional capacity for animal medical treatments and surgeries.
• City staff has developed an internal tracking dashboard to provide real-time information on shelter capacity and statistics. Weekly strategic priorities are publicly shared on the Animal Services website. Staff will be reviewing statistics with a working group of rescue partners to share key information among partners and with the public. • A new ACS Pet Compass Application was recently launched to ease the community search for adoptable animals. Pet Compass also allows rescue partners to identify animals on the rescue list, which displays non-urgent, urgent, and animals placed on a final status. • A second public dashboard that contains intake, outcomes, and Live Release Rates will launch in December 2022.
While the above resources have been extremely helpful, a significant and challenging amount of work remains over the next several months to ensure that the shelter is prepared for calendar year 2023. Key areas of focus moving forward are:
• Shelter Partners: ACS will continue to work with shelter partners to transfer animals out. The partnerships with other animal shelters and rescue partners allow ACS to provide a live outcome and additional resources for animals. • Medical Resources: While the Medical Director position, one Veterinarian, and fifteen additional part-time Animal Health Technician (AHT) positions have been filled, one full-time Veterinarian position and four out of five full-time AHT positions remain vacant. Staff is focused on these recruitments while simultaneously continuing to seek outside medical partnerships to mitigate the impact of these vacancies. • Successful Outcomes for Animals: When the capacity to medically care for animals is limited and volumes are high, it is challenging to continue to achieve the desired successful outcomes for animals. The past year has been extremely challenging in this regard. Staff is working hard on adding resources and enhancing collaboration with rescue partners and other shelter partners to ensure that every animal has the best possible chance for a successful outcome.
• Staff Training and Organization: With the new managerial positions on board, training and organization are the primary focus for the team over the next several months. The Department of Public Works and the ACS Division have adopted an “Objectives and Key Results” method of tracking progress and will be using this process to allow for tracking progress on improvements. The team has also identified key managers who will be leading the training of new staff.
• Rescue Partners: While this has been a challenging year for staff, it has also been challenging for our rescue partners. The rescue partners provide a pathway for saving
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
thousands of animals per year and have taken on an even greater workload this past year with the staffing challenges at ACS. Given the transition that the shelter staff has gone through as well as the extremely high animal volumes, the rescue partners have worked tirelessly to help, and their value cannot be understated. As ACS moves forward, the team is committed to strengthening relationships and communication with rescue partners.
Overall, the animal services industry nationwide is having extreme challenges this year with high animal volumes and low staffing. While we recognize that there are issues nationally, this has not deterred us from committing to “build back” at the Animal Care Center. Most importantly, our staff, volunteers, and rescue partners have all been working tirelessly to provide services to the community and care for our animals during this extremely challenging time.
As ACS continues to address the staffing and operational challenges, ACS will continue to work with partners, volunteers, and the community to maintain necessary services for animals and provide for successful outcomes.
CONCLUSION
The Animal Care and Services Division is responsible for sheltering and field services programs related to domestic animals in the City of San José, and the contract cities of Cupertino, Milpitas, Saratoga, and the Town of Los Gatos.
During FY 2021-2022, Animal Services Officers responded to 20,108 calls for service within performance targets goals. Shelter operations continued to provide care for animals at the Animal Care Center. The Division’s overall intake was 15,529 animals (domestic and wildlife). The total combined (dog, cat, and other) Live Release Rate for FY 2021-2022 was 90%.
For FY 2021-2022 the ACS operating budget was $9.8 million. Overall revenues in FY 2021- 2022 were $3,763,342 which resulted in a 38% cost recovery against the operating budget.
Staffing turnover led to significant change and challenges at ACS to meet service level requirements. Staff, volunteers, and partners continued to provide care for the animals despite the challenges. The support of the Mayor, City Council, and the City Manager’s Office provided ACS with the resources and assistance to improve staffing, contractual support, and facilities improvement. ACS is committed to building back better and resuming expected service levels that the community and partners expect.
EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
Animal Care and Services will provide an update on the Maddie’s Million Pet Challenge Recommendations at the Neighborhood Services and Education Committee’s ACS Annual Fall 2023 report.
NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
November 23, 2022
Subject: 2021-2022 Animal Care Services Annual Report
CLIMATE SMART SAN JOSE
The recommendation in this memorandum has no effect on Climate Smart San José energy, water, or mobility goals.
PUBLIC OUTREACH
This memorandum will be posted on the City’s Council Agenda website for the December 8, 2022, Neighborhood Services and Education Committee Meeting.
COORDINATION
This memorandum has been coordinated with the City Manager’s Office and City Attorney’s Office.
COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION/INPUT
No commission recommendation or input is associated with this action.
CEQA
Not a Project, File No. PP17-009, Staff Reports, Assessments, Annual reports, and Informational Memos that involve no approvals of any City action.
/s/
MATT CANO
Director of Public Works
For questions, please contact Jay Terrado, Deputy Director (408) 794-7223.