Austin Animal Center makes changes to management system years after 2023 audit
The Austin Animal Center is changing the way it manages city shelters
In 2023, an audit included words like "filth," "unsafe," and "unsanitary" to describe conditions at the animal shelter
Limited service at the shelter will take place on three upcoming days
AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin Animal Center is changing the way it manages city shelters.
This comes years after an audit in 2023 found overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.
RELATED: Audit finds Austin Animal Center jeopardizes mission with poor living conditions
The backstory
The City of Austin will be training staff to implement a new shelter management system during the next few weeks. The changes are expected to improve efficiency and transparency.
The city will also extend the time it holds strays to ensure owners have more time to reclaim their pets.
Service will be limited on the following days:
Wednesday, April 23
Wednesday, April 30
Monday, May 5
On those days, the shelter will offer Pet Resource Center walk-up hours from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. and staff will be available to help with emergency intakes, urgent resources, and reclaim services. Adoption services will not be provided.
What they're saying
"This system is a critical investment in our future," Rolando Fernandez Jr., Interim Chief Animal Services Officer, said. "By improving how we manage data across all shelter operations—from intake and adoption to foster and volunteer coordination—we're supporting the priorities laid out in our new Strategic Plan, including greater transparency, enhanced public access to information, and a more efficient service model for Austin's residents and animals."
The backstory
In 2023, a 100-page audit came at the request of the Austin City Council as the animal shelter continued to deal with intake and overcrowding issues. The audit included words like "filth," "unsafe," and "unsanitary" to describe conditions at the animal shelter.
The audit stated larger animals' crates did not meet recommended living standards — as outlined in their guidelines that say they must "allow animals to sit, sleep and eat away from areas of their enclosures where they defecate and urinate." The report also found that small dogs were housed in kennels originally intended for cats.
The findings showed the current level of staffing at the AAC cannot handle the number of animals it cares for.
The auditors observed staff looking for shortcuts, moving quickly to clean up after the animals and potentially spraying them with chemical cleaners. The report also noted the staff moved too quickly for the disinfectant cleaners to be effective.
The auditors visited the center in July 2023 to find the kennel temperatures exceeded the recommended range of 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Some of them reached over 100 degrees. The surface of one of the artificial play lawns reached 176 degrees. The audit noted staff laid down towels for the animals.
The audit also showed photos depicting algae found in water bowls and outdoor play pools, structural issues, trash and other items piled around, and pet food left out in the open.
According to the city, the Austin Animal Center serves as an intake shelter to find animals forever homes, but the audit says the shelter continues to stop taking in animals more times than not due to claims of overcrowding.
The audit recommended Don Bland, the Chief Animal Service Officer, develop a plan for the shelter that keeps both indoor and outdoor areas clean, identify resources to address structural issues, and ensure staff and volunteers are trained properly.
The Source
Information from the City of Austin and FOX 7 Austin previous coverage
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The same process created shadows of nails, ladders, and other objects on streets and buildings across the city. What Hiroshima's nuclear shadows reveal While most of the nuclear shadows depict inanimate objects, a few of them are believed to represent people who were killed. For example, the Yorozuyo Bridge, 910 meters from the hypocenter, appeared to bear shadows of people who may have been on their way to work or school when they were killed. (The shadows are no longer visible on the bridge, which was later rebuilt.) 'Almost everyone who was within a kilometer was killed,' says Robert Jacobs, emeritus professor of history at the Hiroshima Peace Institute and Hiroshima City University. The shadow of a handle on a gasometer located two kilometers away from the hypocenter of the explosion left an imprint behind. The angle of the nuclear shadows left behind allow scientists who arrived in Hiroshima after Japan's surrender to locate the hypocenter of the explosion. 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It is believed to be one of the only remaining nuclear shadows of a person. Indeed, many of the shadows no longer exist given the decades of rebuilding that the city had to do in the wake of the bombing. Still, Jacobs says the shadows remind us of 'the impermanence of humans and civilization.' 'If a person could be reduced to their shadow by a weapon, […] that carries a profoundly existential message to human beings—you and your whole world could be gone in the blink of an eye.' The shadows are also a solemn reminder of the horrors people faced that day in Hiroshima. The white shadow of a man remains on the surface of a bridge in Hiroshima. As the city rebuilt after the bombing, many of the nuclear shadows on its buildings and sidewalks were lost. One famous exception are the Sumitomo Bank steps, which were donated to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. 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