Austin City Council approves strategic plan for Austin Animal Center

AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin City Council passed a five-year strategic plan for improving the Austin Animal Center. 

There is also a change in leadership. 

New 5-year plan for improving the center

What they're saying:

The shelter is still at capacity for medium and large dogs, so intake for them is still severely restricted. 

"This is one of the things that we're hoping in implementing the strategic plan: we can find some more creative ways to make sure that we're not always restricting intake," Elizabeth Ferrer, public information and marketing program manager for the Austin Animal Center, said. 

While there is support for the plan, there were still questions at Thursday's meeting. 

"What are we going to do about the fact that we have a closed intake shelter? I don't think we can hang our hat on being no kill and saying no kill is a great thing if the way we achieve no kill is by closing intake," one public commenter said. 

"There are not easy answers to a lot of the questions and issues that are facing animal services," Council Member Mike Siegel (District 7) said. 

"It's great to get the entire community in support of a strategic plan that will move us forward to better shelters, better care for our pets," Council Member Chito Vela (District 4) said. 

The strategic plan is in response to two audits from 2023 that found "misaligned" departmental goals. 

The audits found the shelter's live release rate came at the expense of animal care and closing intake. It found crowding in "pop-up" crates, unsanitary conditions, plus issues with data reliability, and strained relationships with partners. 

The new plan includes exploring additional locations, streamlining the foster process to expand capacity, expanding spay and neuter services to reduce strays, triaging intake requests, and removing barriers to pet ownership. 

"We just can't be taking in animals and not putting animals, not placing animals or finding solutions for animals," Ferrer said. 

Change in leadership for the Austin Animal Center

What we know:

On Friday, the retirement of the Austin Animal Center's director, Don Bland, was announced in a city memo. His retirement is effective May 9. 

Bland has been criticized over the years by council members for issues at the center. 

In 2022, he received a vote of no confidence from the Animal Advisory Commission.

Deputy Chief Animal Services Officer Jason Garza will be acting chief for the time being. 

Ferrer says the city will begin the process of finding a permanent director.

What we don't know:

Bland has been on administrative leave and the city did not give a reason why.