City of Austin could change the method for scaling dog bites

Austin could euthanize biting dogs in shelter

Austin could change how it handles some of the most dangerous dogs that end up in the shelter. Critics argue it could result in unnecessary euthanizations.

AUSTIN, Texas - For over a decade, Austin has been a "no-kill" city with a current mandated live outcome rate of 95%.

"We are not recommending changing that 95% number," said Deven Desai, a consultant hired by the City of Austin.

However, they do recommend a change in how the Austin Animal Center handles aggressive dogs, something that would require an amendment to the City Code.

According to data compiled in a recent audit of the shelter, close to 70 dogs with a "severe" bite history were either adopted out or transferred to other rescues between 2019 and the first half of 2023. Data also shows there were more than 130 recorded "severe bite events" in Austin in 2023. In 2022, there were 128, 84 in 2021 and 53 in 2020.

"So what's concerning is, obviously from 2020 to 2022, while the City of Austin has increased our population growth, it certainly has not been to this rate," said Desai.

Currently, the city uses "minor," "moderate" and "severe" to rank dog bites.

On Thursday, councilmembers will consider adopting a method known as Dunbar’s Dog Bite Scale, which has six bite level categories. Under this scale, level 4 or higher would mean the dog may be euthanized.

"I want to stress ‘may,’ because the staff is going to look at the totality of circumstances around what caused this animal to bite," said Desai.

However, the president of Austin Pets Alive! believes the numbers deserve a little more scrutiny.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Dr. Ellen Jefferson noted that in their report, auditors had also mentioned that the AAC "often has conflicting or inaccurate information, or no information at all."

"I understand that they're trying to figure out ways to be more efficient and to have more consistency with their language in the way that they are reporting things, which I think is good," said Dr. Ellen Jefferson in an interview with FOX 7. "So we're trying to be supportive of this. We don't want dogs that are going to cause a lot of damage out in the community either. And so our only concern is really around the data…we need to make sure that we can report that accurately as a city and transparently before the dog dies."

City of Austin may euthanize biting dogs

City of Austin staff are proposing to euthanize more dogs with bite histories, and other unlawful animals. They say these recommendations won't affect the city's No Kill status.

Austin Pets Alive! is one of the rescue organizations that takes in pets from the Austin Animal Center. They looked over their own records from 2023.

"They were kind enough to give us the data on which dogs that we had taken (in 2023) that might have fit into that category. They gave us a list of 18 animals that were dogs that they thought would have been euthanized under this new rule," said Dr. Jefferson. "It turned out only one actually fit that criteria. And so that gives us a lot of concern, because if the data is not correct and decisions are being made off of records, then dogs could lose their lives for no reason. And we don't want that."

Dr. Jefferson also said that over a year ago, the City removed the category for lower-level bites - effectively moving those dogs automatically into the moderate or severe categories and raising the numbers.

"We've always used the three levels," said Chief Animal Services Officer Don Bland, who said they do use a different type of ‘at-risk’ list for internal partners. "From a public safety perspective, I think this is very crucial, because we have seen animals that we've had our hands on go on and injure people that, based on our current ordinances, we had to put out."

The shelter has also implemented other changes since the audit was released and is in the process of reviewing locations for a possible expansion.

APA! Is asking community members to fill out a survey that can be found here.

Thursday’s agenda item, if passed, would also amend the code to allow for stray animals to stay with the person that found them while the shelter confirms they don’t have an owner. Previously, animals were required to stay at the shelter for at least 72 hours when found.