San Antonio Animal Care Services, Mayor Castro Operates a municipal non-ADA compliant animal shelter closed to public & not listed on city web site San Antonio Texas

For three years now, Mayor Castro has operated a San Antonio TX municipal animal shelter (2634 Stealth Road, 78235) filled with adoptable dogs and lost pets that doesn’t allow public access, is not ADA compliant, and is not identified or promoted on any city web sites. Mayor Castro is operating this run-down, 100- kennel shelter located in a remote section of Brooks City-Base in violation of his own municipal ordinances and the lease agreement with the Brooks Development Authority. This animal shelter is on an unpaved road, is difficult to find because there is no signage, and does not even appear on the Brooks City-Base Land Use Plan.

City officials refer to this shelter as an “overflow facility” as if that makes it OK to keep adoptable dogs and lost pets there. The shelter at Brooks City-Base is not listed or promoted on any city web sites.

In 2010, and again in 2012, city officials approved lease agreements that prohibited public access to this shelter. Twice funds were approved to build additional kennels to increase capacity at the main shelter open to the public (4710 State Highway 151, 78227), but were allocated elsewhere, and Mayor Castro chose to use the un-airconditioned/heated shelter on Brooks City-Base, which is leased to the city at no cost.

The Brooks Development Authority is aware of the continued lease violations and has done nothing to address them. 

• Individuals with reading disabilities, limited computer/internet knowledge, and limited English skills do not have fair access to the current extremely restrictive system. Additionally, citizens have only 72 hours to claim lost pets or adopt a pet before pets are killed by the city, so open access is critical.
• The percentage of impounded animals that San Antonio Animal Care Services (ACS) returns to their owners is only 6%, well below the national average of 15-20% -- due in part to this “secret” shelter. That’s a lot of family pets that never make it home.
• City officials are unable to provide any data regarding the number of dogs sent to this remote shelter and their      outcomes (adoption, rescue, return to owner, euthanize) because they claim they do not track animal data by shelter location. But city planning documents state the remote shelter will accommodate 6,000 dogs per year.
• Shelter volunteers and rescue partners are required to sign an agreement that states in part, “At all times, all volunteers are required to provide positive press (via social media, blogs, emails, news releases, etc.) regarding the ACS facility, staff, fellow volunteers, rescue partners and visitors." Volunteers are forced to choose between     helping animals at the shelters or being able to voice complaints.
• San Antonio Animal Care Services has an average yearly intake of 30,000 animals, but city officials have no process for determining which dogs and how many to euthanize each day, and no process to determine which dogs and how many to send each day to the Brooks shelter that is closed to the public. If no guidance exists,then dogs are sent to the Brooks City-Base Shelter (and returned to the main campus to be killed in 72 hours) completely at random. How does that work with so many employees that must coordinate actions? How do      you train new personnel to make life and death decisions regarding the shelter population with no written guidance or policy?

To my knowledge, Mayor Castro has not responded to any citizen complaints about these shelter violations. No one from his staff has responded. The local media has been presenting only the message the city wants the public to hear, which has shaken my faith in our journalists. City officials have been saying that they “plan” to convert the Brooks shelter to a quarantine facility for at least a year, and given their continued violations of the lease, ordinances, and the public trust, the most current claim carries little credibility.

Here is a link to a series of articles with more information:

http://www.examiner.com/article/brooks-development-authority-fails-move-to-the-future?CID=examiner_alerts_article