Caller-Times: Photos of April
A look back at Caller-Times photographs from around the Coastal Bend and beyond in April 2025.
- A report revealed critical gaps in Corpus Christi Animal Care Services, including issues with spay/neuter programs, adoptions and a lack of veterinary and foster care.
- The report recommended 170 improvements, such as facility upgrades, increased staffing and policy changes to modernize the department.
- The city aims to complete a majority of the recommendations by the end of fiscal year 2025 and implement the remaining recommendations through a five-year plan.
An assessment of Corpus Christi Animal Care Services found critical gaps in the city department’s spay/neuter and adoption programs, a lack of veterinary and foster care, and a workplace culture at the aging shelter that makes it ill-equipped to care for and find homes for a growing population of stray cats and dogs.
Jan Glick, project manager and animal services specialist with Citygate Associates, presented the consulting firm’s key findings and recommendations from the report during a Corpus Christi City Council workshop on May 8.
The presentation came just two days after Animal Care Services confirmed in a statement that the city has been disposing of euthanized animals at the Cefe Valenzuela Landfill while awaiting the completion of service on an on-site cremation unit.
Concerns about the 10-year-old cremation unit had not been raised at the time that Citygate Associates did the report, and the city has since identified a private vendor to conduct cremation services, Glick said.
Although fewer animals are brought to the shelter today to be euthanized than in 2016, the assessment found that shelter staff euthanized 772 out of 3,777 animals that people brought to the shelter in 2023. While community members adopted 947 animals that year, 67 died at the facility.
Live release rates — a measure of how many healthy animals are adopted, transferred to another shelter or returned to their owner — were at 78%, their lowest since 2016.
Citygate’s assessment found that ACS employees serving in key leadership and supervisory positions at the shelter lacked animal welfare industry experience needed to align the department to national best practices.
The study called for revamping those policies and procedures — a step that is currently underway, Glick said.
“It’s going to take time and commitment,” she said. “It takes resources, and it will be a multi-year approach.”
The consulting firm launched the assessment in October 2023, a month after the City Council approved a contract upon City Manager Peter Zanoni’s request to evaluate how the department operates.
The city selected the California-based company through a request for proposal process due to the company’s background in animal care services and staff members’ leadership and experience.
The company summarized its findings in September 2024 and was set to deliver a draft of the report in November, but the presentation was delayed until the newly elected City Council could review the recommendations.
Twenty-eight of the recommendations require formal City Council consideration, primarily related to budget allocations for new or reclassified staff positions and six facility upgrades.
A contract extension through December 2025 allows Citygate to assist ACS in implementing the recommendations.
Citygate staff visited the shelter for four days during the first visit, three days during the second visit and four days during the third visit, observing how the shelter operated and talking with staff and community constituents, Glick said.
The shelter, built in 2004 at 2626 Holly Road, houses 118 dog kennels and 39 cat kennels in three separate buildings, and an additional building is needed, Glick said.
The evaluation found that it lacks office and kennel space, as well as a space that is designated for intake, meet-and-greet rooms, adoption counseling areas, enrichment areas for cats and well-designed areas for the isolation of sick animals.
Currently, there is nowhere for sick cats to isolate at the facility.
The evaluation identified 170 improvement strategies that aim to modernize the department across five key areas: policy, operations, staffing, facilities and culture.
They include concrete improvements, including a new air-conditioned kennel building at the shelter and 18 cat cages, as well as streamlining the intake process for animals, working with community-based rescue partners to help people adopt and foster animals, and developing social media, a website and marketing to engage the public and spread awareness about the benefits of animal care.
The company recommended that 27 additional staff members be hired at the shelter and that workplace culture be refocused on educational and community outreach aspects of the program.
Shelter hours should be extended, and a veterinary program should be developed to quickly care for injured and sick animals and reduce the length of stay for animals, the assessment shows. A volunteer and foster program would help provide basic enrichment for animals and time for them outside of their kennels.
The study also recommended more in-house spay and neuter surgeries.
The city has completed 12 of the report’s recommendations, and 53 of them are in progress, Glick said.
The goal is to complete 65 of them by the end of fiscal year 2025 on Sept. 30 and address the other 105 recommendations through the city’s five-year phased implementation plan to ensure improvement over time.
At-large City Councilwoman Carolyn Vaughn and District 3 Councilman Eric Cantu have been vocal proponents of investing in the department.
During the council meeting, Cantu noted the number of animals euthanized at the shelter and the need for more kennel space and changing the culture about stray animals to encourage people to spay, neuter and adopt them.
“I understand we can’t be 100% no-kill and that we have sick dogs and sick cats, but to kill animals for space — we’ve got to do better for Corpus Christi,” he said.
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