ASPCA® Mission: Orange™ at Work in Austin
One of the largest cities in the southern United States, Austin, Texas, experienced a 41-percent growth rate from 1995 to 2005, and is home to 1.4 million residents. It has a rich history of working toward the goal of becoming a “humane community.” In fact, the City of Austin and County Commissioners Court passed a resolution in 1997 to make Austin a “no-kill” city. Now, as a target community in the ASPCA® Mission: Orange™ campaign, Austin hopes to realize that dream in the near future.
Austin’s lead community and animal welfare agencies for this campaign are: Town Lake Animal Center (the city-funded shelter), Austin Humane Society (a non-profit, no-kill shelter), Animal Trustees of Austin (a stationary spay/neuter and wellness services clinic) and emanciPET (a mobile and stationary spay/neuter clinic).
- Currently, Town Lake Animal Center and the Austin Humane Society take in a combined total of more than 28,000 animals annually.
- Since its inception in 1993, Animal Trustees of Austin has performed more than 65,000 spay/neuter surgeries, fostered more than 2,000 special needs pets and provided vaccinations and heartworm testing for more than 50,000 animals.
- EmanciPET has performed more than 55,000 spay/neuter surgeries since 1999.
Despite the 1997 resolution and tremendous work on the part of all the local agencies, more than half of the animals entering Austin’s shelters in 2005—15,000 dogs and cats—were euthanized (illustrated in the table below):
|
Intakes |
Adoptions/Transfer/RTO (Return to Owner) |
Euthanized |
|
| Town Lake Animal Center |
26,000 |
10,660 |
15,340 |
| Austin Humane Society |
2,475 |
2,404 |
71 |
Austin still faces many challenges, including high numbers of feral cats and unwanted pets, anti-cruelty issues, limited resources for expansion of spay/neuter programs and sterilization of feral cats, and the replacement of emanciPET’s spay/neuter mobile unit to expand capacity in specific areas.
The ASPCA Mission: Orange effort will address these issues and drive the effort of decreasing homelessness for pets in Austin through the following initiatives:
- Animal Placement:
- Meet Your Match™ adoption program training and implementation (a multi-faceted approach designed to match an adopter’s personality with that of the cat or dog);
- SAFER training (a technique for screening dogs for aggression);
- Off-site (mobile) adoption initiatives; and
- More/better adoption training.
- Reducing Intake:
- Training public workers how to recognize animal cruelty;
- Anti-cruelty training for the Austin Police Department;
- Supporting the work of an animal hoarding task force;
- Cross reporting of cruelty with child protective services for animals and children at risk;
- Working with the city of Austin’s parks and recreations department to establish dog parks; and
- Promoting the use of microchips so lost pets can be reunited with their families.
-Capacity Building:
- Capital campaign grant (beginning in 2007, the ASPCA has pledged $100,000 per year to Animal Trustees of Austin for three years);
- Fundraising and board development consultation;
- Helping build education programs in AISD schools; and
- Working with Habitat for Humanity to educate families about pet ownership and adoption.
-Spay/Neuter:
- Continued efforts to support targeted, low-cost spay/neuter programs;
- Supporting the establishment of the Feral Fix program at Austin Humane Society; and
- Promoting microchipping so that lost pets can be reunited with their families.
