These shelters also have a habit of euthanizing puppies that are very adoptable when they are on hold for rescues. They seem to make these "mistakes" over and over. Many of these shelters need to be shut down or at least the people running them fired. They would be better run by good rescues.

The chip was found but an owner couldn't be identified; then ACS dropped the ball by not following up.

As per the article - there is definitely a stray dog problem in SA; the city says it is trying to move ACS away from kill shelter but it hasn't completely done that yet.

Years ago, before micro-chipping, my dog went missing and every day for a week, I went to the shelter to look for him, fearing he'd be found and killed if I didn't. It was a horrible place. Back then they brought in strays and euthanized in a matter of days.
Someone found him and called me eventually (happy ending). While things have improved and they now try to find homes for strays, I wish they would just stop euthanizing and have the proper infrastructure to care for strays who can't be adopted out. But all that takes money, especially with 100-150k strays out there.

There's no easy solution.

ACS is manipulating a lot of numbers, though. For example, the reason that they aren't picking up the 100k strays is because if the dogs don't come through their doors, they don't count toward their numbers. Trust me, I don't want all of these strays to be picked up and euthanized. But I do want existing laws and ordinances to be enforced - especially those having to do with litter permits and failure to keep dogs properly restrained in yards and fences. Instead, ACS tends to go after those pet owners who have more than the allowed number of pets - even though all may be spay/neutered, vaccinated and microchipped.

Owner surrenders at ACS still run the risk of being euthanized immediately as there is no law in place for a 72 hour hold for them like there is for strays that are impounded. Puppies and kittens under 4 months of age are considered "unhealthy" and sometimes euthanized for space. And so on, and so on.

There truly is no easy solution, but there needs to be much more transparency and there needs to be a higher degree of the public being informed about this. There have been "fluff" news pieces run in the local media congratulating ACS for reaching "no kill". That encourages well-meaning pet owners who may need to surrender their pets who do so with the very real expectation that the pets will be adopted, when in fact, they are most likely euthanized.

Edited to add: Very happy to see a fellow DU'er in SA!!!! We're working hard to turn Texas blue!

It euthanizes fewer animals each year because it works with rescue groups and keeps adoption fees low, plus animal services runs low cost spay/neuter clinics. Unfortunately they are still inundated with litters of kittens and abandoned dogs.

My cat is from one of their shelters. He's chipped because they don't release any animals without one. He was in apparent good health and had been abandoned as an adult. We soon discovered that he did have a health issue and paid $$$ to correct it. I've wondered if his previous humans just didn't have the money to take care of it.

I'm always very grateful when one gets out of the shelter, and ever more grateful to know that one has gone to a home that can and will care for it properly.

Thank you!

My point though is that vet bills are a deal breaker for many potential pet owners. I can afford to feed and house at least a dozen cats. I can't afford more than routine vet care for that many. My one little darling has had two unrelated health crises since I brought him home -- big dings in the budget. If I had multiple cats I'd have to make hard choices.

It's a very real concern.

But honestly, I believe the real issue in my fair city is that fact that we have so many people who don't bother to get their pets fixed, and then just dump the offspring. I don't think a great percentage of the pets showing up at the city shelter are being surrendered because of health issues.

different databases. I have an Avid chip and a Home Again chip in my dog because not all shelters have a multi chip reader. These are the two main ones but there are others...

Three more things,

One, the microchip can "migrate" from where it usually is implanted down a dogs leg...harder to scan and find and read.

Secondly, almost all shelters are staffed by volunteers and like anything else there are good ones and some not so good ones. When a dog is brought in, the volunteer scans the dog for a chip. We have to hope and pray that the volunteer is performing this task throughly...And sees the chip on the scanner and reads the number correctly...

Lastly, YOU HAVE TO REGISTER THE UNIQUE CHIP NUMBER YOURSELF, don't depend on who implanted the chip to do it.. And like stated above, there is not just one database. If you Google dog microchip database's, you will see a dozen different databases. Register you dog with all of them...It can't hurt...


Hope this helps.

This was not an issue of a shelter not having up to date equipment, etc. The budget for this city department is well funded and they have state of the art equipment.

ACS has actually a three step process where a dog is supposed to be scanned three times minimum. This chip was properly registered with correct and current information. The issue was that the recordation of the chip somehow "slipped through" the process.

Unfortunately, this has happened before at this particular facility. They always apologize and state that they are going to "retrain" their employees, but these types of things continue to occur.

There are volunteers in this shelter, but it is staffed by an adequate, paid staff.

I believe there have been some efforts to centralize the databases of all of the microchip companies, but your point is well taken in that they are each individual. I believe information on Google can tell you, at least, which company originated a particular microchip number.

Excellent thing to do!!!!

Tags and collar plus chip.

Then, everything humanly possible to keep them confined and safe.

Their animal shelter and animal control is as good as I've ever seen. Maybe it's because much of the shelter help is prisoners who empathize with the animals.

Wish ours had such a program because I firmly believe it benefits both the animals and the humans.