San Antonio’s ACS failed to follow up with ‘rescue partners,’ audit says

San Antonio’s Animal Care Services is facing scrutiny after an audit published in February discovered the city department failed to follow up on so-called “rescue partners” despite paying those groups hundreds of thousands of dollars through taxpayer-funded contracts.

During the 2023 fiscal year, ACS contracted with partner shelters to the tune of $360,125 to help the city place animals in need. ACS uses those external rescue organizations to move animals out of its kennels when capacity grows too high.

Despite the contract between ACS and its partners stating that the animals in the outside organizations’ care should be spayed and neutered, the audit found that the city department wasn’t following up on the care and treatment of the animals. The audit, conducted during the summer of 2023, also found that several partners failed to abide by policies outlined in their ACS contracts.

Char Miller, a professor of history and environmental analysis at California’s Pomona College, said the audit suggests that while ACS may have found a solution to overcrowding in its facilities, the decision to outsource raises new questions about how the animals are ultimately handled.

“The larger point is when you outsource the work that the city could be doing but chooses not to do, then your attention to that process is diminished the more outsourcing occurs,” said Miller, who’s spent decades studying San Antonio and its urban issues. “Whether that’s deliberate or not is almost immaterial, because it means, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’ You just push the problem elsewhere.”

According to the audit, ACS relies on both low-volume partners, which can take a limited number of animals off its hands at a time, and large-volume shelters capable of taking on more. The department displayed a lack of followup with both kinds of partners when it came to contract paperwork, the report states.

All seven of the low-volume ACS partners failed to provide at least one of the pieces of documentation required under their contracts. Those could included their operating budgets, proof their head executives lives in Bexar County, recommendation letters from local veterinarians or foster contracts.

The audit also found that all eight of ACS’s larger partners — including San Antonio Pets Alive, SNIPSA, San Antonio Humane Society, God’s Dogs Rescue, They Have the Right to Live Rescue, Texas Chihuahua Rescue, Footbridge Foundation and Vermont English Bulldog Rescue — failed to provide documents relating to insurance required under their contracts.

All of the missing documents should have been made available prior to the execution of the city contract, according to the audit.

In addition to the paperwork deficiencies, the audit found that ACS isn’t monitoring animals’ safety, outcomes and sterilization status after leaving the department’s custody.

In a Wednesday phone call, ACS Assistant Director Shannon Oster-Gabrielson said the department began correcting the errors outlined in the document last summer — around the time when the audit was being conducted. The agency has since collected all the missing information mentioned in the report, she added.

“We have all the documentation, we have the proper insurance requirements, we have an inspection plan, we’re auditing invoices, we’re getting the correct reports,” Oster-Gabrielson said.

The audit was conducted prior to City Council’s decision to give ACS a 33% budget increase following a string of negative headlines due to several high-profile dog attacks around San Antonio.

Some of that money is going towards rescue partners, in which some are now being paid $200 per pet taken in, Oster-Gabrielson said.

Current Editor-in-Chief Sanford Nowlin contributed to this report.

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This article appears in Mar 20 – Apr 2, 2024.