El Paso residents press council over animal services practices, call for audit and spay‑neuter drive

Dozens of El Paso residents told city leaders on Aug. 5 that El Paso Animal Services is failing animals and the people who try to help them, describing repeated instances of injured animals being left waiting, animals returned to the street and a shelter system strained by rising intake.

Speakers at the city council’s public‑comment period said the shelter’s “managed intake” policy and other protocols were forcing Good Samaritans to either care for injured animals themselves or place animals back where they were found. “Residents who find animals and attempt to have them picked up or turn them in at the facility are told to leave or take back to where found because shelter is full,” said Darlene Rincon, a rescue volunteer, describing the practice as “heartbreaking but unacceptable.”

The testimony came from a long line of rescue volunteers, foster parents and nonprofit leaders who used the council podium to outline problems they said are widespread: delayed triage of injured animals, animals left in cardboard boxes in the parking lot while convulsing, refusal of intake when the shelter is said to be full,…