Staff report: volunteers logged 6,479.28 hours in January; Austin Pets Alive reports major share of transfers under license agreement

City Animal Services staff and Austin Pets Alive (APA) presented monthly operational reports to the Travis County Austin Animal Advisory Commission, highlighting volunteer contributions, staffing changes and transfer volumes under the existing license agreement.

Volunteer-hours and staffing: Don Bland, chief animal services officer, told commissioners that January orientations added 170 new volunteers and that active volunteers logged 6,479.28 hours that month. Bland said, “our volunteers produce more volunteer hours in a month than most municipal shelters do in a whole year,” and thanked volunteers for sustaining shelter operations. Bland also reported several personnel openings: three full-time positions posted (customer service, enrichment, animal protection), two positions in process (customer service representative and vet services supervisor), and a recent veterinarian retirement that the office filled within a few weeks.

Surgery counts and data correction: Commissioners asked about apparent discrepancies in the posted Power BI reports (for example, a low initial spay/neuter count for January). Bland said a Power BI calculation error required a refresh; staff emailed corrected reports showing about 400 spays/neuters rather than the earlier incorrect 206 figure. Bland also agreed to reconcile transfer numbers to APA after commissioners noted differing subtotals in the written backup materials.

Austin Pets Alive license-report highlights: Stephanie Bilbrough, director of operations at Austin Pets Alive, presented APA’s December end-of-quarter license-agreement report. APA reported it took roughly 67% of AAC’s transfers for the quarter and said that if APA had not taken animals on 2-hour or 48-hour deadlines, AAC’s live-release rate would have been about 86% rather than the reported roughly 95%.

Public concerns and access: Commissioners raised access concerns for Spanish-speaking community members who reported not receiving services at a recent mass spay/neuter clinic. Staff said outreach materials and the event portal were published in both English and Spanish and that staff will increase bilingual onsite capacity at future clinics. Commissioners also discussed transportation barriers and geographic distance to clinics as factors that can limit access for people living farther from South Congress and other clinic sites.

Next steps: Staff agreed to reconcile the transfer and pull counts with partner agencies, continue to improve bilingual outreach, and provide corrected Power BI data to commissioners. APA said clinic capacity typically increases after the winter months and that transfer volumes tend to rise during kitten season.

Ending: Commissioners thanked staff and APA for the briefings and asked staff to follow up on the data reconciliations and outreach improvements.