El Paso Animal Services reports rising adoptions, discusses adoption follow-up; advisory committee creates annual-report subcommittee and re-elects leadership

The Animal Shelter Advisory Committee on Dec. 11 heard an El Paso Animal Services presentation showing strong adoption months and declining behavior-related euthanasia, discussed options for post-adoption follow-up, and took several procedural actions including creation of a subcommittee to prepare the committee’s 2024 annual report and re-election of the committee chair and vice chair.

El Paso Animal Services deputy director Michael Wachsman presented November statistics and operations updates. He said the shelter’s combined live-release rate for dogs and cats was 85.38% in November and that the shelter was “on pace for ’90, I think, ’91” percent by December. Wachsman told the committee November showed high adoption volume following record months in October and November: “October was the best month of October in a decade, and this is our best November in over a decade.”

Wachsman described field operations work that aims to keep animals in homes and reduce shelter intake. He reported the field team microchipped “over 200 pets in the month of November,” responded to more than 2,500 calls for service that month, issued “over 800 violations” and performed 522 impoundments where animals were removed because conditions did not meet standards. He credited animal protection…