Aransas Pass City Manager getting death threats over new provision to kill strays

A new temporary policy adopted by Arkansas Pass (Texas) City Manager Sylvia Carrillo is drawing a lot of attention, including death threats. KRIS News reported the story on July 8.

The policy, which involves Aransas Pass Animal Control, was implemented on June 20. The story is just now making headlines, and a lot of people are enraged. Under the new policy, APAC will euthanize stray animals picked up by animal control if no one claims the dog or cat within three days. The city says it’s their job to control the stray pet population, not to run an adoption center. Carrillo stated to Action10 News:

“We have, in the last five years…steered away from our mission. Our mission is animal control, and that is controlling the animal population. Which means our primary goal should be euthanization. We have not planned accordingly or budgeted accordingly. Without the assistance of our local (veterinarians), which nobody has really stepped up, we have to go back to euthanization.”

Carrillo goes on to say an “efficient” animal control euthanizes at least every other day, if not every day, to curb the stray pet population. At this time they don’t even have an officer to do euthanizations. Carol Crockett, former AC officer, was suspended without pay and later resigned. Dr. Neal Floerke, a veterinarian from the neighboring City of Taft, is performing Aransas Pass’ animal euthanasia until a new AC officer can be hired.. Floerke is a board member for the San Patricio County SPCA, which practices TNR.

City manager
Carillo
The problem comes down to money. Animal Control has too many animals to care for and not enough funds to do the job. The city has discussed upping monthly fees to residents, but residents don’t want to fork out the money until the current policy is changed. Residents refuse to be a part of killing thousands of animals each year. The fee could run as low as $5 per year for each resident.

Carrillo hopes once the SPCA builds a facility more animals can be saved. She also admits euthanizing healthy animals on a daily basis would be difficult, but it’s part of the job. The new facility is reported to be a no-kill shelter, and will help with the adoption of dogs and cats. No information available at this time on when the new shelter is scheduled to become a reality.

Carrillo admits AC has problems with lack of funds, insufficient veterinary care, improper paperwork, and loose adoption polices. Recently a dog adopted out died of parvo. She states this could happen again and again with proper procedures and vet care. In Carillo’s opinion, it would be better to kill healthy pets rather than risk a heartbroken child after the pet the family adopted dies from illness.

News flash, Carrillo! Shelters operate every day accepting that death from illness isn’t 100% preventable. There are too many problems with the three day kill rule. What if a family is on vacation and their pet escapes? This policy sets Aransas Pass up for a lawsuit. As it turns out, the new policy itself may be illegal. City Ordinance states as many animals as possible should be adopted out.

On July 7, City Council had a standing room only crowd when animal advocates from all over South Texas voiced their opinion. The city plans to charge and prosecute anyone making death threats against Carrillo.

Personally, I thought animal control was put in place to keep the public they represented safe from rabies. It appears Aransas Pass needs a lesson in humanity. Euthanizing healthy dogs and cats is called murder. Other communities come up with solutions to raise money to help the dogs and cats in their care. You’re blowing it on this one, Carrillo and City Council.

Readers, what do you think? Shouldn’t the number one job of animal control be to pick up strays and reunite them with their owners, or adopt them out if necessary? Please leave a comment.

Elisa

Sources: One – Two.

15 thoughts on “Aransas Pass City Manager getting death threats over new provision to kill strays”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. To me 3 Days doesn’t seem enough i think it should be longer like 7. Yes i agree People have become lazy in not getting their Animals fixed. Yes i know its expensive. Will cost 140.00 to get Jasmine Fixed on Monday but its worth it than having unwanted kitties and and clogging up shelters. I think there should be Mandatory on all pets to get them fixed. I mean in some places overseas they have cheap options to get them fixed. I dont know if they have anything here, but 140.00 is a small price to pay and this month get a free bag of young female cat biscuits for free. I feel for rescued animals stuck in shelters and then having to die not even when they haven’t grown like kitties. Get them fixed and save some lives!!!

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  3. Unfortunately some people will stay confused to avoid taking action, and this is one of those times. I work a rural shelter where the funding is so low that we buy and get only what we need. We have to make things last, like our washing machine and dryer that the facility had to make last eight years before getting new ones. And our broom that is taped up. But you don’t value a shelter by their physical worth, you value a shelter over their morals and their abilty to help animals.

    Over the years I have learned what it means to make something from nothing, relying on teamwork and the community to achieve our goals, rather than a large reserve of items. I remember turning old disinfectant containers into food buckets, old trash cans into litter containers, and old cat food bags into goodie bags. A good worker is both resourcefull and keen on what the needs of a facility are.

    I can honestly say from working in a low funded shelter, that motivation and compassion is all that is needed. Despite being rural, we have had the complete backing of the community after starting our website and Facebook page. We ask on our page for dog food, and we have over 300 pounds of dog food come in sometimes. Also despite being poorly funded, we have managed to keep a big percentage of our animals healthy, adoptable, and happy. This is from implementing strict sanitation rules that only require having hand soap, disposable gloves, hand sanitizer, and bleach.

    That is right – a shelter does not have to invest in large and expensive products. A $5 gallon of bleach will suffice for disinfection and a hand sanitizer unit will also work well enough for hand sanitation needs. It has been proven that uri is spread mainly via hands in cats – upper respiratory is NOT airborne, another myth (or excuse) spread to avoid taking action

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  4. I’m assuming that this shelter was a no-kill until this provision came to pass last month. It’s unlikely that Ms. Carillo made this decision solo. She must have strong backing from counselmen and commissioners.
    It makes me mad when these things are enacted without seeking public opinion. These issues are just generally placed on an agenda that the public has a hard time finding.

    What you describe is pretty standard here.

    Animal control is assigned to pick up any cat they see “at large” and deliver them to the kill shelter. The waiting period before euthanasia is 3 days unless they are deemed feral (determined by some unknown entity) in which case they are killed within 24 hours if not immediately.

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    • I’m not sure there IS a shelter. Maybe just an office with some cages to house the animals for 3 days. Whatever they have it’s def poor planning.

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        • Now I’ve seen everything. You know, nowhere in this article does it say any animals WERE euthanized. Only what Carrillo says should be done.

          It amazes me they’d break their own city ordinance by coming up with this new provision.

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  5. This is a total admission of failure of society to discharge its obligations towards the domestic cat. If someone in authority says we can do nothing else other than kill stray cats because that is their mission and there are no other options because of a lack of funds and a lack of willingness to do anything else then they are admitting failure.

    And this is the major problem regarding humankind’s relationship with the domestic cat. We simply are not discharging our duties. We’re giving up and deciding simply to kill them because we scratch our heads as how to deal with unwanted cats and an excessive population of cats.

    But we know how to deal with it and that is to go to the root cause of all these problems which is irresponsible cat ownership and tackle the problem at source. There are 1,000,000 ways that can be done but it has to be forced upon people because you can’t ask people nicely to be responsible towards domestic cats when they are inherently irresponsible and they will not change their ways.

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  6. this VERY MUCH enrages me!!!!! sick, sick idiots. . . any life is worth saving — especially healthy ones. . . this just totally disgusts me. . . there has to be a better solution. . .

    Reply

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