Dallas Animal Services

Dallas Animal Services launched a new website with a focus on key HASS concepts. When Texas was faced with Winter Storm Uri in February, DAS saw a 922% increase in calls related directly to the extreme cold. DAS Officers worked around-the-clock to respond to the huge increase in service requests from the community, most of which were welfare checks on pets spotted outdoors. The DAS shelter and medical teams continued working at the shelter through the storm to provide enrichment, surgeries, and medical care to pets. Throughout March, DAS participated in the Maddie’s Fund “No Place Like Home Challenge” and put a greater emphasis on getting lost pets home through grassroots marketing initiatives and social media.

Dallas Animal Services (Director, Ed Jamison) achieved a live release rate of 90.1%, the highest it has been in a single calendar year in DAS history! Home To Home™ Dallas has seen over 180 pet rehoming submissions since launching in late November. In December, DAS hired a new Field Volunteer Coordinator whose role will be to increase outreach in the Dallas Community utilizing field specific volunteers and an additional Manager II in field to oversee new HASS related programs that will ultimately help keep pets and people together. 

Dallas Animal Services (DAS) recently launched a partnership with Home To Home™, an online platform that allows residents to proactively rehome their pets when keeping them is no longer an option. Home To Home™ helps pets stay out of shelters by allowing them to go directly from an old home to a new one, preventing shelter overcrowding and saving shelter resources for pets with no other options. Home To Home is free and easy to use for both pet guardians and pet adopters and the adoption process is very similar to the one DAS uses, focusing on quality conversations in order to make a good match. In the first week of the Home To Home™ partnership alone, DAS had over 20 pet owners utilize the new platform to find an alternate solution to rehoming their pet other than bringing them to the shelter with the first adoptions occurring just a few days after the pets were posted.

October marked the first month of the Fiscal Year for Dallas Animal Services (DAS) and a major milestone as they celebrated exceeding a 90% annual Live Release Rate for dogs and cats for the first time in DAS history in Fiscal Year 2020 (October 2019 – September 2020). DAS recently presented this accomplishment, along with other annual data and our Human Animal Support Services (HASS) work, to the Dallas Animal Advisory Commission, where it was received positively.

As a tier 1 pilot shelter for HASS, DAS continued to focus on the health and safety of people as well as pets. DAS provided emotional support to employees through the City of Dallas Employee Assistance Program (EAP), boosted staff morale through a tele-badge ceremony for Animal Services Officers and provided frequent stress relieving activities for employees like morning yoga and employee shout outs. The City of Dallas recently ended a hiring freeze and DAS has been working to fill open positions quickly and efficiently.

DAS also worked to safely bring additional volunteers back into the building and create new volunteer roles, including many remote opportunities. DAS volunteers and these new opportunities have continued to keep the length of stay short and quality of life for pets higher while limiting the use of staff resources.

In the community, DAS participated in neighborhood walks with Dallas Code Compliance to hand out information about DAS and partner resources for pet owners and continues to help pet owners struggling to keep their pets by connecting them to the call center helpline with DAS partners at Spay Neuter Network and Dallas Pets Alive! The DAS Aggressive Ops team has focused heavily on hot spot areas where loose dogs are more abundant to increase public safety. DAS has also begun to do off-site adoption pop-ups at the PetSmart Every Day Adoption Center in North Dallas, increasing the amount of people who can see and adopt a DAS pet.

This month, Dallas Animal Services (DAS) is continuing to focus on providing resources to pet owners in need. DAS will be distributing physical copies of our Pet Resource Guide, which lists helpful resources for those who are facing hard times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. DAS is also working to create more awareness of the many lost pet resources we offer, including text support and independent apps, through social media and a press release to local media.

Hurricane Laura Response

In an ongoing effort to keep people and pets together as part of the HASS model, Dallas Animal Services (DAS) has directly helped nearly 90 pets affected by Hurricane Laura with our quick and proactive response. By taking in adoptable pets from coastal shelters so they can have a greater capacity to help reunite pets separated from their owners and by temporarily housing and caring for the owned pets of evacuees staying in shelters that would not allow pets, DAS has helped keep families together during this time of crisis.

Resource Guide

DAS has created this resource guide to assist DFW residents who are struggling to care for their pet due to financial hardships. We hope this community based solution will help keep people and their pets together and reduce the need to surrender a pet

Meals on Wheels

In order to support more pet owners in Dallas, DAS has teamed up with Meals on Wheels to provide participants of the program assistance in transferring their pets to veterinary clinics for care and delivering pet food to participants.