San Antonio Pets Alive (SAPA!) Q & A Urgents and Adoptables Facebook Page
Q. IS SAPA! SAVING LIVES OF DOGS AT-RISK OF EUTHANASIA AT THE CITY OF SAN ANTONIO ANIMAL CARE SERVICES?
A. Yes! SAPA! is a High-Volume Pet Partner for the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services (ACS). Saving the lives of 4000 dogs and cats that enter the city shelter is a priority for SAPA! and SAPA! will continue to have a placement team to work with our 140+ active rescue partners to save the lives of urgent dogs and puppies at the city shelter. As a lifesaving organization, SAPA! continues to focus on the animals most at-risk of euthanasia at the city shelter.
Q. WHAT HAS CHANGED WITH THE PLACEMENT PROGRAM?
A. SAPA! will no longer update the Urgents and Adoptables Facebook page. Instead, SAPA! is directing additional resources to its transport and adoptions program to increase lifesaving!
Q. WHY HAS IT CHANGED?
A. Back in 2011, when SAPA! was founded, ACS did not publicly communicate which animals were at-risk of euthanasia, nor did ACS share information publicly.
In 2012 SAPA! created and managed the Urgents and Adoptables Facebook page to bring awareness to the fact that nearly 70% of dogs and cats entering ACS are being killed. The Facebook page was also used to market dogs at the city shelter at-risk of euthanasia. The good news is that ACS has taken ownership of marketing the animals in its care and directly communicating to the public about the animals at-risk of being euthanized, animals impounded as strays, and animals available for adoption. For years, ACS has consistently had a live release rate of 85% or higher – which is one of the highest in the country.
Q. WHERE CAN I SEE THE ANIMALS AVAILABLE AT ACS?
A. The ACS detailed reports and website accurately depict animals that are released to euthanasia, and inform the public quickly and efficiently—much quicker than what SAPA! is able to do. Please visit https://www.sa.gov/Directory/D... to see the city’s website.
All ACS Reports for Urgent pets: https://www.sa.gov/Directory/D...
ACS PETS IN NEED OF PLACEMENT:
- DOGS- https://www.sanantonio.gov/.../ACS_website...
- CATS- https://www.sanantonio.gov/.../ACS_website...
ACS ANIMALS SELECTED FOR EUTHANASIA:
https://www.sanantonio.gov/acs...
Q. HOW WILL THIS IMPACT SAPA! RESCUE PARTNERS?
A. SAPA!’s Placement Team is still available to support active SAPA! rescue partners interested in saving the lives of dogs at ACS. The Placement Team continues to facilitate rescue partner pulls and collect needed information about the urgent pets as requested. Our team will place tags, and assist with any waivers, surgery scheduling, records and surgery proof requests that our partners need. Rescue partners will still email placement@sanantoniopetsalive.org for assistance.
Q. HOW DOES THIS AFFECT SAPA! SOS’ING RELEASED ANIMALS?
A. Rescue Partners should bookmark the ACS Capacity Euthanasia List, to review animals that are urgent and those that are selected by the shelter to be euthanized the next morning (https://www.sanantonio.gov/acs...). Rescue Partners can email placement@sanantoniopetsalive.org for more information or to place lifesaving tags on any of the animals on the list. Placement will assist the Rescue partner as normal!
On Code Red Days, where the city shelter is releasing 25 or more animals to euthanasia, the Placement team will send out a Code Red SOS email to our rescue partners. Our foster team also sends out a SOS! Email to our fosters and posts it on the SAPA! Foster Facebook Page.
Q. HOW WILL SAPA! FOSTERS KNOW WHICH ANIMALS NEED HELP AT ACS?
A. SAPA! manages a Trello board for its fosters and potential fosters to view animals that need foster homes! These animals are already in the SAPA! Program or are in the SAPA! Transitional kennels (Tran Kennels) at the city shelter campus (SAPA! Building 1 Rescue Center). SAPA! is a foster-based rescue organization and relies on fosters to save hundreds of lives each month. https://trello.com/b/l9ZKnC4s/...
Q. HOW WILL ADOPTERS BE ABLE TO HELP IF THEY CANNOT SEE ANIMALS ON SAPA!’S URGENTS PAGE?
A. We have linked the ACS reports on the Urgents Page so that they can quickly access the lists of available animals at the city shelter. Many adopters for animals in ACS kennels go through ACS. We are happy to facilitate any adoptions of animals in ACS kennels that are past their due out dates (72-hour stray holds), and any animal in our Transitional kennels!
- ACS Dogs: https://www.sanantonio.gov/acs...
- ACS Cats: https://www.sanantonio.gov/acs...
Additionally, adopters can visit our website to view the animals in the SAPA! Program to view all available pets. Saving an animal that is already in SAPA! frees up a kennel or opens up a foster home for another urgent pet from the city shelter! https://www.sanantoniopetsaliv...
All links are also available on SAPA!’s Urgents page for anyone visiting to quickly access the lifesaving webpages or reports.
Fosters also have access to see the ACS report for animals needing placement.