Sponsorships & Donations to Reduce Animal Adoption Fees in San Angelo

Jennifer McConn is a concerned citizen who got involved with helping animals in San Angelo find a loving, caring home. Recently, she organized a sponsorship and donation drive to help reduce the adoption fees and change the fate of the animals in the city's Animal Shelter. She said she is taking her time to make sure the word gets out and people don’t just “turn a cheek.”

McConn said she is reminded of a quote by Ghandi: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

She said, "This is not just a shelter problem; it’s a community problem. We should work together to fix [it].

In San Angelo, there has been a rise of euthanizing cats and dogs. These cats and dogs are not dying because they are sick, but because their time in the shelter has run out and more room needs to be made. However, over the past year, the kill rate has decreased from 60 percent to 40 percent because of new management, new policies, new procedures, and community involvement.

The San Angelo City Council passed the Spay & Neuter Ordinance on Oct. 3, 2015. This requires residents to spay, neuter and microchip their pets. The city, however, placed a six-month adjustment period before giving out fines. This was put into place to help reduce the number of unwanted pets that enter San Angelo Animal Shelter and are euthanized.

The animals that still need to be adopted are getting their chance by various adoption events. The last adoption event that took place was this past October. The event resulted in 64 adoptions in just 7 hours. The event was held in hopes of not having to kill animals due to lack of shelter space. As for the result, no euthanasia took place and 64 pets found new loving homes. The City Council, however, denied any future “reduced” adoption events. The argument is that the ordinance states the shelter will charge $85 for a dog and $50 for a cat adoption and having such “sales” or events violates that ordinance.

McConn said if the shelter receives more donations and sponsors from the community, it will remain in compliance with the city ordinance. Currently, Jennifer has collected about $3,000 worth of donations from online or in person donations. She has hopes of getting that number to $10,000. Therefore, for those people who want to help with this process, and for more information, visit https://www.youcaring.com/san-angelo-animal-shelter-502873.