Animal Services

Jim Burress

Animal Services Supervisor

Nicole Rogers

Animal Services

Community Outreach as a Whole. . .

Our Roswell Animal Services Facebook page continued to be a great outlet in reaching the community throughout 2021.

When an animal had been in the facility longer than expected, we started networking that particular animal on our page looking for rescue or adoption interests.

We had much success with these efforts and often received updates from adopters on our Facebook page.

A Glimpse from Last Year. . .

Dispatches. . .

Our officers were dispatched 6,140 calls for 2021, with monthly totals between 400 and 620 calls. Calls varied from a dog running loose or a cat trapped by a citizen to welfare checks on animals and aiding citizens with aggressive animals or animal bites. Each call was handled with education and experience from our officers.

• Continued to have a downward trend over the last few years • Exceptional education to our community through social media • Officers worked with citizens on minor offenses to prevent intakes • Staff scanned for microchips to provide a chance at returning the lost or escaped animal to their owner

D P C

2021’s Euthanasia Cases. . .

• Lower rates for most of 2021 • Decrease in overall euthanasia cases compared to 2020 • Made more educated decisions on euthanasia, such as animals that may be a public safety hazard, etc. • Prominent feral cat issue throughout the city continues to be a concern for our citizens that we search for an answer for

Goals. . .

Back in 2018, our overall goal was to become a facility that was only euthanizing for aggression and sick or injured animals.

As of 2020, this goal was reached with working so closely with the community and animal advocates.

We worked very hard to get all our animals out on Facebook with an initial intake photo.

We also started making videos for each dog in the big dog kennels at the 5-day mark so that rescues and citizens could see more of each animal’s personality. Videos were also made of the cats to get them more publicity, too.

Our adoptions and reclaims continued to be comparable with what our rescue groups pulled in numbers. The more animals we continued to get reclaimed or adopted, the less strain we had on our facility workers and our rescue partners.

We have continued to come up with ways to increase our presence in the community and to get animals into loving homes.

In the upcoming year, we will go through the National Animal Care and Control Association, or NACA, for all officers and supervisors to complete the training offered by the renowned group.

With COVID precautions in mind, we planned to work with local schools to teach students about pet care and health.

Intakes on a Downward Trend Decrease in Overall Euthanasia Rates 6,140 Calls Dispatched Officers to Scenes

This pie chart is an overview of just how much our social media presence influenced our continued improvement.

Upcoming 2022 Objectives. . .

2021 Adoption Events

Once COVID Protocols began to allow us, we held our monthly adoption events.

It was an amazing success as everyone enjoyed seeing the cats and dogs in person.

Rescue groups through their volunteer videos also gave the animals a lot of social media notice.

Cute Chihuahua

This scared little girl was surrendered to us by a next-of-kin who could not care for her.

After posting her sad story on Facebook, she was with us for just one hour before she found her forever home.

This positive outcome resulted from one post on our Facebook page administered by our kennel manager.

Lost “Little” Bengal

Pictured here is another way that the Facebook posts helped us so much.

This big guy came into the facility and was clearly not your run of the mill domestic short hair. Our kennel manager identified him as a Bengal and put him out on Facebook.

His owner came and reclaimed him the same day. He never spent a moment in a kennel because he decided to take over our office chair for a couple of hours while waiting for his ride.

Our Two Biggest Examples:

Our loving mom-to-be and little hamster are our biggest examples of our social presence in the community of Roswell. Our large outreach through our Facebook posts helped assist in getting animals into forever homes or foster homes, including them!

Happy Hamster

On its adoption day, this hamster was posted online to help find it a nice home. A couple of hours later, a mom and her very happy son walked out with a new friend.

Pregnant with Pups

This sweet, pregnant dog was pulled by a rescue group after this picture was posted with a plea to keep her from having her puppies in the shelter. Our staff stays very busy caring for all the animals and a litter of puppies would have taken a lot of one-on-one care.

Community Outreach via Social Media Adoption Events Held Monthly Help from the Roswell Community