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Animal Shelter Advisory Committee Minutes - 07/28/2023 The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date: July 28, 2023 COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Nicki Bacon City Official LRCA Samuel Jones Animal Services Operator Bryan Wade, D.V.M. Veterinarian Michelle Pohlman Animal Welfare COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENCE: Amber Browning At Large OTHERS PRESENT: Amy Fagan Director of Public Health Katherine Moore Senior Admin Clerk Henry Anderson City of Wichita Falls Intern James McKechnie City of Wichita Falls Legal I. CALL TO ORDER Nicki Bacon,Chair, called the meeting to order. II. INDUCTION OF NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS Samuel Jones and Michelle Pohlman were sworn in. III. REVIEW & APPROVAL OF NOVEMBERS MINUTES The minutes from the ASAC Meeting from November 2022, were distributed and reviewed. A motion was made to accept these minutes by Bryan Wade, with a second following by Michelle Pohlman. The motion was carried. IV. OLD BUISNESS Mrs. Bacon brought back into discussion the Swine Ordinance business discussed in the last ASAC meeting. Mrs. Fagan Continued by stating she did grant a variance for John Horry to own a pig, after many months of going back and forth in discussion of rehoming the pig, Mr. Horry came to the last ASAC meeting to request a modification of the Swine Ordinance which he was informed we could not do. Mrs. Fagan continues stating that Mr. Horry was able to find a place within the law that allowed him to keep the pig. For Public Record Mrs. Fagan is not able to say where. The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC) Minutes Date:July 28, 2023 An agreement was made that he had to come into compliance with certain standards to ensure the pigs safety,ensuring the pig be kept contained, Mr. Horry would not get anymore animals,and he had to come into compliance with the municipal court in regards other actions. Mrs. Fagan asked Mrs. Bacon if he had come into compliance. Mrs. Bacon agreed V. NEW BUISNESS A. Shelter Number Update Mrs. Bacon continued with the shelter's updates and numbers. As of July 5`h,2023, our Live outcomes for all animals that come into our shelter including guinea pigs, pigs, goats,chickens and roosters,rabbits,etc. is 61%. The live outcome for just dogs and cats is 60%. The adoption rate is at 15%which is 5% decrees from 2022 and the euthanasia rate is at 40% which is a 10% increase from 2022.The transfers to rescues are at 25%which is a 3%decrease from 2022 and our return to owner is at 21% which is 3% decrease from 2022. That makes our total live outcome 61% which is a 11% decrease from 2022. The total number of animals coming into our shelter has increased by 13.1% from 2022 at this time. Mrs. Bacon stated that we have noticed a huge increase in our owner surrendered animals, last year out owner surrender total animals was 94 and this year we already are at 154, we have had a 64%increase in owner surrendered animals. Mrs. Bacon states that she believes the amount of owner surrendered animals is affecting our live outcome. She states that this same time last year we"loved" the number 72% and we are fighting to get back up there. Mrs. Fagan continues with adding what we have talked about in telling the public on what we are dealing with,citizens walk through our facility and everything looks "calm and nice and peaceful,staff looks happy,life is good". What they are not aware of is how many animals are in the back, staff has had to euthanized five days a week, and that we are above capacity. Mrs. Fagan brings up that last week the staff had to put around 8 animals in crates in areas that were not intended to hold animals.This does not include the addition added to the facility a couple years back, the cat isolation room, and that room was full. Some options that were talked about to give this information out the public were; In the front there will be a board with numbers on how many animals are here as well as what those animals are, in addition there will be a description on how those animals came to us. The purpose of this is to bring light on to common misconception that we are out searching for animals. Mrs. Fagan states that if she was told that the majority of animals that come into the facility are through the front door and not by our officers she would have not believed you when this shelter was built. The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date:July 28, 2023 This solution was talked about to show the public what we have to work with on a daily basis. These numbers will also be posted on social media, to hopefully get some attention to the problem we have at hand. Mrs. Fagan asks if there are any question in regards to this plan. Question asked if these numbers will be shared on social media? Mrs. Fagan responds,the plan is to have the board with our shelter numbers as a physical visual for when citizens come into the facility. Then a photo of that board and prepare it in a common graphic when it is updated(For example every Tuesday)then be posted on social media as well. In addition, when we get different from normal animals or when animals are dumped on the side of building let the public know of these situations. Mrs. Fagan mentioned Mrs. Bacon had a great idea to possibly post like some police departments do. They post suspects when they are unaware of who they are to show the public to see if they know them. As well as to let the citizens know the situation at hand. Mrs. Bacon adds to this with stating when you go to the city's website, there is a column or section labeled as "Shelter Numbers" that shows all of our intake and outcome numbers from 2019. We have not uploaded 2022 yet but plan to do so soon. Additionally, to look at some numbers rather than percentages, total number of animals taken in through June,July has not been counted, for this year 1,311 animals. This number does not wildlife,this number includes domesticated animals we are able to adopt out or can be transferred to rescues such as dogs,cats, livestock, etc. Out of this total 494 were brought in by our ACO's and 690 were brought in by the public. Out of the 690, 18 were return adoption, they have reasons for return but that number is significant. Mrs. Bacon states that these numbers do show that we are no just the"Bad Guys"or the "Dog Catchers" this will show a real picture of what we do here. Mrs. Bacon asks if there are any further questions on this subject, there is none. B. Shelter Policies Mrs. Bacon begins stating this year and next year we have committed to rewrite or update all of our policies across the board. At this moment we have 96 policies that are currently being looked at. Our top priority policies are Euthanasia which includes; use of Xylazine for specific animals and the use of inhaled anesthesia for the euthanasia of snakes. Mrs. Bacon asks if there are any questions for this, there are none. Mrs. Bacon continues,out of the 96 policies we have finalized 26, and we are at 27% complete. The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date:July 28, 2023 C. Legislature Mr. McKechnie states that the legislature updates around every two years, many bills are involved in this but the following are the top three that affect the Health Dept and Animal Services. First one mentioned is House Bill 1750, this bill expands the definition of agricultural operation for purposes of implementation in City Ordinances. It also adds the requirement that cities must comply with the heightened standard when it comes to composing any government requirements when it comes to an agricultural operation. Agricultural Operation explained;This includes many things such as producing crops, planting/raising plants, trees, flowers.The major one is raising or keeping livestock and/or poultry. Now if you own chickens or goats and you live in a single county zone district, you now have an agricultural operation. What this does now is put into jeopardy our chapter 14 regulations,The Regulation of Animals. Mr. McKechnie continues; What House Bill 1750 is that we are going to regulate these "Agricultural Operations" we have to have heightened standard. The solution to keep Chapter 14 in addition to complying with House Bill 1750 is our government has to show with clear and convincing evidence that the purpose of the regulation is to protect persons, and it has to show what we are protecting them from. Such as vermin and insects, physical injury, spread of contagious dieses,contamination of water supply,etc. To continue how do we show the clear and convince evidence? House Bill 1750 states if we are going to enforce these ordinances the city must first obtain and review a report that has been prepared by the City Health Officer that identifies the health hazards, that then makes the determination that there is a necessity and the manor is inline with what House Bill 1750 allows. Mr. McKechnie explains that what we have planned to do is; Mrs. Fagan has drafted a report that explains what the subjects are in our local ordinances cover, for example the set backs included in our ordinances if you own chickens, goats,etc. Mrs. Fagan interjects to add additional subjects our ordinances have in order to own certain animals. This include;care of animal, vector control,and many more. Mr. McKechnie continues to add that this report that is being made must include all of these things. This bill goes into effect September ls' and if we are unable to have that report done and sent before then we most likely will not be able to enforce our ordinances. Other cities are just ignoring the law (which is not recommended to do),some are just going through and striking everything that is in relation to animals,the third is drafting these reports and having council vote on it. Many cities did not know this was even in affect until May. The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date:July 28, 2023 Mrs. Bacon asks if she got a goat as a pet would it still be considered an agricultural operation? Mr. McKechnie answers that yes, any livestock owned can be considered an agricultural operation? Mrs. Bacon asks if there are any firrther questions in regards to House Bill 1750. There are none. Next is House Bill 2127, this can be called the Super Preemption Bill, some may call it the Death Star Bill. This creates specific preemption regulations in regards to the agricultural code, the labor code, the property code, and the local government code. It also prohibits a city adopting or enforcing an ordinance in a field of regulations occupied by the state within those codes. It also allows a person or an organization who represents persons, after giving a three-month notice, to sue a city to stop enforcing an ordinance they believe falls under House Bill 2127. What this bill says, is if you have a state license to do one of these items; Breeding, Care, Treatment,or Sale of animals or animal products including Veterinarian practices, you don't in addition need a city license. Mr. McKechnie states that this is pretty normal and is seen across the board. They are not wanting to in terms to"Double Dip". Again, this is pretty normal across the board it is just now being applied to these types of businesses. Secondly, it states that new or amended regulations relating of the retail sale of dogs or cats are unable to be done. So, our current Ordinance in regards to this is fine, meaning it will remain in place. We are just unable to make any amendments to it or graph a new ordinance to replace it. Mr. McKechnie goes on with;We get a field preemption argument, its broad and basically states like mentioned before if a state regulates a field to the degree that they believe no other government can regulate, then we are in terms pushed out. This is kind of a novel concept because state courts have always said that field preemption doesn't exist. As it stands today we are waiting and seeing, like mentioned prior they have to provide a three-month notice of what ordinance they believe is field preempted and then give the city an opportunity to review those ordinances. Those include: Agricultural labor,property, and local government code. For us, maybe there is something in these codes mentioned,and codes are massive, thousands of pages long. So, for city governments to pour through those, to find very specific instances where regulations overlap would be difficult. The City of Houston has filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, stating basically that it is unconstitutional because if you're going to preempt something it must be expressed. So,they are stating that it is vague. In addition, their argument is that it delegates to the Texas Legislature all to making authority that is historically granted to homeward municipalities. We are a homeward city so the Texas The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date:July 28, 2023 Constitution says that if there is not an express law that says we can't do something then we can do it/regulate. For example; If we would like to regulate rabbits specifically, if there is not something that states we cannot regulate rabbits, then we can regulate rabbits to the degree that we determine is appropriate. Now under the field preemption argument is that if the state mentioned rabbits, then we are out and unable to.This lawsuit is very broad and that it attacks the Legislatures authority. Lastly, we have SB 876,this is the licenses breeders' law. This is a good thing,back in 2011 the idea was that we would start regulating large scale dog and cat breeders. So, this new bill kind of closes some of those loop holes that were active in the 2011 bill. In addition,requires some certain standards of care. Previously,breeders with a 11 or more breeding animals were required to be registered and regulated. Now with SB 876 it is 5 or more, so it has lessened that breeding requirement. Secondly it removed the requirement to prove that the breeder has sold 20 animals or more in a calendar year.There is no proof of sales requirement. So, over all it lessened the number of dogs required to be a breeder and removes the necessary to show proof of sale proving you're a breeder. This is agreed upon a good thing, Mr. McKechnie states that this closes some of these loop holes that we have before and maybe will lessen the number of animals that are being dumped. Mr. McKechnie asks if there are any questions. There are none. Mrs. Fagan thanks everyone for coming so quickly and goes into why this was meeting was called so soon.The following items really needed to be discussed and the timing of all of this has been unreal. Mr. Fagan states that Mr. McKechnie has talked about what the different options are which are striking out which would be livestock and poultry out of the ordinance or leave the ordinance alone and see what happens. Mrs. Fagan explains, leaving the ordinance alone one, it's against the law and two, we have our ACO staff out enforcing these ordinances and inspecting to make sure animals are taking care of properly. Mrs. Fagan is not willing to have the staff out and enforcing these things when one, it is illegal and two, it would be very confusing for our citizens. Could we imagine that we have a neighbor who has a rooster and you call Animal Control and when the dispatcher answers she states that there is nothing we can do. In addition,citizens like to use our ordinances against us. So, Mrs. Fagan further continues to add that if the citizen who calls brings up our ordinance stating we have to do something because our ordinance states no Roosters. We would then have to explain to them due to this house bill that ordinance no longer applies,then continue to explain to them all the legal terms. Mrs. Fagan mentions quickly during this example that our Dispatch receives many calls throughout the day about noise, pollution,feces, and many other things. The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date:July 28, 2023 We have done so much work to talk with our community and to build trust back with the community that we serve, as well as being very clear and consistent in our applications of the rules. This is because, people no matter where you live should have the same expectations of the rules. So, for staff to have to do this,during that time of which they are either going to be challenged legally or we could have a consultant come up with a report it is not beneficial and not the best decision. Mrs. Fagan goes on by stating they are doing what needs to be done, in regards to these new bills/laws/etc. It also sounds as if we are the firsts to be doing this as well. We are walking out on a ledge and we are going to see what happens. Mrs. Fagan states what we need from this committee is everyone's feedback as a shelter committee, everyone's role within the governmental organization is an advisory committee, meaning to provide your feedback and expertise in selected areas. We also have two staff members in this group, which is unusual but,this deals with running of a shelter. Part of what is added in this report is we unfortunately cannot take anymore animals in,and the sheriffs office is responsible in the State of Texas for stray livestock. It is mentioned that this situation just recently happened down in Cranbury, with five lose cows and it was all over the news. Mrs. Fagan believes that we will begin to see this if this where to take affect and we didn't have 14 or just struck through livestock, we would have more animals in the city limits of Wichita Falls. They would be different types, this would allow exotics such as rhinoceroses, if you can name it its included unless its wolf or a bat. It also includes poultry and swine so, you could have backyard pigs, game bird,peafowls,etc. Then who becomes the care and keepers of those animals when people decide the animal(s) is to much work. Example, the pig was adorable at first but now it is 200 pounds. We then become the care and keepers and certain things and the WCSO become the responsible party for stray livestock. Mrs. Fagan states that she spoke to the Chief Deputy yesterday and they use to have this property where they would put animals when they were collected as stray livestock, due to having to hold them by Texas State law while they seek the owner. Now that property they no longer have, so they are being held at the Humane Society. Not to speak for the Humane Society but Mrs. Fagan imagines that they as well have very limited room. We ourselves have online one livestock pen, your unable to cross species and it wasn't designed to house an Emu for example. We have one Exotics room, and normally is taken up with kittens,dogs,chinchillas, ferrets,goats, etc. We have only had one emu in the 22 years Mrs. Fagan has been here. The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date:July 28, 2023 So, this was brought before the committee to either have a vote in support of the choice that we have made to pursue the option in regards of the Health Official Report to maintain or defend Chapter 14 or if you have an alternative suggestion. Mrs. Fagan will include what your feedback is in the memo to council, that goes out this afternoon, and also when print out the resolution on the 15`h of August. Mrs. Fagan asks if there are any questions or feedback specific to our choice. Dr. Wade states that he agrees with the decision because it is public health hazard. He further explains; With all the zoonotic diseases and everything else that we would be having to deal with, in addition to the public health hazard it is also a nuisance. One of our goals is to take care of the public health. There is also the risk of citizens getting injured by these exotic animals, if they are unaware of what they are doing. Dr. Wade compares this to an open box to just cause havoc on the city. Mrs. Fagan takes over to state that the Public Health was originally created back in the 1800's as part of Animal Regulations in New York City,because they found people were getting so sick. All of these years later and we are having similar conversations than they had in the 19 hundred. Mrs. Fagan states that people have asked her about the intent, and she is unable to speak in regards to the intent of the Legislature, all she is able to say is she knows that agricultural is important, its important in the State of Texas. The economics of it,the being able to take care/feed ourselves however, like with anything else there is always a middle ground.This open wide doing whatever we want versus, care and control to protect our citizens and our animals. Mrs. Fagan mentioned that she agrees with Dr Wade mentioning the disease. For example,Avian Influence. People sometimes forget that when you have combined populations of different types of animals,and you don't have the knowledge base to care for them. We end up with these different diseases. Again,example Avian Influenza, then this could morph into where it can pass over to human-human transmission. The more that we can make sure that we are protecting the health and safety of our population is the goal. Dr. Wade states that he has already seen an uptake in chickens, so many people are owning chickens. Since his Vet office is one of the only Vets in town that will treats chickens as pets. So, they are seeing many sick chickens. He states the this is most likely is just the start of what could be coming with all these changes. Mrs. Fagan adds to what Dr Wade stated,that she recently read an article on Kissing Chickens and how backyard chickens are becoming now indoor pet chickens. Additionally, how people are bringing viruses into the home because, their either tracking it in from the backyard,their having them in their home, loving on them such as kissing their pet chickens. Dr. Wade mentions,that a lot of the chickens they see at his Vet office are ones that are considered like personal pets. The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date:July 28, 2023 Mrs. Fagan asks Mrs. Pohlman is she has anything further to add. Mrs. Pohlman states she is in total agreement with Drs. Wade on this topic. Mrs. Fagan states now Mrs. Bacon will now move onto a motion of support on the decision made to go forth with the Health Officials report. D. Motion of Support for Health Official Report Dr. Wade made the motion to support. Mrs. Pohlman seconds the motion. The motion carried, all in favor. ADJOURN No date was set for the next meeting at this time. Dr. Wade motions to adjourn meeting. Mrs. Pohlman seconds the motion. The motions carried,all in favor. l l . It 10-R3 Nicki Bacon Date ASAC Chairman Animal Services Administrator