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On June 13, 2018, Best Friends sent their assessment of the City of Abilene Animal Shelter to
shelter management. The document noted several positive items for shelter operations, but also
gave suggestions related to process and program improvements. The following recommendations
are an action plan for implementing the best practices identified in the shelter assessment.
Intake
Best Friends indicated that the City of Abilene experiences an animal intake per capita higher than
the majority of the communities that they have encountered. One of the most important things the
Animal Shelter can do is reduce the number of animals we intake. This helps to increase the
shelter’s live release rates. As a result, Best Friends presented several recommendations related to
managing intakes.
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Shelter management’s proposal to implement these recommendations are:
• Stop animal intake at 2:00p rather than 5:00p
o Give notice to the public via social media and assistance of the communications
office.
o Change signage to reflect the new hours.
o In August 2017, the shelter stopped intake on Saturdays. This action did not see
any statistical change in the number of stray animals seized in the field or left at the
shelter.
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Volunteer Program
• Legal and shelter management are working together to develop more specific applications
and guidelines for the management of a volunteer program.
• Volunteers will be given specific job descriptions and duties rather than the previous
program which allowed a volunteer to decide what they wanted to do each time they
volunteered.
Marketing
• A high-priority focus of the volunteer program will be those volunteers who can take the
photographs and write pet bios recommended by Best Friends.
Veterinarian Program
• We are requesting funding for a full time Vet and Vet Tech in the FY 2018 budget.
• In addition to performing in house spay/neuter and rabies vaccinations, the Vet will assist
shelter management in animal intake analysis, provide meds as needed and serve as our
resident medical expert.