Transmittal - 10/19/2022ERIN MENDENHALL
MAYOR DEPARTMENT of PUBLIC LANDS
OFFICE of the DIRECTOR
SALT LAKE CITY CORPORATION
451 SOUTH STATE, ROOM 138
P.O.BOX 145470, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84114-5470
WWW.SLCGOV.COM
TEL:801-535-7922
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CITY COUNCIL TRANSMITTAL
Date Received:
Lisa Shaffer, Chief Administrative Officer Date sent to Council:
TO: Salt Lake City Council DATE: October 18, 2022
Dan Dugan, Chair
FROM: Kristin Riker, Director, Public Lands Department
_________________________________
SUBJECT: Salt Lake County Animal Services for Salt Lake City
STAFF CONTACT: Kristin Riker, Public Lands, kristin.riker@slcgov.com;
Carmen Bailey, Public Lands, carmen.bailey@slcgov.com
DOCUMENT TYPE: Informational Brief
RECOMMENDATION: Review documentation and briefing provided
BUDGET IMPACT: None
BACKGROUND:
Salt Lake City has contracted with Salt Lake County’s Animal Services to provide animal
services within the City since 1991. The contract with Animal Services has provided
administration, personnel, equipment, and supplies necessary to support a modern,
well-equipped animal control department in compliance with applicable laws and
standards including, but not limited to:
Licensing – Collection of licensing fees, issuing licenses, enforcing license requirements,
and enforcing and supporting special programs such as the rabies clinic and neuter/spay
clinics.
Regulation – The regular and systematic program of animal control enforcement,
enforcement of state laws and regulations and City ordinances, and providing a fully
Lisa Shaffer (Oct 19, 2022 14:29 MDT)10/19/2022
10/19/2022
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equipped animal control unit which shall respond to requests from within the City Limits
24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
Controlling and Shelter Services – Catching stray domestic animals, operating the
shelter, impounding stray animals, collecting fees and fines owed for impounded
animals, providing temporary housing and care or all animals coming in the shelter from
the City Limits including companion animals and livestock, and providing medical
treatment for animals while in shelter care.
Special Programs – Several programs including community outreach and education
programs, adoption events, Community Action Teams, Trap-Neuter-Release,
Rescue/Foster, Behavior Assessment, and Humane Education. All of these programs are
provided to maintain the County’s “No-Kill” status.
Other Services – Selling impounded animals, adoption for impounded animals,
“euthanizing” and disposing of impounded animals and handling injured or sick animals.
CURRENT SERVICES:
Animal Services processed 3054 animals for Salt Lake City in 2021. By the end of the 3rd
quarter of 2022, there have been 2461 animals processed including: 1245 Impounds, 1
abandon, 250 DOAs, 23 transfers, 830 strays, 50 owner surrender, 51 returns, 10
offspring and 1 euthanasia request.
All of the calls requesting services are classified by priority 1 thru 5 when they are
received. Field officers and staff respond according to the severity and urgency of the
request. The range begins at the least urgent, priority 5, including permit inspections
and quarantine releases. The most severe calls, priority 5, are for animal injuries and
animal attacks. For 2021, Animal Services received 1625 priority 1, 1430 priority 2, 2329
priority 3, 1239 priority 4 and 422 priority 5 calls. The most calls received are priority 3
which includes animals at large (“off-leash” and roaming), impounds and cruelty
investigations. Most field calls are condensed in three areas within Salt Lake City –
Rosepark, Glendale and Liberty Wells.
Recent challenges include exploding pet populations numbers in Salt Lake County
following the Covid-19 pandemic. This has increased workload for sterilizations, animal
behavior issues and overall shelter intake. In addition, the number of animal
professionals entering the field are down by 30%. The reduction in veterinary, animal
control, shelter management, behaviorist, and clinician staff has hampered Animal
Services ability to adequately handle the increased volume and complexity of service
calls.
NEXT STEPS:
Animal Services are constantly seeking funding through donations, grants, partnerships
and innovative volunteer programing to maximize services. One potential area for
increasing efficiencies would be to align city and county ordinances and operating
methods to provide uniformity across jurisdictional boundaries.
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ATTACHMENTS:
A. Animal Services Presentation
Notes:
Individuals who are available to present to City Council at Work Session:
Talia Butler, Division Director Salt Lake County Animal Services
Carrie Sibert, Liaison coordinator, Salt Lake County Animal Services
cc: Lisa Shaffer
Mary Beth Thompson
ATTACHMENT A
Animal Services Presentation
Utah’s capital city, leading the way as Utah’s
largest No-Kill city for almost a decade
SALT LAKE CITY
Animal Services had been working towards No-Kill programming since 2008,
but the first official year achieving No-Kill was 2013. Since then, we have
maintained No-Kill every year, saving tens of thousands of lives, and making
2023 an important milestone for our agency, our community, the cities we
are honored to serve, and the pets that enrich our lives.
Today we share with you the services and initiatives that help make this
possible. Thank you for supporting the work that we do and for caring about
people and pets in our community.
•No-Kill Sheltering. Animal Services has maintained our
no-kill status with a live release rate over 90% since 2013.
Our agency is currently the largest no-kill municipal shelter in
Utah, and one of the largest in the nation.
•Public Awareness. Visibility with the public, achieved
through social media reach, web visits, earned media,
community events, and training. Our goal is to have over
1,600,000 interactions with the public in 2023.
•High Quality Service and Economies of Scale. As animals
don’t know jurisdictional boundaries, it is important to use a
unified approach so that all animals in our community can
benefit from life-saving programs and all citizens can benefit
from an increased quality of services.
•Safe Employees. Our goal is to provide employees with the
training, equipment, and resources they need to do their jobs
well and to stay healthy and safe.
Outcomes & Indicators
Animal Control
•Expert Officers: Access to 26 animal
control professionals with expert skills in
varying species of animals, dangerous
animals, and a vast knowledge of animal
behavior, health, and care. This diverse
group is also proficient in a multitude of
languages and has skills working in
diverse communities with differing
socio-economic and cultural influences.
•Powerful Fleet: A fleet of over 20 fully
equipped animal control vehicles, along
with horse trailers, transport trailers, a
water hauling unit, and animal rescue
unit.
•Protect & Serve: Investigation and
enforcement of all animal-related
ordinance violations, animal cruelty
situations, and public safety concerns
related to animals. Ability to deliver
Notice of Violations up to citations, and
screen infraction up to felony charges.
Animal Care Team:
•Care of Salt Lake City pets in both shelter locations.
•Enrichment support to facilitate longer holding times as a no-kill organization.
•Enrollment of animals in behavior and pathway program.
•Provides training and behavior courses for shelter pets.
Veterinary Team:
•Veterinary care for shelter pets, emergency care, vaccines, and disease
prevention/control.
•Legal ability to administer rabies to shelter pets and owned-pets.
•Legal ability to provide urgent care and pain treatment to pets in need.
•Full vaccination of pets on intake into the shelter.
•Sterilization of all pets impounded prior to adoption.
Customer Care Team:
•Licenses pets, processes permits, and connects lost pets with owners.
•Provides resources for pet owners, registers pets for trainings/surgeries/etc.
Animal Care & Shelter
Administration
•Responsible for animal services employees. hiring,
training, employee relations, benefits, retirement,
and employee investments.
•Ordinance and contract oversight and
management. Ensure compliance with rabies
compendium and state/federal regulations.
•Responsible for cultivating relationships with local,
state, and national partners.
•Responsible for public information and media
inquiries and response.
•Responsible for cyber-security, financial controls,
and records management.
•Responsible for building, maintenance, capital
projects, audits, expenditures, and program
accountability.
Contracts Also Includes:
❑Trap, Neuter, Return cat trapping.
❑Emergency response for contracted
jurisdictions.
❑Free and discounted owned-pet vet
services for pets in the jurisdictions
we serve.
❑24/7 response and urgent care
support with life-saving measures
for pets in the communities we
serve.
❑Rabies and vaccine clinics
throughout the community and in
underserved areas.
❑Owner support services to assist
pet owners.
❑Dispatch, radio, connected support
to keep officers and the community
safe and provide a high level of
service to Salt Lake City.
❑ACO Cares Sterilization Program.
❑Protective custody support.
Regional Services
❖Humane Education & Youth Programs
-School Presentations
-Book Buddies
-Industry Trainings
❖Shared Software & Database
❖Protective Services Support
Regional Services
❖Behavior Training & Animal Placement
-Behavior Programs
-Animal Enrichments
-Meet Your Match
-Adoption Follow-Up
❖Community Cat Programs
-TNR Sterilizations
-Deterrents
-Vaccines
-Working Cat Program
❖Free Microchips & Scanners
❖Volunteer, Foster, & Rescue Programs
-Hounds Around Town
-Rescue Incentive Program
-Kitten Program
❖Community Resources
-Sterilizations
-SLCo Furry Family Group
-Pet Food Pantry
-Senior & Veteran Programs
-Media/Communications
❖Emergency Response
-Pet First Aid Courses
-ES-11 Emergency Response & Industry Initiatives
❖Public Training
-Breed & Behavior Specific Training
-Agility Training & Basic Obedience Pet Courses
❖Community Fairs & Adoption Events
-Petapalooza & Spayghetti
-Microchip & Vaccine Clinics
-Community Adoption Events
Regional Services
2022 Accomplishments
Cat Rooms
Pet Pantry
14th Best of State
NACo National Category Winner
Spayghetti and Petapalooza
Who We Are
2021 - 2022 Statistics
2021 Salt Lake City Animal Intake
Source Total
Impound 2012
DOA 300
Transfer 7
Stray 556
Owner Surrender 108
Agency 4
Returns 58
Shelter Offspring 6
Euth request 3
Total 3054
Species Total
Amphibian 1
Bird 116
Cat 1069
Kitten 586
Dog 1041
Puppy 78
Livestock 6
Small Mammal 148
Reptile 9
Total 3054
By Type By Species
2022 Salt Lake City Animal Intake as of 9.30.22
By Type By Species
Source 2022
(as of 9/30/22)
ACO Impound 1245
Abandoned 1
DOA 250
Transfer 23
Stray (over the counter)830
Owner Surrender 50
Agency 0
Returns 51
Shelter Offspring 10
Euth request 1
Total 2461
Species 2022
(as of 9/30/22)
Amphibian 0
Bird/Fowl 13
Cat 764
Kitten 535
Dog 864
Puppy 88
Livestock 1
Small Mammal 41
Reptile 10
Other 145
Total 2461
Salt Lake City Field Statistics
Field Call Management
High Risk
Low Risk
Priority 1
Priority 2
Priority 3
Priority 4
Priority 5
Nuisance Complaints, Barking,
TNR, Patrol Requests
Impound, At Large, Cruelty
Investigations
Wild or Exotic, At Large, Special
Assignments, Inquiries, Follow-up
Permit Inspection, Quarantine
Release
Animal in Distress, Injured, Attack,
Bite, Livestock, Dangerous Animals,
Agency Assist
422
1239
2329
1430
1625
Field Calls for Service SLC Hot Spots
❖Challenges
Pet population numbers are up following Covid-19
❑Sterilizations
❑Behavior
❑Shelter Intake
Animal industry professionals' numbers are down
❑Veterinary, animal control, shelter management, behaviorist,
clinicians, etc. have left the field. Estimates show 30% of
employees have left the field in past 3 years
Increased complexity in call types and volume
❑High-density housing (generational, multiple pets/owners)
❑Lack of resources (training, socialization, medical treatment)
❑Increased use of multi-use public space
❑Financial, housing, or health crisis
❑Diverse communities (communication, access, culture, etc.)
What’s Next:
Current & Future Initiatives
•Actively seeking funding through donations, grants, and
innovative volunteer programing to maximize services.
•Continuing to benefit from economies of scale and
looking to attract new partners in order to benefit all
service areas.
•Aligning ordinances and operating methods to increase
efficiency and provide uniformity across jurisdictional
boundaries.
•Using secondary shelter location for increased surgeries
to address population challenges post-Covid-19.
•At the forefront of adaptive ways to serve our community
using technology and enhanced service platforms.
•Taking advantage of programs to increase energy
efficiency and other conservation efforts.
Questions?
Contact us…
Carrie Sibert
Liaison Coordinator
csibert@slco.org
Talia Butler
Division Director
tbutler@slco.org
Salt Lake County
Animal Services Website
https://slco.org/animal-services/
24 Hour Officer Dispatch
801-840-4000
Shelter Tues to Sat 10am – 6pm
385-468-7387