*NOTE: when the commissioner says that the City of Houston shelter can turn away animals but Harris County cannot, that is FALSE. BARC and Harris County are both open intake.* The Harris County Animal Shelter director went to request 25 additional staff members and was essentially dismissed until two weeks from now in order to give them time to speak with the health department director asking WHY the shelter needed the additional staff. The probability of them voting in favor seemed unlikely from their tone.
It is apparent that the county doesn't understand the severity of the situation. Harris County Animal Shelter's budget, and therefore staff, fall embarrassingly behind that of comparable shelters in Houston, and across the entire US even! With a similar number of animals coming in, they operate with a fraction of the budget.
The shelter received a bond for a new facility all the way back in 2015. It didn’t break ground for YEARS, but now, portions opening are finally on the horizon. The shelter has needed additional staff all this time, but with a foreseeable opening for portions of the new facility, the urgency to hire more staff and get them properly trained is becoming more pressing by the day.
This lack of staff (and lack of trained staff) has resulted in animals dying needlessly. If someone is not able to respond to the hundreds of emails that come into the rescue and foster email every day, animals sit in the already overcrowded shelter waiting. Meanwhile, animals are being euthanized for space. Lives are lost simply because there is no one in the rescue/foster office able to keep up with the crazy number of emails that come in daily.
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