|
 |
| |
 |
History |
 |
| |
The City of San José created the Animal Care & Services division in 2001. This was in response to the Humane Society Silicon Valley's notification that they could no longer continue providing shelter and field service contracts for Santa Clara County cities. With the completion of the City of San José's new Animal Care Center in 2004, the City of San José itself is now providing shelter and field services for San José residents and for residents of Cupertino, Los Gatos, Milpitas and Saratoga.
|
 |
|
About Us |
|
|
|
 |
Animal Care & Services (ACS) is a full-service division that offers the community many valuable programs and services. Within ACS are three units: Field Operations, Shelter Operations and Administration. Although each unit is responsible for different aspects of ACS, they are dependent upon each other and work together cohesively to best benefit both the animals and the community.
The City of San José Animal Care Center has an operating policy of transparency.
We want all of our residents and contract cities to be able to access the statistics for the animal shelter that serves their community. Please see the following links to view our Annual Shelter Data.
The collection and publication of this data is sponsored by Maddie’s Fund®, www.maddiesfund.org
|
|
|
|
Field Operations |
| |
This branch of the ACS is sometimes referred to as Animal Control. This unit is comprised of Dispatchers and Animal Service Officers. Our Animal Dispatchers answer thousands of calls each year from people reporting or needing help with stray, injured, lost, dead, nuisance or dangerous animals. They then prioritize the calls and "dispatch" our Animal Service Officers (ASOs) to the location where they do their best to resolve the various situations that occur each day.
Trained ASOs conduct the following field services:
- Patrol the city on a daily basis
- Enforce all animal control laws and investigate all reports of animal abuse
- Pick up stray animals
- Respond to animal-related emergencies
- Rescue animals in distress
- Transport injured or sick stray animals to receive emergency vet car (day or night)
- Follow-up on citizen complaints
- File bite reports and quarantine suspect animals
- Permit animal-related facilities
|
|
Shelter Operations |
| |
This branch of ACS is responsible for the thousands of animals that are brought to the Animal Care Center by the public each year. The unit is comprised of kennel and veterinary staff who work together to create an orderly and caring environment to best serve both the animals and the community.
Trained shelter personnel conduct the following services:
- Provide food, water, shelter, medical care and a clean and comfortable environment for all shelter animals
- Provide basic health screening for all animals including a preventative disease control program
- Vaccinate domestic shelter animals against diseases
- Adopt out stray, unwanted and abandoned animals
- Humanely euthanize animals the shelter cannot place
- Provide pet lost and found services
- Provide adoption and behavior counseling
- Groom adoptable shelter animals
- Provide information and education on pet owner/guardian responsibility and care
- Maintain accurate records on all shelter animals
- Oversee shelter and community Low-Cost spay/neuter clinic
|
|
Administrative Services |
| |
This branch of ACS is responsible for facilitating support for both the ACS field and shelter units. Administrative staff perform a wide range of integral duties, including:
- Overseeing all ACS financing, budgets and databases
- Selling dog and cat licenses
- Providing customer service support
- Recruiting, training and coordinating volunteers
- Publicizing and promoting shelter animals
- Implementing specialized ACS programs
- Handling community and press inquiries
- Organizing special events
|
|
|
|
