08/20/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19PQenBWaW/?mibextid=wwXIfr
🚨 FY28 PROPOSED CUTS: WHY THESE SHOULD CONCERN OUR COMMUNITY
As the City of San Antonio discusses future budget reductions, there are three proposed FY28 cuts that we believe the public needs to understand:
• $700,000 — Eliminate Community Animal Support & Assistance (CASA)
• $300,000 — Eliminate the ACS Trainer Program
• $300,000 — Eliminate the 311 Quality Assurance Team
That represents $1.3 million in proposed reductions involving prevention, community intervention, behavior support, and accountability.
For No Kill San Antonio, this raises an important question:
Are we eliminating programs that address animal welfare concerns before they become a crisis, while also reducing critical support for animals already in the shelter system?
🐾 CASA/PET CARE CONNECT: PREVENTION BEFORE CRISIS
ACS describes Pet Care Connect as a proactive community outreach initiative designed to address neighborhoods experiencing high volumes of animal-related calls, roaming/stray concerns, and critical animal-care needs.
The program focuses on education, prevention, direct intervention, resource delivery, and community partnerships. Meeting families where they are.
Its stated goals include reducing stray populations and animal-related incidents, reducing critical animal-related calls, improving animal health and welfare, providing preventative resources such as spay/neuter and microchips, and building community trust.
And there are measurable results: (January 2025 - June 2025)
• 3,150+ homes reached
• 529+ direct interactions
• 1,081+ resources distributed
• 129+ free microchips
• 300+ animals vaccinated
• 150+ spay/neuter referrals
• 90,000+ pounds of pet food distributed in partnership with DaisyCares
• 75+ return-to-home successes
• 95 dog houses delivered
• 6 dogs freed from chains
• 5 fence repair/support cases
Two members of the No Kill San Antonio Board work closely with the CASA Team, and we have seen firsthand the importance of having people in the community who can connect families with resources, education, and solutions.
This is what prevention can look like: addressing a problem before it becomes a crisis requiring a more reactive response.
🧩 CASA & BEHAVIOR SUPPORT ARE PART OF THE NO KILL EQUATION
The No Kill Equation isn’t simply about adoption and rescue after an animal reaches the shelter.
It includes prevention, community support, spay/neuter, pet retention, return-to-home efforts, foster programs, rescue partnerships, medical care, behavior support, adoption, and other strategies that work together.
CASA works on the front end. Addressing needs and challenges within our communities before they escalate.
Behavior support works on another critical piece of that equation. identifying and addressing behavioral challenges, including fear, anxiety, stress, and fear-based aggression.
Behavior programs can help animals build confidence and coping skills while giving fosters and adopters the education, tools, and support they need to set placements up for success.
Behavior should not automatically become a barrier to a live outcome when appropriate intervention, training, management, and support may help.
Removing behavior support doesn’t remove behavioral challenges. It can simply leave fewer resources available to address them.
❓WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE IF WE LOSE THESE PROGRAMS?
That is what we believe needs to be answered before these reductions move forward.
If CASA is eliminated, who takes over this work?
Who goes into neighborhoods experiencing high animal-related call volumes? Who provides education and resources? Who connects families with spay/neuter, microchips, vaccinations and other assistance? Who helps facilitate interventions such as dog houses and fencing support?
If the ACS Trainer Program is eliminated, who assumes those responsibilities?
Who provides behavior support for animals experiencing fear, anxiety, stress, reactivity or other behavioral challenges?
Who helps staff understand and manage those behaviors?
Who supports fosters and adopters when they need guidance to make a placement successful?
And what happens when an animal needs time, training and appropriate intervention rather than simply being labeled by the behavior displayed in a stressful shelter environment?
Then there is 311 Quality Assurance.
If that team is eliminated, we need to understand what avenue residents will have when they believe a City service request has been closed or addressed but the underlying concern remains unresolved.
⚠️ PREVENTATIVE AND REACTIVE MEASURES BOTH MATTER
San Antonio needs both.
There will always be situations requiring Animal Care Officers, investigations, enforcement, sheltering and emergency intervention.
Those are necessary reactive measures.
But we also need strong preventative measures that address the conditions contributing to those calls in the first place.
The Pet Care Connect program was actually looking toward further growth, including data-driven expansion into additional neighborhoods, expanded resources, fencing assistance, pet identification tags, and community microchip scanning stations.
That makes the proposed reduction particularly important to examine.
💰 A BUDGET CUT DOESN’T NECESSARILY MAKE THE NEED DISAPPEAR
Before eliminating these programs, we believe the City should determine whether these reductions could simply shift the workload somewhere else.
Could there be more repeat calls for service?
More demand on Animal Care Officers?
More animals requiring intervention at a later and potentially more serious stage?
Less behavioral support inside the shelter?
Less support for fosters and adopters?
Greater pressure on rescue partners?
Those are questions that deserve answers backed by data.
Prevention and intervention are not competing philosophies. A successful animal services system needs both.
And the No Kill Equation depends upon multiple programs working together. When we remove pieces of that equation, we need to understand the consequences for the animals, the community, and the people tasked with responding when those preventative resources are no longer there.
