City Wants To Open 2nd Pet Adoption Site; Critics Say It’ll Be A Store

The City of El Paso is in the process of renting a retail space to adopt animals out, citing low traffic in the current Animal Services facility in the Northeast.

The Director of the City’s Public Health Department, Michael Hill, said long term construction and an obscure location means fewer people stopping by, and more animals being euthanized.

Last year, the city had to kill more than 19,000 animals. Local non-profit, New Hope Alliance adopts animals out of the Animal Services facility, at no cost to the city. In 2010, New Hope Alliance adopted out more than 6,700 animals. But if the adoption site were located in a more frequently traveled area, the adoptions would increase, said Hill.

The city is planning to close the current adoption services at the Fred Wilson building and move them to the new site. “We’ve assisted the City of El Paso for 0 dollars and they’re pretty much telling us that they’ve got a new game in town, it’s a much better situation and they’re going to go and open their own retail pet store”, said Rebecca Rojas, a volunteer with New Hope.

Hill insists it’s a new location, not an entirely new operation. “I don’t think that I would characterize it as a pet store, I mean, right now, we have a space out in fred wilson that’s adopting animals. We’ll be doing the same thing but with a better location”, he said.

The city has a location in mind, but won’t disclose where it is until they complete lease negotiations. “This would be a store in the way goodwill is a store, so we’re not selling things at a mark up at a profit, you know, we don’t want to make money – we’re just trying to get a commodity that’s already there, and move it to another person at a low cost that just covers our operations”, Hill said.

Initially, the proposal did include wording that guaranteed the city would receive a percentage of revenue. That was a clerical error by the city’s purchasing department that has since been removed, said Hill. “What we sent to the purchasing people didn’t ask for any money but I think the purchasing people are accustomed to money changing hands so they just had this inclination to put this thing in there about money.”

After inquiring, Rojas said she was told the new adoption site would only handle 40 dogs and 20 cats. “So you’ve got somebody doing the dirty job of selecting the top 40 animals that are going to go. So what happens to the others that weren’t selected? Were they not cute enough to go, so they’re going to die?”, she said.

Hill said they had originally come up with that limit when they were close to acquiring a property which fell through. He said the number of pets in the new storefront has yet to be determined, but added they’ll also have a catalogue with pictures of animals that are at the regular Animal Services facility. Staffers would then bring the potential adoptee animal to people interested at the new site.

Rojas said a new location would not guarantee a higher adoption rate. “We know that our program works and there’s a guarantee that people will come here and look for pets. There is no guarantee that people are going to go to these retail locations and look at these animals…Well, if you’re going to adopt a pet, you’re going to go to the location where you want to adopt a pet. For example, animal rescue league is off of canutillo, they’re not off of I10 and it’s far away. People go out there to adopt their pet”, she said.

Hill insists the new retail site is an investment into killing fewer animals. “Having the adoptions on more publicly traveled streets was an advantage because people would go by and see ‘ hey, puppies, and swing in there to adopt a pet.”

The city is planning to open the new location in April or May. They encourage New Hope Alliance and other animal groups to apply to manage the adoption site. The city would provide rent and utility costs, while the adoption fee, set up by the city and the animal orgainization, would sustain staffing and supplies.