January marks a busy start for operations at El Paso Animal Services
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The same challenges remain for El Paso Animal Services in 2025. The shelter continues to deal with high intake numbers, but officials remain optimistic. January marked a busy time for the shelter for both adoptions and intakes.
Shelter officials provided ABC-7 with these statistics.
In 2025, so far, over 1,700 animals have entered the shelter's care.
In 2024: 23,243 intakes were recorded.
In 2023: 15,405 intakes
The director for El Paso Animal Services, Terry Kebschull, said one big challenge the shelter faced last year was many people returning their pets.
“So one of the biggest reasons, because we do ask questions when people surrender their pets: why, what is it? Because it's aggressive? Because financial hardships? The number one reason in the past two years has been because they have too many animals.”
Kebschull said that the addition of the New Westside Adoption Center, formerly Morehead Middle School, is helping shelter-wide operations.
“An extra place for our animals to be, you know, showcased, it's other housing for them so that they're not. Again, if they were here, they would be tripling up, so that makes it difficult for. And it's, safety hazard for the animals, for the public, for our staff handling those animals. So this gives us that extra space.”
The director said this year they are seeing good adoption rates.
Over 480 adoptions have taken place in January.
In 2024, 8,091 cats and dogs were adopted.
In 2023, 6,765 adoptions were recorded.
Kebschull said on average 40 adoptions are taking place at the new adoption center.
"So that's getting more of our animals out there to the community. They're not having to shop around so far, people from the West Side and stuff, so that has helped tremendously," he said.
Kebschull said one top priority this year is completing renovations at the two buildings at the new center.
"So we're going to have the built-in kennels. As of right now, we're using portable-type kennels. So with that new center and we're going to have room for cats as well. So it's going to be over 150 pets that we'll be able to have on display there. It'll be a little bit more easier access.”
He said more animals typically come into the shelter during the summer months. He reminds pet owners to microchip their pets and ensure their gates are locked year-round.
Kebschull also noted a list of adoptable animals can be found at the shelter's website.
