SAN ANTONIO – When stray dogs are picked up off the streets, Animal Care Services sends them back to their owner with a neuter order. It is a mandate that the animal be spayed or neutered within 30 days.

But new data shows that even though those requirements are in place, landlords aren’t following them, and the city is struggling to hold them accountable.

“The city has completely dropped the ball,” Ward 10 Councilor Marc Whyte told us after seeing the statistics.

Other council members also expressed concern, finding the situation frustrating, alarming and shocking.

In fiscal year 2023, only about a quarter of the 1,902 warrants were prosecuted. 290 citations were issued, but only 5% of those animals were actually sterilized.

ACS Acting Director Michael Shannon acknowledged these low numbers at last week’s Public Safety Committee meeting.

“We haven’t been consistent — because of other priorities — on those,” Shannon told the committee.

We asked Public Safety Committee Chair Melissa Cabello Havrda what message these statistics send to the community.

“Bad actors thought they could get away with it, and in many cases they did,” Havrda said.

Whyte says this shows more work needs to be done.

“Our first job here at City Hall is to protect our citizens, and dangerous dogs that are free on the street are a threat to our citizens,” Whyte said.

But Shannon says that after the agency got more staff and resources last fiscal year, there was a new push to pursue those orders.

Nearly 70% of orders were tracked in fiscal year 2024, resulting in more citations and more surgeries. 12% of all mandates resulted in the sterilization of animals.

“It’s still very abysmal, so we have a long way to go,” says Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who represents District 2. “But my constituency certainly expects ACS to do better.”

McKee-Rodriguez says the ACS follow-up is critical and proves that this is a problem that can be solved.

“We’re going to have to continue to resource ACS to do the job we’re asking them to do. And that hasn’t been the case,” he said.

In a few months, council members will also be able to vote on a new proposal that says if your pet is roaming and is picked up by ACS, the agency can sterilize it.

This means that if the animals become weak again, they will not be able to reproduce and maintain the mating cycle.

“This will not solve this problem tomorrow. It will be a long-term solution, but we have to get to the root of it,” said Marina Alderete Gavito, the councilor who presented the proposal.

Shannon says another part of the solution is changing the city code.

“We have to give it back to the owner if they want it before spaying,” Shannon says of the current process. “Our proposal will be to change this so that we have the option of not returning him to the owner before we have had a chance to sterilize him.”

“I hope this really sends a message that you can’t get away with it anymore,” Havrda said.

ACS says the goal will be to reach 100 percent follow-up and compliance, which officials say will be more possible when they open two new spay and neuter clinics and eventually an animal hospital.

For perspective, the agency surrendered more than 2,400 dogs to their owners last fiscal year without having them spayed.