San José Animal Care and Services should assess its shelter capacity and determine the number of animals the shelter can adequately care for using holding capacity by species and staff’s capacity for care. 

 This recommendation has been implemented.

San José Animal Care and Services, using data such as trends in intake requests and animal inventory, should assess San José’s shelter needs to determine whether additional kennel space is required and create a long-term strategy to fund kennel improvements or expansion. 

 This recommendation has been implemented.

San José Animal Care and Services should review the shelter’s facility condition assessment once completed, and identify priority needs and funding requirements for these improvements. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Animal Care Centre LCCA Report

San José Animal Care and Services should develop a plan to transition away from or reduce intake of newborn kittens. The plan should address:

a. The shelter’s capacity to care for kittens in-house, including a comparison of the kitten nursery costs and related live outcomes,

b. Guidelines for when diversion or overnight care of newborn kittens at the shelter is appropriate, and

c. Pathways when the volume or condition of kittens exceeds the capacity for inhouse care, including potential foster care, rescue, or euthanasia. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Foster Pathway Checklist, Kitten Hut Transition Plan, Neonatal Kitten Intake Guidelines, Pathway Checklist for Rescue

San José Animal Care and Services should update the shelter’s outreach strategy to educate the community through social media and other channels on what to expect before and during kitten season and when intervention with community cats is appropriate. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Final Found Kitten(s) Flowchart

To ensure that each animal has an identified path out of the shelter and to reduce its length of stay, San José Animal Care and Services should formalize pathway planning protocols that include:

a. Identifying potential pathways (e.g., adoption, rescue, or euthanasia) for animals entering the shelter and their pathway changes and document that in the Chameleon case management system,

b. Formalizing steps that staff should take for an animal to achieve its intended pathways (e.g., schedule a spay or neuter surgery, network with rescue groups, promote as an adoption candidate), and

c. Assigning supervisory or management staff to conduct regular (e.g., daily) assessments of animals’ progress towards their pathway. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Animal Intake & Reassessment Pathway Planning, Pathway Checklist for Adoption, Pathway Checklist for Rescue, Pathway Planning Achievement Steps, Pathway Planning Matrix, Fear Anxiety & Stress Protocol 

San José Animal Care and Services should finalize the shelter’s draft euthanasia protocol to:

a. Provide clear criteria on when euthanasia may be considered, and

b. Formalize the process for granting requests to delay euthanasia decisions. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Euthanasia Criteria

To ensure the welfare of animals in foster care, San José Animal Care and Services should develop policies to:

a. Track the status and location of all fostered animals in a uniform report,

b. Establish pathway plans for animals in foster,

c. Accurately track the number of days animals stay in foster care and create limits for how long they can be in foster homes without being adopted, and

d. Document timelines and expectations for when foster caretakers must return to the shelter for medical appointments. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Adult Cat Foster Manual, Kitten Foster Manual, Adult Dog Foster Manual, Foster Agreement, Pathway Checklist for Foster

To increase the level of spay and neuter services for community cats and shelter animals, San José Animal Care and Services should work with the Finance Department and the City Attorney’s Office to contract with outside service providers for spay and neuter services. 

 This recommendation has been implemented.

To provide accurate information to the public, update the San José Animal Care and Services website with the current process for a community member to book trap, neuter, and release appointments for community cats. 

 This recommendation has been implemented.

San José Animal Care and Services (ACS) should:

a. Update the ACS Manual to align with the Association of Shelter Veterinarians’ Guidelines as they relate to disease detection and isolation, cleaning, vaccines and treatments, nutrition, and exercise and enrichment. San José Animal Care and Services should review the ACS Manual on a recurring basis to incorporate changes to operations and industry standards as appropriate.

b. Alternatively, adopt the Association of Shelter Veterinarians’ Guidelines as its primary manual and develop systems to ensure compliance with the Guidelines in the areas listed in (a). San José Animal Care and Services should review these systems on a recurring basis to incorporate changes to operations and industry standards as appropriate. 

 This recommendation has been implemented.

San José Animal Care and Services should develop policies to require supervisory staff to perform regular observations and provide feedback to personnel in each area of shelter and medical operations, including proper cleaning, feeding, and handling animals with personal protective equipment. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Shelter Coordinator Performance Targets

To keep personnel informed of their responsibilities in disease management at the shelter, San José Animal Care and Services should provide recurring trainings in high-risk operational areas identified by shelter management. Areas should include using and changing personal protective equipment, identifying infectious disease symptoms in animals, and the steps and responsible parties for communicating and responding to infectious disease concerns. 

This recommendation has been implemented. ACA Training Curriculum, Infectious Disease Reporting & Response Protocol

For staff to have access to up-to-date protocols, San José Animal Care and Services should create a repository of all policies and protocols and make them easily accessible to all staff. Supervisors should also review protocols relevant to staff’s daily tasks with new staff during onboarding and when assigned to new job responsibilities. 

This recommendation has been implemented. ACA Training Curriculum, Shelter Coordinator Performance Targets

To keep personnel informed of protocol changes, San José Animal Care and Services should formalize a standard operating procedure to communicate protocol changes to relevant personnel through emails, staff meetings, and other means.

This recommendation has been implemented. SOP for Communication of Protocol Changes

To ensure feeding, providing water, cleaning, enrichment, and kennel location information is properly recorded, San José Animal Care and Services should improve recordkeeping by developing protocols and training staff around timely data entry. 

This recommendation has been implemented. ACS Feeding Policy, Cat Kennel Cleaning Training Guide, Cat Toy & Enrichment Guideline, Changing Kennel Location Protocol, Click for Quiet, Dog Kennel Cleaning Training Guide, Snuffle Mats for Dogs

San José Animal Care and Services should formalize and document shelter coordinators and supervisors’ areas of responsibilities in oversight and monitoring daily animal care activity. This should include reviewing relevant reports to ensure daily care is provided to all animals and following up if animal care has not occurred.

This recommendation has been implemented. Shelter Coordinator Performance Targets, Shelter Supervisor Performance Targets

To ensure better inventory and recordkeeping management, San José Animal Care and Services should:

a. Develop procedures and train staff around tracking inventory for shelter operations, and

b. Update the Controlled Substances Policy to align with current practice and in accordance with state and other applicable laws, clarify staff access levels, and train staff on the policy. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Controlled Substance Policy, Controlled Substances Policy-Addendum

To provide context and information about shelter operations, San José Animal Care and Services should:

a. Provide additional data on length of stay in public and/or internal reports, which may include median as well as average stay, and broken down by age or other factors, and

b. Include other considerations that can be presented in public and internal reports, such as information on shelter capacity, the impact of unhealthy or untreatable animal intakes on live release rate, or other considerations. 

 This recommendation has been implemented. 

To improve data reliability, better manage reports, and further ensure animals are appropriately accounted for, San José Animal Care and Services should assign an individual or individuals to oversee data management. The responsibilities should include:

a. Updating and training staff on procedures around data entry protocols, and implementing a process for Chameleon data to be regularly reviewed and data issues to be addressed,

b. Working with the Chameleon vendor to assess whether there are standard controls to reduce data entry errors,

c. Identifying the most relevant Chameleon reports to inform data reporting and operations, and ensuring data queries are accurate, and

d. Establishing a process to track changes made to Chameleon reports and the public dashboards. 

 This recommendation has been implemented. SAP I Performance Targets

To ensure appropriate data controls, San José Animal Care and Services should establish Chameleon access permissions, document who should have access to what in Chameleon, and establish default password protocols in alignment with the City’s Information and Systems Security Policy. 

This recommendation has been implemented. ACS Chameleon Access Protocol

To improve rescue engagement and communication, San José Animal Care and Services should develop a communication protocol that includes an assigned point of contact(s) from the shelter and timeframes for responding to inquiries. The protocol should be shared with rescue groups.

This recommendation has been implemented. SOP for Rescue Partner Email Communication

To ensure the rescue group roster is current, San José Animal Care and Services should assign staff to regularly update rescue group contacts. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Shelter Coordinator, Rescue Performance Targets

To ensure appropriate information about rescue animals is provided to relevant groups, San José Animal Care and Services should update its current process to notify rescue groups on available animals by:

a. Tailoring the “needs rescue” list to relevant recipients (e.g., dogs/puppies vs. cats/kittens) or providing self-service options to rescue groups, and

b. Including complete and accurate information about animals, such as age, weight, and medical and behavioral assessments. 

This recommendation has been implemented. SOP - Web Rescue Chameleon

To ensure consistency and transparency, San José Animal Care and Services should develop guidelines on the use of gift and Guardian Angel Program funds to include the following:

a. Maximum funds allowable per award,

b. Purposes for the use of these funds,

c. Method and timeline for making payments to providers,

d. A process to track expenditures, and

e. Require recipients of funds to report annually on animal outcomes. 

This recommendation has been implemented.

San José Animal Care and Services should revise its agreement with rescue groups to include availability of gift funds and standard City terms, such as indemnification. Once the agreement is updated, ensure that all rescue groups have current signed agreements on file. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Rescue Agreement

To make the volunteer onboarding and application process more efficient, San José Animal Care and Services should:

a. Develop timeliness targets to process volunteer applications, and

b. Simplify the process for minor applicants by combining the minor and guardian applications. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Volunteer Application Processing Protocol, Volunteer Coordinator Performance Targets

 To ensure a complete and efficient training experience for volunteers, San José Animal Care and Services should:

a. Revise the training materials to include essential trainings only for tasks performed by volunteers based on the Association of Shelter Veterinarians’ Guidelines,

b. Make overlapping content (e.g., Fear Free Shelter training) optional,

c. Add dog and kitten specific zoonotic and infectious disease protocols in the existing training, and

d. Create and display “how-to” posters around the shelter to explain what steps should be taken for each volunteer-related task. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Cats 101, Dogs 101

To ensure that volunteers are provided key shelter protocols on an ongoing basis, San José Animal Care and Services should formalize communication protocols to inform volunteers about updated shelter practices and protocols and provide informal feedback to volunteers on services provided. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Volunteer Communications Protocol

To provide a better volunteer experience and improve management of the volunteer program at the shelter, SJACS should assess alternate volunteer management software solutions to better log and track volunteer hours and schedule shifts. 

 This recommendation has been implemented.

To comply with the San José Municipal Code and state law, San José Animal Care and Services should align license terms with the expiration of the rabies vaccine. 

This recommendation has been implemented.

To improve compliance around rabies vaccine submissions, San José Animal Care and Services should increase outreach to veterinarians to submit these certificates. 

This recommendation has been implemented.

To allow administrative staff to refocus on other shelter activities and tasks, San José Animal Care and Services should consider options to contract for outside licensing administration. 

This recommendation has been implemented.

To allow the City to begin its follow-up process for delinquent accounts related to licensing, San José Animal Care and Services should issue outstanding administrative citations in a timely manner. 

This recommendation has been implemented. Citations Protocol

To increase language accessibility for all (including seniors for purposes of requesting exemptions), San José Animal Care and Services should translate the licensing form and incorporate the senior exemptions into the online form. 

This recommendation has been implemented.

To increase access to underserved communities and align with other jurisdictions, San José Animal Care and Services should:

a. Consider additional license fee exemptions for veterans or disabled veterans in addition to senior exemptions, and

b. Review options to provide free or low-cost veterinarian services for owned pets through either grant opportunities and/or working with Humane Society Silicon Valley to determine a regular schedule to provide these services. 

 This recommendation has been implemented.

To assist in the implementation of any remaining recommendations from the Maddie’s Fund Shelter Consult, San José Animal Care and Services should:

a. Prioritize the relevant recommendations that align with Association of Shelter Veterinarians’ Guidelines and shelter operations and develop target dates for implementation of those recommendations, and

b. Designate an individual to monitor and track implementation status, including identifying any roadblocks or next steps to completion. 

 This recommendation has been implemented.

To ensure fairness of service delivery provided to residents, San José Animal Care and Services should consider aligning performance services and metrics with what is provided to the contract jurisdictions or revisit what is offered to other jurisdictions. 

 This recommendation has been implemented. 

To ensure that San José’s cost analysis for services provided to neighboring jurisdictions is appropriate and consistent across the jurisdictions, San José Animal Care and Services should:

a. Formalize and track activity and costs to determine whether agreements accurately reflect the level of service, and

b. Improve documentation for the cost analysis for the agreements, such that all costs and activity levels are included. 

This recommendation has been implemented.