Austin Animal Center creates tool to show intake status

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Austin Animal Center has launched a new tool on its website to show current shelter capacity levels.

Three meters indicate the capacity levels for cats, small dogs, and medium/large dogs. The meters are updated every hour.

This comes a little over a month after the shelter restricted intake to emergency only because of overcapacity issues. The shelter said it added the tool because capacity often changes hour to hour, and it needed a way to communicate with the public about its intake status.

AAC's marketing and communication manager said the shelter worked with the city's Communications and Technology Management to create the meters.

“Shelters nationwide are struggling with capacity,” Don Bland, the chief animal services officer, said. “One of our goals with this new tool is to help the public understand our capacity limits and provide a better picture of intake status.”

As of this writing, the meter for medium to large dogs shows that intake is restricted to emergencies only. It's the same for small dogs. For cats, the meter is pointed to "intakes limited."

Austin Animal Center, which is the municipal center for Austin and unincorporated Travis County, has a no-kill policy. This means the shelter has at least a 90% live animal outcome rate.

The center has made several changes in recent months to encourage adoptions, including previously temporarily waiving adoption fees and emergency calls for animal fosters.

Current adoption fees range up to $100 depending on the animal.