Changes are underway at Oakland Animal Services (OAS) as the city has approved policy updates designed to help manage a nearly 95% increase in cat and dog intakes.
While OAS administrators say reforms are necessary to better manage limited resources, volunteers and animal advocates have raised concerns, arguing that the updates were made without sufficient public input.
The proposed changes include keeping healthy free-roaming cats in the area where they live instead of bringing them to the shelter, reducing the time a stray animal can stay at the shelter from seven days to 72 hours, encouraging and assisting people who bring strays to the shelter to foster the animal rather than surrender it, requiring outdoor cats and impounded dogs to be spayed or neutered, and waiving certain fees. Additionally, OAS, by staff discretion, will no longer accept some surrendered animals that are brought in by someone who does not own the animal or does not live in Oakland…