San Antonio Animal Care Services sent out a press release Monday touting the “early impacts” of a strategic plan the embattled city department put in place after a major budget increase last fall.
After City Council voted to bump up ACS’s annual budget by 33% to $28.5 million, the department hired “close to 20” additional animal-care officers, according to the announcement. ACS Director Shannon Sims, who’s set to retire this summer, told council last fall he’d add a total of 29 staffers if given the proposed budget boost.
ACS issued Monday’s release days after attorneys representing a couple charged in a deadly 2023 dog attack
that the department’s negligence led to the fatality. The mauling took the life of elderly veteran Ramon Najera, grabbing national headlines and prompting outrage about San Antonio’s problem with loose dogs and its low number of ACS officers.
The pit bulls involved in the February 2023 attack that killed Najera were involved in a separate mauling just one month prior, according to the