AUSTIN  — The Hays County Commissioners Court finalized a contract with Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) in November 2024. Since the contract was finalized, APA! received a grant to aid in jumpstarting the Hays County Pet Resource Center (PRC).

APA! was founded as an animal advocacy group in 1997, focusing on advocacy for the city of Austin to adopt a no-kill policy in their animal shelters. In 2008, its directive shifted and the members of APA! decided to work as a rescue group and partner with Austin Animal Center.

“We were the first organization to make a community no-kill,” said Maggie Lynch, senior director for research and development with APA!. “An entire community has a no-kill [policy] and because of that, a lot of other shelters look to us for guidance on how to improve their life saving [techniques]. We created a branch, a national education and outreach branch, called American Pets Alive!, which has been operating since about 2010.”

One of the functions of American Pets Alive! is leading a “national collaborative movement” called Human Animal Support Services (HASS).

“[HASS] was created in the recognition that shelters aren’t the answer for what a lot of people need from their animal services and that instead, we should broaden the scope of animal services to not just be a shelter where people are separated from their pets in order to serve the pets, but we would offer support in the community to help people keep their pets,” said Lynch. “That is the model on which the Hays County Pet Resource Center is based.”

The grant that APA! received was presented by PetSmart Charities.

“[PetSmart Charities] award something like $10 million a year in grants,” continued Lynch. “They have a strong interest in these community-based programs that we’re promoting through HASS … [APA!] saw a lot of opportunity in Hays County because the local government, under Judge [Ruben] Becerra, has a very forward thinking vision for what animal services should be like. They’re building their animal services from scratch, they haven’t had them before, they’ve had a contract with San Marcos.”

According to Lee Ann Shenefiel, executive advisor for APA! and program director for the Hays County PRC, while Hays County currently has an agreement with the city of San Marcos to help with animal services, the city wants to end that agreement because of overcrowding and lack of funds and volunteers. Instead, the Hays County Commissioners Court decided to start building an animal services system for the entire county, beginning with the Hays County PRC.

Some of the immediate resources that the Hays County PRC will offer include pet retention assistance, as well as an emphasis on lost pet reunification. Future plans include a physical animal shelter and a trap-neuter-release program for community cats.

“We also look at the animal data in the county. We look at what’s going on with the shelters that exist there to see [and] what are the trends that we see there,” said Lynch. “For example, in Hays County, we see a really high proportion of pets going into the shelter that are stray or lost, far higher than some other shelters that we’ve seen elsewhere … Therefore the first program that will start is for community-based lost pet reunification.”

APA! was asked to support the new animal services system by the Hays County Commissioners Court and after the collaboration was finalized in an agreement, APA! received the grant from PetSmart.

“This grant supports the development of the Pet Resource Center, but the county itself is funding the programs that are happening on the ground and that’s the way it should be,” said Lynch. “The county shouldn’t be expected to fund a massive system change because there’s a lot that’s needed to create that, to make it happen. It includes things, like surveying the community and working with neighbors in the community to understand what do they really want from their animal services because that varies from community to community. We don’t want to just come in with a model that was created for some other community and doesn’t really fit [in Hays County] … We look at things like what are the human needs in the county? Because human needs are often an indicator of where there is a pet need. If a family can’t feed itself, it can’t feed its pet.”

The PetSmart Charities grant runs from January 2025 to July 2027, which Lynch said is the estimated amount of time it would take to fully develop the Pet Resource Center in Hays County. As part of their contribution to the Hays County PRC, APA! aims to look at the root problem causing instability in a pet’s life.

“The reason why we call it [HASS] is because we know that, from our national data, it’s often the case that it’s a human issue that is driving a wedge between the person and their pet because they’re in such trouble themselves through human issues that they can’t care for their pet,” said Lynch. “We know, also from our data, that people get a lot of mental health and physical help with things like social isolation and loneliness if they are able to keep a pet. We know that pets are a great benefit to children and to the elderly and to various groups of people … One of the recent [tasks] we did was to hold a round table with human service agencies and to ask them, what is the primary need that you see for your clients and their answer was, they need temporary boarding because their people can’t access human services because they have nowhere for their pet to be kept safe.”

The root cause of animal homelessness is a much bigger and more complex issue than just a matter of if people are being responsible pet owners, said Shenefiel. If there was more focus on the root causes and human issues that cause animal homelessness, there would be less of it, she added.

“I think that the value of this grant to Hays County is that it helps ensure that there is a strong foundation for implementing the recommended Pet Resource Center model by increasing opportunities for connection and feedback from the community and ensuring that the programs that have already been implemented and will be implemented in the future are sustainable,” said Shenefiel.

Both representatives noted that APA! is not coming to Hays County to put the same systems in place as there are in Austin.

“There’s been a lot of talk in the community that Austin Pets Alive! is coming in and imposing something from the outside on Hays County,” concluded Shenefiel. “But really, [APA!] was asked to operate the programs that Hays County wants for its people and that they are now funding a contract that is there for the benefit of the people of Hays County. It’s not for the benefit of [APA!]. [APA!] just has expertise to offer the county.”

As of March 31, the Hays PRC will have a field office at the Hays County Courthouse, according to a news release. This field office “will provide a working space for current Pet Resource Center program, including Hays County Positive Alternatives to Shelter Surrender and the Lost and Found Pet Program.” While the plan is to ultimately build a space to intake and house animals in need, this space is not an animal shelter, read the news release, as it allows the county to maintain current programs and offer help to the citizens of the county.

“For too long, animal services have been reactive and playing catch up to our growth and the needs of our community,” said Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra. “We have finally turned the corner and are taking proactive measures to not only build a more adequate shelter, but also utilize modern programs to reduce the need for more kennels.”

Town halls will be held in the Kyle, Dripping Springs and Wimberley areas over the next few weeks to “learn more about and give feedback on the final locations under consideration for the new Pet Resource Center,” according to the news release.

For more information about APA! and its projects, visit www.austinpetsalive.org. Community members interested in learning more about the Hays County PRC, visit www.hayscountytx.gov/pet-resource or email haysinfo@hayspetresource.org starting March 31.