New tool tracks animal shelter status

Faced with ongoing overcrowding and … other issues, the city’s animal shelter has launched the traditional city solution of unveiling a dashboard. The new dashboard, which was launched this week, displays current capacity levels for cats, small dogs and medium/large dogs. “Our capacity often changes hour to hour. We needed a way to communicate to the public about our intake status,” AAC spokesperson Kelsey Cler said in a statement to the press. The shelter worked with staff from the city’s Communications and Technology Management Department to create the meters. The tool indicates whether, for each group of animals, intake is open, limited or “emergencies only.” According to Cler, limited intake means that the shelter is limiting the type of animal being taken in to the number that left the shelter the previous day. Under emergency intake status, the shelter evaluates each case, and will still take in sick or injured animals.