Clear the Shelters 2020: Keeping the no-kill initiative alive

Concho Valley PAWS' mission is to end the euthanasia of all adoptable animals in San Angelo

Posted: Aug 11, 2020 / 05:39 PM CDT / Updated: Aug 12, 2020 / 08:11 AM CDT

About Clear the Shelters

NBC and Telemundo owned stations are teaming up with hundreds of shelters across the country to host Clear the Shelters, a nationwide pet adoption drive the month of August, 2020 to help find loving homes for animals in need. More than 250,000 pets found their forever homes since 2015.

The San Angelo Animal Shelter in conjunction with Concho Valley PAWS is offering free pet adoptions August 10-22, 2020. This FREE adoption event is sponsored by KSAN-TV, Kent Elliott Roofing, Jim Bass Ford and Concho Valley PAWS.

Clear The Shelters™ pet adoption campaign was inspired by a 2014 North Texas pet adoption event hosted by NBC 5 / KXAS and Telemundo 39 / KXTX and dozens of area shelters that resulted in the most adopted pets in one day for North Texas. Clear The Shelters™ / Desocupar Los Albergues® is not a 501(c)(3) organization.

SAN ANGELO, Texas — At any given time, the San Angelo Animal Shelter operates at maximum capacity.

“The shelter operates at capacity almost all the time,” said Jenie Wilson, Executive Director of Concho Valley PAWS.

Concho Valley PAWS‘ mission is to end the euthanasia of all adoptable animals in San Angelo.

Prior to CV PAWS’ partnership with the City of San Angelo Animal Shelter, 9,000 animals were put down every year. Now, the majority (80%) of the animals that enter the shelter are released via adoptions or transports. According to Wilson, getting to this point has not been easy.

“In order to keep the no-kill initiative alive we have to keep animals moving out of the shelter, and we have to prevent animals from coming in,” explained Wilson.

CV PAWS has adopted techniques from the Austin-based program American Pets Alive!, which offers educational services and support to anyone interested in saving the lives of companion animals.

“They’ve done incredible life-saving work and we’re definitely a fan of their model and we like to duplicate a lot of their services here,” continued Wilson, “Once we’re established in our new adoption center, we’ll have parvo treatment on-site, we’ll have veterinary spay and neuter on-site so a lot of the things they’re doing in the Austin area and San Antonio area, we’re bringing to San Angelo.”

Wilson said empowering neighbors to help their neighbors has also made a difference in keeping the number of animals arriving at the shelter as low as possible.

“We have a website, ‘helpmegethome.com’. It’s a free website where people can list their pets as lost or as found, in hopes that the finder can locate the animal online and get the pet home the same day without animal control being involved,” added Wilson.