Fewer animals are being euthanized at San Antonio’s municipal shelter following a leadership shift at Animal Care Services, city leaders told the City Council on Wednesday.

Shelters are judged heavily on their live release rate, which is the percentage of healthy adoptable animals that are adopted, transferred to another shelter or returned to the owner.

New Animal Care Services Director Jonathan Gary told the City Council that the shelter’s live release rate was 88.5% for the month of January — higher than it’s been in some time. To be considered a no-kill shelter, the live release rate must be 90% or higher.

Gary said he fully expects San Antonio to restore the shelter’s no-kill status, as city leaders seek to repair relationships with rescue groups that are critical to getting animals adopted.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” Gary said. “We’re going to definitely pass our goal this year.”

The city achieved no-kill status for the first time in 2016. But by the end of 2022, its live release rate was at its lowest in seven years, even as the department was taking in fewer animals, according to an animal rescue nonprofit that raised alarm about the issue.

The situation became so tense that Petco Love, a nonprofit that’s been one of the city’s biggest rescue partners, sponsored a shelter consultant to help turn things around and advocated for a number of top staff to be removed from their positions.

Gary took over the department at the beginning of the year, roughly eight months after controversial director Shannon Sims retired.

City Manager Erik Walsh said he and Gary had been meeting personally with rescue groups to get the relationships back on track.