San Antonio’s Animal Care Services Department has a plan to reshape the community’s definition of pet ownership, aimed at treating animals as part of the family.
But city leaders and some members of the department’s advisory board say that plan lacks their much-desired focus on public safety, and ignores decades of public mistrust of the agency that’s only worsened after a string of recent attacks by aggressive dogs.
ACS will pay Romph Pou Agency as much as $50,000 for creative services that include conducting a “brand audit” to propose a new branding package, according to a contract running March 1 through Sept. 30. That work also includes providing a two-day professional photo shoot of ACS staff and animals, designing and putting together the department’s 10-year strategic plan booklet and consulting on community outreach.
“When we started working on the [department’s new] strategic plan about a year and a half ago, it made sense to revisit [messaging and branding] elements to not only make sure that they were in line with the guidelines that were laid out in the plan, but also supported any expanded services or policy programs,” ACS spokeswoman Lisa Norwood said Thursday.
The department’s new materials, which focus heavily on animal welfare, come as city leaders say they’re under pressure to address aggressive animals.
After learning that the department responds to only a fraction of the critical calls it receives, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at a budget work session last month that ACS may have to be “more critical” about elevating its live-release rate over public safety.
In July, ACS department managers met with Romph Pou Agency’s San Antonio manager Carlos de León to begin a wholesale review the department’s messaging strategy.
On Wednesday, de León presented a draft of the department’s proposed mission statement and “grand narrative story” at a work session for members of the Animal Care Services Advisory Board.
The draft mission statement for the agency’s work included setting an “ethical standard of care” for animals, helping animals find loving homes and ensuring that the community is a safe place for humans and animals to live. The grand narrative story focused primarily on the promoting the ethical treatment of animals and reshaping the way the community views animal ownership.
“We synthesized feedback from the various management teams that their value [to the community] is defined by elevating animal recognition and rights,” de León said. “The team was very purposeful in stressing the importance of using [words like] ‘guardian’ verses ‘owners’ … because pets are part of our family.”
While many of those ideas received praise from members of the advisory board, several members expressed concern that the messaging didn’t account for a wide gap in public trust that’s grown worse over the past year.
“One thing I don’t see in here is anything acknowledging that we have a brand problem, like a really bad brand problem,” said Lorena Havill, a medical scientist who represents District 2 on the board, which is made up of 11 members appointed by City Council members.
Pointing to the 33% budget increase ACS received in the city budget for the 2024 fiscal year, Havill said the department needs to be clear with the public about the changes it plans to make.
“We’re actually in a crisis and we’re hoping to really change things, … but none of that’s in here,” she said of the marketing plan.
De León replied that from a PR perspective, the department shouldn’t be defined by its challenges.
“Our responsibility is to change that perception, to take ownership of our story and move toward the aspirational goals that we want to get to,” de León said. “Based on what we’ve heard from feedback from the department, [ACS staff] wants to be part of a movement that is going to change the culture of how pets are viewed in San Antonio.”
Assistant City Manager David McCary, who oversees ACS and attended the advisory board’s work session, urged the department to consider making public safety a larger piece of its overall brand identity.
“I’m not sure we covered in this narrative, how important the safety aspect is,” McCary said. “If someone read this, would they walk away knowing that [when it comes to] an aggressive dog or dog that’s threatening … we’re going to do our very best to provide that safe environment, that enforcement piece?”
De León said he would work with the department to incorporate that feedback before the materials are finalized.
Hitting the air
ACS’s marketing budget saw an increase from $35,000 in 2023 to almost $60,000 in 2024. ACS Director Shannon Sims requested an even bigger increase, while members of the City Council said they preferred to see the money spent on staff to improve the department’s 44% response rate to critical calls.
Sims told the advisory board Wednesday that his department plans to use the money to ramp up efforts like a recent TV advertisement that Romph Pou Agency created, and that ACS previewed to the City Council in a recent budget work session.
“We anticipate continuing pushing out the responsible pet ownership side of it, but also paid marketing that covers adoption events and things like that,” Sims said. “We’re going to be pushing real heavily on the marketing.”
The department’s YouTube page shows several other ads outlining dangerous dog laws and the affidavit process to report aggressive dogs.
After the deadly February mauling of an 81-year-old man, Norwood said, “We understood that we needed to ramp up very quickly, to let people know not only about how do they report a potential dangerous dog, but also just the dangers of roaming dogs period.”
Internal communication
Though Nirenberg has stressed his support for ACS leaders, he suggested publicly during the work session last month that there was room to improve the department’s internal communication with city leaders.
Nirenberg asked Sims to share the “good, bad and ugly” with the council so that they can fund the department appropriately and help address problems.
De León’s presentation to the advisory board Thursday listed “city stakeholders,” including the City Council and city management, among the audiences the department plans to include in its communication strategy.
Members of the advisory board stressed Thursday that ACS also needs to prioritize consistent messaging of its policies with both other city departments and ACS’s partner organizations.
“We’re telling [the public] one thing, and when they call a number to get to us, they’re being told something else,” advisory board chair Rita Braeutigam said, pointing to the city’s 311 system as an example. “It’s creating a lot of misinformation and mistrust of ACS.”
Department leaders said they’re working to address some of those inconsistencies by updating the onboarding process for advisory board members, many of whom have close ties to animal rescue groups, so that members stay up-to-date on policies.
“This will tie in hugely to the focus area of having consistent engagement with the community,” ACS Advisory Board Liaison Marshall Bruce told members of the board Thursday. “Please don’t shrug that off, review the policies.”
