The Seattle Animal Shelter’s Two-Year Road Map: Questions and Answers
- seattleanimalwatch
- Feb 26
- 2 min read
The Seattle Animal Shelter has experienced turmoil in the last few years post-COVID. In addition to external forces such as increased surrenders and abandonments due to rising costs and housing instability, SAS has had internal strife resulting in lost volunteers, high animal care officer turnover, and the departure of a controversial shelter director.
SAS is currently in the process of hiring a new director by May. In the meantime, they are also in the process of implementing a Two-Year Roadmap to improve internal processes and morale.
Here is their baseline progress as of November 2024. We’ve submitted a public disclosure request for updated information.
We’ll be looking at these much more closely (see other blog posts,) but let’s start with the baseline as of November 2024.
Remember that there are 245 items listed on the Two-Year Road Map. That’s a lot. (Ask us for the raw data and we’ll send it to you!)
Q: Why should I care?
A: If you are a citizen, you should care because your tax dollars are the primary support of the Seattle Animal Shelter. They are part of the government. They have operated without transparency for too long and citizens need to know what they are doing to best serve the humans and animals of Seattle. It is notable that a two year list alone has almost 250 items to address.
If you are an animal welfare organization, the competency and effectiveness of the Seattle Animal Shelter has an impact on your work. If the City does not adequately manage shelter and field operations, your organization may be stuck dealing with the overflow and other consequences. Lack of services, poor planning, and/or problematic animal policies have impacts outside the shelter walls. You may be stepping in to fill in the gaps.
Overall, the Roadmap’s emphasis appears to be on management, the foster program, and dog behavior. These recommendations were based on consultant work. The Seattle Animal Shelter does not have an advisory board and, to date, its decisions remain in-house and without transparency until after the fact.
Q: How many items has SAS completed, are in progress, or are not started?
A: As of November 2024, SAS has completed 93 of the action items, has 110 in process, and has not started 42 of them.
Q: What are the SAS workgroups involved in the Roadmap?
A: There are six categories of workgroups.
Behavior and Medical
Community & Culture
Leadership
Technology
Volunteer
No Workgroup Assigned
Q: What is the status of the assigned items by workgroup:
A: See table below.
Q: What are the report categories for the Roadmap?
A: See table below. The top five report categories (highlighted in bold red font) are:
Standard Operating Procedures and Documents: SAS has struggled over the years to document its policies and procedures and to maintain them on a reasonable basis.
Adoption
Volunteers
Flow, Outcomes & Decision-Making
Foster - General
