Arlington, Texas is a city of 365,000 people that lies between Dallas and Fort Worth. The entire metro area has about 6.5 million people.
The city does animal control and has a municipal shelter called the Animal Services Center (ASC). I called the ASC to ask about their owner surrender policy and was told that they have no conditions for surrenders other than city residency. The Friends of Arlington Animal Services (FAAS) is a non-profit that is dedicated to helping raise the ASC’s live release rate. They recently reported on ASC statistics for 2014, and the shelter had an 81% live release rate with an intake of 8579 cats and dogs. This live release rate is up from 67% in 2013.
One big factor in the improvement has been the city’s new TNR program. On August 20, 2013, the city council adopted a resolution that provides for organizations in the city to work with ASC on a TNR program for community cats. The TNR number in the ASC statistics was zero up to August of 2013, but from there until the end of the year 457 cats were TNR’d. In 2014, 1055 cats received TNR. In 2013 the ASC live release rate for cats was only 52%. In 2014, the live release rate for cats increased more than 20 points for the year.
Arlington, TX, is counted in the Running Totals an an 80%+community.