Animal Services announces two-year pilot program

The city’s Animal Services department announced Wednesday its plans to kick off a two-year pilot program focused on neighborhoods in Central and East Austin. The neighborhoods in question – covering ZIP codes 78702, 78724 and 78617 – average three times as many animal services calls as other places in Austin. To fund the program, the department said it will use part of a $1.1 million Maddie’s Fund grant, which is aimed at helping communities make progress in this kind of work. “This year we celebrated the fifth anniversary of being the largest no-kill community in the United States,” said Animal Services Chief Tawny Hammond. “We’ll spend the next five years focusing on enhancing our community efforts to help keep or get pets back with their families and eliminate the need for them to come into the center in the first place.”