MIDLAND, Texas — Before Tuesday morning's meeting, Midland City Council met with the Midland Animal Services for an update on their provided services.
Speaking to the Council was Director of Animal Services Ty Coleman, who told the Council that the shelter was beginning to see more and more pets at the shelter.
He also asked for an increase in staff along with an increase in salary while hoping city ordinances would be changed to allow for mandatory microchipping.
“Yeah we’re more or less trying to inform the council about the needs of the shelter, we definitely need more staff, increase in salaries as well," Coleman said. "We are also looking at revising some of the city ordinances to implement mandatory microchipping and a spay and neuter ordinance to help address the amount of animals that come into the shelter.”
Increase in staff would allow more animals to be inside the shelter while cages and dishes would take less time to clean.
“With more staff we could provide more quality care for the animals, we could assess the needs for the ill animals while we could focus on transferring animals out of state as well, to reduce the euthanasia rate,” Coleman said.
Animal shelters in the area have been filling up with animals over the past year. More and more people have returned to working in-person instead of remotely and many say they no longer have time to care for pets.
"Also inflation, dog food prices have gone up. The average bag per large dog is $60 so people can't afford to care for an animal right now," Coleman said.
City council members praised Coleman for the update and said they will update him soon on what the city can provide for the shelter.