Dallas Animal Services got a boost of about $1.5 million to its fiscal year 2027 budget to address rising cases of suspected animal cruelty. But animal services professionals say another factor is driving overcrowding at the shelter: cost of living.
Dallas Animal Services was over capacity for dogs as of late September, with about 410 canines in about 307 kennels.
DAS Interim Director Amanda Earl says rental restrictions, housing costs, and general economics are some of the main contributors to shelter overcrowding.
"You know, we're all trying to save everything that we can," she said.
But overcrowding can make it difficult to provide specialized care for animals with behavior or serious medical issues, Earl said.
Josh Bivens is the chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit think-tank that researches working class economic issues. He told KERA in an email that cost of living is not just a price issue — it's a race between income growth and prices.
"I would also note that the price of pet ownership has risen much faster than overall inflation for years, and, that's likely a steady pressure here regardless of what is happening to overall cost of living concerns," he said.
Bivens added that, since 2000, the price index for "pet services, including veterinary care" has risen more than twice as fast as overall inflation.
Over the last two years, the United States has seen an uptick in price inflation due to the Iran War and tariff effects paired with a deceleration in wage growth, hitting lowest-wage workers the hardest, Bivens said.
Earl says at DAS they want to create a "no judgement zone" if someone surrenders their animal. That applies for owners who struggle to find a good fit for their family.
"If you have to return the animal because it's not a good fit, that's okay. How can we help you find one that is an appropriate fit?" Earl said. "And it gives us more information about the animal, it helps the person who is the adopter decide what might be a good fit for their family or what isn't a good for their family."
Dallas Animal Services created a program to address animal cruelty this year after previously outsourcing those operations through a three-year partnership with local organization Operation Kindness Humane Society. Earl said they did a request for proposal this year to continue outsourcing but did not receive responses.
Tori Fugate, vice president of marketing and communications with Operation Kindness, confirmed that the organization did not pursue an extension or new contract.
"Our partnership with Dallas Animal Services and the Dallas Police Department was always intended to serve as a transitional solution, ensuring animal cruelty investigations had the forensic veterinary support they needed while the City developed a sustainable, long-term approach," Fugate said in an email.
Over the three years of the partnership, Fugate said that Operation Kindness contributed more than $1.5 million in forensic services and provided more than 8,400 services at no cost to the city. Now that Dallas is investing additional resources to strengthen cruelty investigations, Fugate said it was the right time for the city to move into its next phase of the work.
This year DAS and the Dallas Police Department have continued that work in-house. With additional budget dollars, Earl said they were thrilled that the city saw the merits of increasing funds for addressing animal cruelty.
"Animal cruelty is a very big piece, it's very important to the city, and our stakeholders find that to be one of our priorities," Earl said regarding addressing animal cruelty.
Animal cruelty case numbers have increased since 2024 from, at that time, almost 2,000 animals to now nearly 3,500.
Earl said she's unsure if it's more cases — multiple animals can be involved in a single case — but it is more animals.
"The 'Operation Fight Club' that happened in February, where we seized over 200 fighting dogs at 25 different locations, that was an investigation that took place over almost a year," Earl said. "Dallas Police Department did that; they spent almost a year developing that case and creating those relationships and partnerships with the [Drug Enforcement Administration" and federal law enforcement."
Emily Freeman, DAS assistant general manager of medical, said the increase in animal cruelty numbers DAS has seen could be because they have become more efficient in their operations and how they collaborate with other city departments.
"I think our operations are getting a little bit better," Freeman said. "I think there's more awareness in the community that's really helped guide protocols and processes."
Looking ahead, Earl said she hopes to get DAS down to a manageable shelter capacity so that they're able to work within their resources.
"Those resources include staffing, they include our budget, they include our medical capacity, our shelter capacity, all of those. It's not just physical capacity," Earl said. "So finding a way to build our partnerships so that we can get into a more manageable capacity that actually benefits the animals and our staff and our community, that is the ultimate goal."
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