Give Working Families More Opportunities to Adopt. Give Shelter Animals More Opportunities to Go Home.
To: City Manager Chris Boone, Mayor and Beaumont City Council, and City Administration

We, the undersigned, respectfully request that the City of Beaumont reevaluate and modify the public operating schedule of Beaumont Animal Care (BAC) to provide greater access during evening and weekend hours, when more working residents may be available to visit the shelter, meet adoptable animals, foster, volunteer, reclaim lost pets, and complete adoptions.

THE CURRENT PROBLEM
Beaumont Animal Care is currently open to the public:

Tuesday–Friday: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Sunday & Monday: CLOSED

These are the hours currently published by the City of Beaumont. Beaumont Texas

For residents who work traditional daytime schedules—particularly those who work until 5:00 p.m. or later—BAC's weekday schedule can make it extremely difficult or impossible to visit the shelter after work.

Although BAC is open on Saturday, it closes at 4:00 p.m., and it is completely closed to the public on Sunday.

Animals cannot be adopted by people who cannot get through the shelter's doors while it is open.

WHAT NATIONAL SHELTER DATA SHOWS
Research supports examining whether shelter hours align with the times the public is actually available.

A Best Friends Animal Society analysis found that shelters devoting greater portions of their operating hours to weekends and evenings tended to have higher adoption rates.

In its analysis, shelters with no weekend hours had an adoption rate of approximately 48%, while the modeled example redistributing the same 35 weekly operating hours so that 40% occurred on weekends corresponded with an adoption rate of approximately 72%.

For evening accessibility, shelters with no evening hours were around 58%, compared with approximately 63% when 10% of operating hours occurred in the evening and 68% when 20% occurred in the evening. Importantly, the recommendation is not necessarily to add more hours—it can involve redistributing existing hours to times when the community is more available. Best Friends Animal Society

Separate research from Shelter Animals Count found that, compared with an average weekday, participating organizations experienced approximately 61% more adoptions on Saturdays, 24% more on Fridays, and 16% more on Sundays. The organization cautions that no single practice guarantees better outcomes, but its analysis found greater adoption accessibility was associated with better outcomes. Shelter Animals Count

WHAT WE ARE ASKING THE CITY TO DO
We are NOT necessarily asking the City to increase BAC's total weekly operating hours, hire additional employees, or incur substantial additional costs.

We are asking the City to:

• Evaluate BAC's existing operating schedule using BAC's own visitor and adoption data by day and time;
• Consider redistributing some existing public hours to later weekday/evening hours;
• Consider opening BAC to the public on both Saturday and Sunday, even if doing so requires reducing or rearranging hours on lower-traffic days;
• Implement a reasonable pilot schedule and track whether the change increases shelter visits, adoptions, fosters and other positive outcomes; and
• Make permanent schedule changes if BAC's own data demonstrates that greater evening/weekend accessibility improves outcomes. 
• WHY THIS MATTERS
  Every additional opportunity for a member of the public to walk through BAC's doors is another opportunity for an animal to be seen.
• Another opportunity to be adopted.
• Another opportunity to find a foster.
• Another opportunity to be rescued.
• And potentially, another opportunity for a life to be saved.

If changing WHEN BAC is open could help more animals leave the shelter without increasing HOW MANY TOTAL HOURS the shelter is open, we believe it deserves serious and timely consideration.

PETITION STATEMENT
By signing below, I support asking the City of Beaumont to reevaluate Beaumont Animal Care's current public operating schedule and consider redistributing its operating days and hours to include greater evening and weekend access, with the goal of increasing public accessibility and opportunities for shelter animals to be adopted, fostered, reclaimed and rescued.