Please stop the killing of healthy, loving, and adoptable dogs.

Mia, the dog pictured here, was four years old. Her owners described her as very sweet. She entered the shelter happily, wagging her tail in her pink harness. Three days later, terrified despite the best efforts of volunteers including me, she was killed.

Her life was short, and it was precious. She deserved better.

Other countries do not dispose of shelter animals in this way. We can change this — for Mia, and for dogs like Mia.

In 2024, six days a week, animal rescue nonprofits and individual advocates had less than two hours to rescue dogs released for euthanasia. San Antonio Animal Care Services was on target to kill more than 4,000 dogs and cats in 2023, and the situation remained severe. It would be worse without the volunteers, rescuers, and kind individuals who step up repeatedly to save adoptable pets.

On March 13, 2023, the shelter even killed a service dog despite efforts to save him, including an adoption offer.

ACS euthanizes healthy, adoptable dogs after only three days. A director stated in an interview that he wished he could do this more quickly. Often, more than twenty dogs are killed at a time, including friendly, highly adoptable dogs and puppies. More than 20 percent of dogs are killed; the figure for cats is even worse.

They euthanize puppies, nursing mothers, young dogs, dogs confiscated from cruelty cases, senior dogs, and gentle, loving dogs.

Let’s stop this killing together. Please let Mayor Ron Nirenberg, City Manager Eric Walsh, Governor Greg Abbott, and the leadership of San Antonio Animal Care Services know that these unnecessary deaths matter. Sign to show that the public is watching and that policy must change.

Networking, increased rescue coordination, more funding, and administrative change would be a start. Other cities manage this better. San Antonio can too.

High-kill sheltering is not solving San Antonio’s stray and abandoned dog problem. The city needs an aggressive spay-and-neuter campaign, stronger prevention, and limits on irresponsible breeding.

Up to 508 puppies can be born from one unspayed female dog and her offspring in seven years. Up to 4,948 kittens can be born from one unspayed female cat and her offspring in seven years. Killing does not stop the cycle. Spaying and neutering, prevention, and responsible policy are more humane and more effective than slaughter.

Without public pressure, thousands more dogs will be quietly killed.

Please sign, share, and promote this petition if you can. Their lives are sacred. Each animal gets only one life.