SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio City Council approved the ordinance to raise fines for animal abandonment on Thursday in a 10–1 vote, with Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones casting the lone vote against the measure.
RELATED: City officials: New fines target deliberate pet abandonment, not good Samaritans
This proposal was at the center of a debate about the process councilmembers’ proposals should follow in the city system.
It will increase fines for people caught dumping animals around San Antonio and create more safeguards for the city’s peafowl.
Mayor Jones at one point said the ordinance had “expired” and asked for it to cycle back through a committee.
It was pulled from the council agenda last week.
Councilmembers Teri Castillo, Marina Alderete Gavito, and Marc Whyte have submitted a memo to City Manager Erik Walsh, urging the inclusion of the ordinance on the September 11 agenda.
The memo said the proposal was withdrawn from last week’s agenda “by staff at the request of Mayor Jones.”
City officials emphasized that the tougher penalties are aimed at pet owners who desert their animals, not at residents or rescue groups who step in to help. They argued the ordinance gives local authorities stronger tools to enforce state law, which already prohibits abandonment.
Mayor Jones sent the following statement about the memo last week:
I appreciate the council members’ advocacy for this legislation, but it is still important to remember that we are a new council and there are several members who did not have an opportunity to review the ordinance. Following the CCR process, all items must be reviewed by the new governance committee and this ordinance did not go through the new committee. These council members are skipping an important step in the legislative process. I believe that our new council has the responsibility to review proposals that did not complete the legislative process in the previous session.