Operations & History

The Animal Shelter in Waco has been at its current location (2032 Circle Road) for over 50 years.

The Humane Society of Central Texas (HSCTX) took over sole management from the mid-1980s through 2012.

During that time, partner cities (which used the shelter services) paid their fees to the HSCTX for operations.
For the entirety of the 50 years, the operation has functioned as a shelter and not a rescue.
The City of Waco retained ownership and management in 2012; more history below.

In very general terms, rescues are most often funded privately and have discretion and other freedoms when selecting which homeless animals to take in.
Shelters are typically run and financed by local governments and operate as open-admission (and only rarely do they close animal intake).
- Some exceptions include (but are not limited to) infectious disease outbreaks in animal shelter populations or known disease outbreaks in community pet populations.

This regional shelter serves most of McLennan County: 12 cities and most of the county area, an estimated 216,000 people.
It is an “open intake” shelter, which means that it must accept any animal brought in by any of the partner communities.

Brief summarized history

With the HSCTX running the shelter, euthanasia reached an all-time high, roughly 35% of animals left the shelter alive.
With the community calling for change, a new partnership between the City of Waco and the HSCTX brought additional resources to the shelter and a new fee structure. The City of Waco joined the animal shelter as the primary Animal Care operator, staffing positions for intake, kennel maintenance, and veterinary care. Note: veterinary care at that time was handled by contracting with a local vet for shelter visits.
HSCTX continued fundraising efforts, with funds directly benefitting their operation and life-saving mission, in addition to receiving city funding and support such as computers, networking and phones.
HSCTX also handled (and continues to handle) marketing and promotion, fosters, rescues, adoptions and volunteering on-site.

Many new City of Waco operations procedures were also implemented, and over $100,000 in renovations to the facility were performed.
The City of Waco then changed ordinances requiring spay, neuter and microchipping of pets in Waco.
Partner cities of the shelter followed suit with their own policies.
With Waco City Council support, options for free or low-cost spay/neuter surgery were provided to residents in partnership with the Animal Birth Control Clinic of Waco.
In addition, the city established a volunteer program for outreach about the importance of spay/neuter, promoting the free and low cost options to residents.
With this new partnership and operational changes made, animal intake was drastically reduced in just two years.

Live animal exits increased to an overall rate of 83%.
- With community interest increasing in the shelter, population growth, the community ambition to do more for the animals in our region, and the city council’s leadership, it became clear the shelter needed to be renovated to handle more animals more efficiently.

A request was submitted to the city council for a new shelter design, with a portion of the funding coming from grants and donations led by the committee, something the City had never done before.
In addition, the goal was set to achieve a no-kill status, meaning a placement rate of 90% or higher as classified by the National Federation of Humane Societies.
- No-kill status does not mean no euthanasia. Due to severe illnesses, behavioral issues or time and space at the shelter, the difficult decision can still be made to euthanize.

Grand opening of the new facility was held in November.
- It features an adoption building, climate-controlled kennel wings, a dedicated puppy house, a cat room, a vet clinic, drive-through animal drop-off, and an animal play courtyard.

An agreement was signed on August 23, 2024, allowing HSCTX to leave shelter operations by September 6, 2024, after a two-week transition period.
In late 2023 and early 2024, three neighboring properties were purchased for future facility planning at the Animal Shelter campus(PDF, 17MB)
A shelter assessment was completed to plan for future campus needs, including a new animal medical care clinic with expanded surgical suites and quarantine kennel space for isolating potential infectious airborne disease cases.
- This facility review began in November 2023 and included input from City and HSCTX staff, local animal welfare partners, and veterinary medical experts.
Close to $5 million was budgeted in fiscal year 2024-2025 design and future construction of the new animal medical care clinic.
In September 2024 the shelter operation transitioned to Pet Circle Regional Animal Center with City of Waco staff being hired to run the facility.