Jacksonville, FL (September 25, 2019) – Councilman Becton, his wife, Linda Becton, and District 11 ECA, Tiziana “Tiz” Onstead, toured the City of Jacksonville’s Animal Care and Protective Services shelter to learn more about the city resource.
According to the ACPS website, the city funded shelter “provides animal control to the citizens in Jacksonville by fair enforcement and community education. ACPS offers quality pets for adoption at a reasonable cost and provides a high level of service to the citizens of Jacksonville and to saving lives of all adoptable animals in our community.”
Councilman Becton toured the facility with Shelter Manger, Jen Walters, and one of the main volunteers, Becky Hamilton. The shelter relies heavily on volunteers to not only help run the shelter but raise awareness for the shelter out in the community.
“The tour of our city resource of managing our pet population was a very eye-opening experience into the world that most of our residents take for granted, the humane treatment of our dog and cat population,” Councilman Becton said. “The work that is being done at this state-of-the art facility is incredible and my hats off to the volunteers and employees who help make the best of limited resources is impressive.”
According to the shelter, the Jacksonville community is experiencing an overpopulation crisis of homeless dogs and cats and the shelter is at a capacity almost every week. In 2018, ACPS and the Humane Society together took in over 19,000 pets and JSO responded to nearly 4,000 pet related calls.
“This facility is always looking for additional volunteers and anyone that can give a few hours a week or a month is definitely needed,” Councilman Becton said. “There are many different roles that volunteers can help with in serving the needs of our homeless pet population and if you have some time and compassion to provided to these animals, it helps in their mental and emotional attitude.”
ACPS works hand and hand with First Coast Homeless Pets to help take care of stray cats. Stray cats are usually adjusted to their surroundings and outside home by the time adult cats are reported so taking them out of their habitat and putting them in a home isn’t always the best option. So instead of taking them to ACPS until the cat is adopted, the cat is taken to First Coast Homeless Pets location in Jacksonville to spay or neuter the cat and tag their ear and return them to their habitat.
The intake hours at ACPS occur Tuesday through Friday at 8:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M.
Adoption hours occur Tuesday through Friday in the afternoon from 12:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. and on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M
CM Becton Tours Animal Care and Protective Services Facility
