{"id":417619,"date":"2026-10-03T10:32:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/417619\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T10:32:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T10:32:37","slug":"jacksonvilles-animal-control-response-worries-councilman-and-inspector-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/417619\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville\u2019s animal control response worries councilman and inspector general"},"content":{"rendered":"

A city councilman is echoing concerns about Jacksonville\u2019s animal control response times already documented by the city\u2019s top watchdog agency in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three days after Jacksonville Today published an investigation into the city\u2019s Animal Control and Protective Services<\/a> division, Councilman Jimmy Peluso paid the facility a visit he said was unannounced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peluso represents District 7, where the animal shelter is located. He reported that although the shelter is overcrowded, he found the kennels in good shape and the volunteers responsive.<\/p>\n

Peluso\u2019s biggest concern from Jacksonville Today\u2019s report<\/a>, he said, is the use of 630-CITY and MyJax<\/a> to report dangerous dogs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

630-CITY is a centralized line used by multiple agencies, including fire and law enforcement. MyJax is an app that similarly connects users to city services.<\/p>\n

Peluso said those options are too far removed from ACPS, which takes reports secondhand from both entities. Sometimes those reports involve emergencies. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not able to directly call ACPS,\u201d Peluso said. \u201cI\u2019d love for them to have their own number.\u201d<\/p>\n

Animal control concerns<\/p>\n

Jacksonville Today reported last week that the number of dog bites in the city rose dramatically under a no-kill philosophy at the local animal shelter. The article also documented that nonprofit organizations involved in Jacksonville\u2019s animal welfare scene raise hundreds of millions of dollars per year toward the no-kill mission.<\/p>\n

ACPS has faced scrutiny over its operations before. Peluso said he hadn\u2019t read a report issued by the Office of the Inspector General last year, but his worries about communication at ACPS were documented in an audit published in August.<\/p>\n

The Inspector General\u2019s Office sampled 200 emergency and high-priority calls to ACPS for things like bites or aggressive dogs between November 2024 and April 2025. More than one-third of the calls, 69 in total, weren\u2019t responded to fast enough after they were dispatched, according to ACPS\u2019 operating procedures published by the inspector general.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether those delays are related to the shelter\u2019s policy to selectively respond to calls<\/a> under the no-kill emphasis. ACPS Chief Mike Bricker says no-kill policies don\u2019t determine the agency\u2019s direction. He did say Animal Control officers are instructed to prioritize calls based on their urgency.<\/p>\n

But ACPS has fewer officers than an industry benchmark recommends. A National Animal Control Association guideline suggests one officer for every 18,000 residents. Jacksonville would need more than 50 officers under that guideline. It has 20, Bricker says.<\/p>\n

Still, some calls were delayed before even reaching Animal Control. Sixteen calls failed to transfer from the city\u2019s systems for more than 24 hours, with some taking over a month, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Twenty-two calls weren\u2019t assessed due to missing timestamps or lack of response-time standards, including for calls tagged \u201cdangerous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Inspector General\u2019s Office recommended that ACPS work with the city to make sure reports were being transferred properly and update its procedures to set standard response times for dangerous calls and other call types missing responses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is crucial that ACPS address the findings as they are critical to protecting the health and safety of both animals and the community,\u201d the audit said. \u201cDelays in response or unclear procedures can lead to prolonged animal suffering, missed emergencies, and reduced public trust in ACPS operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacksonville Today requested ACPS\u2019 updated response call times, which the agency said include dangerous calls in the \u201cbite\u201d category. ACPS said it handles reports on a case-by-case basis and measures itself based on when a case is closed out completely, which can be up to four weeks for a dog bite.<\/p>\n

\"\"An email from ACPS to Jacksonvile Today received Oct. 1, 2026 detailing its response times and procedures. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A city councilman is echoing concerns about Jacksonville\u2019s animal control response times already documented by the city\u2019s top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6121,43323,88005,116,118,117,99028,22899,12022],"class_list":["post-417619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-criminal-justice","tag-distribute","tag-government-politics","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jaxtdy1","tag-nonprofits","tag-public-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}