El Paso is seeking a new animal services director. Here’s what to know.
Diego Mendoza-Moyers: El Paso’s Animal Services department is seeking a new director – again. Whoever the city hires next year will be the sixth person to lead the city’s Animal Services department since 2015. But why has there been so much turnover? And what could a new leader do to improve the animal adoption rate in El Paso and the condition of animals in the city, generally?
Public comment sessions during City Council meetings in Downtown often include one or more residents criticizing the city’s Animal Services department. Critics say the city’s department should be doing more to help strays and keep animals off the street instead of relying largely on the community to foster stray animals. The Animal Services department’s budget grew to $16.2 million this year compared with about $8 million in 2022.
Since 2015, when the city’s shelter began shifting to a no-kill shelter, the city is euthanizing fewer animals. But plenty of residents still have concerns about the shelter’s operations. For today’s show, I’ll talk with El Paso Matters senior reporter Elida Perez about some of the recent history of El Paso’s Animal Services department and what to know about the city’s search for a new director.
Before I talk with Elida, I want to mention that this El Paso Matters podcast episode is sponsored by Tawney, Acosta and Chaparro, truck crash and injury attorneys. Their team of local, seasoned trial attorneys are ready to help if you’ve been injured in a crash.
Now, on to our conversation.
Elida, thanks for joining me.
Elida Perez: Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.
Diego: So, to start, what can you tell us about the city’s search for a new Animal Services department director and all of the turnover the department has seen over the last decade?
Elida: So, this search is probably going to be a little different than in the past, because it seems as though the city manager will lean a little more towards being open for community feedback. That’s not something that really was done in the past.
Since the city manager hires these positions, like executives and department heads and whatnot, it’s generally up to the city manager, in the city manager form of government that we’re in, they have the discretion to do whatever they want, in essence, when it comes to selecting that individual or making that hire. It seems like (City Manager) Dionne Mack is kind of shifting from that just a tad by being open to getting feedback based on this petition that was going around.
But, before we get into that, the Animal Services department wasn’t even its own department until, I believe it was 2015, 2016. Prior to that, it was under Environmental Services. And the head of Environmental Services was Ellen Smyth.
Diego: So, it was kind of folded in with, like, the trash collection department, basically.
A trio of friends wait to be adopted at El Paso Animal Services. (Courtesy Animal Services)
Elida: Yes, in essence. Around 2015, I believe, is when there was this shift with the prior mayor and council, Oscar Leeser was mayor at the time, where I think there was a lot of community concerns about the shelter and the – their no kill rate was kind of nonexistent at the time. They were just euthanizing pets as they needed to. No-kill wasn’t too much of a discussion until that year or so.
So, there was a shift where they wanted to move towards a no-kill status. Within that process, they created Animal Services as its own department and had an interim in place. His name was Kurt Fenstermacher, and he had been the assistant director of Environmental Services. So, now he’s interim Animal Services director.
Diego: But he wasn’t necessarily, like, an animal welfare guy, or a lot of background in that area?
Elida: Not too much, from what I recall – now, this was quite a long time ago. I was working for the El Paso Times when this unfolded. But, yeah. So, I’ve been kind of keeping track of it off and on for years. The community really liked Fenstermacher and what he was doing, and they could see some positive changes unfolding with what they were trying to do. But, there started to be some community concern because there was the interim, he was interim, and maybe one or two years passed and they hadn’t hired a permanent director.
Now, we’re under former City Manager Tommy Gonzalez at the time. And, so, there started to become – the animal welfare advocates started to raise questions about, like, “Why haven’t you hired a permanent director?” So, all of a sudden, Kurt Fenstermacher gets sent back to Environmental Services after the city manager at the time formed a task force for making changes to the animal services shelter. That was, at the time, led by Paula Powell.
So, she served as interim and then was named director. She served in that role for a couple of years and then retired, went on to somewhere else. I think she moved away from El Paso. She had, prior to that, she’d been the, I believe it was in Parks and Recreation. So, she’s serving as Animal Services director. There’s still some changes being made and whatnot. Then, she leaves.
So, then, Ramon Herrera becomes interim. He had been in marketing before and had served on the Animal Services Task Force. That was kind of a tricky time because then, suddenly, we’re in the pandemic and that was interesting for everybody. But, we can get more into that right now as far as interims and directors go, right?
LEARN MORE: El Paso Animal Services director retires amid criticism
So, then he served again just a short time frame. Then Terry Kebschull was hired. He, again, just a few years. Now we’re on to an interim, Michael Wachsmann. So, it’s one of those positions that even hearing, even though we hadn’t interviewed Terry Kebschull yet, even he told El Paso Inc. how difficult the job really is. And I think that plays a lot into it. He had been with the Fire Department before becoming the Animal Services director.
Terry Kebschull (Courtesy cit of El Paso Animal Services)
So, I mean, if you look back at all these prior interims and directors, I don’t know that we can say that any one of them had full shelter experience. So, maybe that has something to do with how tricky it is, how difficult the job is, because it is a position with the city that is under a lot of public scrutiny. The animal advocates in this community are very passionate about how animals are treated in El Paso, and especially when it comes to shelter services and what the city is doing, what the city is not doing, what they see out in the streets. So, it’s not an easy role.
Diego: Yeah. And, I mean, you just laid out your experience of kind of following this and covering it for 10 years or more. I guess I just wonder if you can kind of describe some of the criticisms you’ve heard over the years of the city’s Animal Services department? It seems like the pandemic was a challenging time, but the challenges go further back beyond even the pandemic. And, so, I’m just wondering, what are some of the criticisms you’ve heard over the years?
Elida: So, yeah, there’s been a lot. There’s been a lot of criticism over the years. And it kind of fluctuates, but some of the main things that we’ve heard of, like, there was a time where some former employees or employees at the time were taking photos and videos of just the conditions of the shelter, overcrowding, really dirty kennel spaces where there was feces all over the place. And these dogs are trapped in these small spaces with a bunch of waste. Those kinds of things. Injuries, because of the overcrowding, fights and that sort of thing.
FACT CHECK: Does the city’s Animal Services prioritize community sheltering over shelter intakes?
There’s been criticism about stray dogs not being picked up, or when somebody finds a stray dog and tries to get it to the shelter, the shelter will not take it or they say “We’re full, I’m sorry, hang on to it or try to find its owner yourself.” That sort of thing has raised a lot of concern.
Diego: Putting the pressure on the community, basically, to solve the issue?
Elida: Yes. So, instead of taking in those animals, people are left with the choice of, “If I take in this animal and I can’t find its owner, then what do I do with this animal?” So, that has been a big concern.
Even with cats, both cats and dogs, there’s people periodically just really raising concerns about how animals are being tracked in the shelter as well. That’s been another thing that has come up over the years. There have been concerns that animals are being lost or, maybe they’re not reporting properly. I mean, it really runs the gamut.
And then, even the employees themselves, like, there’s been concern about low pay. They can’t retain staff because the pay is not great and it’s a really difficult job. Jeez, it’s a really long list.
Diego: It’s a wide range. I wonder if you can just go back a little bit and talk about the decision to implement the no-kill shelter approach I think around 2015, right, is when that started? I just wonder, what was the sort of thinking and motivation back when the city decided to do that?
Elida: From what I recall, I think it was a period of time when, again, they were just, maybe it was – now I’m having to go back into the way-back machine here – but I remember the council at the time and the mayor and even the city manager were all realizing that, there was kind of a national push to go towards no-kill, for more shelters to reach no-kill status.
And I think, again, the advocates in our community were really pressuring the council at the time. And, so, I think the timing was right for those voices to be heard to where the council and the city was open to move in that direction. And, so, they started to put together a plan and everything. And I think it was about $1 million that they had asked for to put in the first round of reforms to get to no-kill. And that was back in, geez, 2015, 2016. So, I think the timing was right and everybody was kind of on the same page.
Diego: But, do you think that approach now led – maybe being more humane, but is now why there’s more pressure on the community that, “Hey, alright, you guys don’t want us to euthanize the pets, so you step up community and take in more pets, foster them, et cetera, right?” Do you think that’s kind of been the result of going to a no-kill shelter?
An animal care attendant works with a cat at El Paso Animal Services. (Courtesy Animal Services)
Elida: I don’t know that that had a lot to do with it. I think that somewhere along the line, after a few different changes in leadership, they started a pilot program to try to bring in more community participation or whatever. And I can’t remember the specific year, but somewhere along those lines, and maybe just prior to the pandemic, is when that kind of effort started.
And it’s been mentioned before that they went on this HASS program model, which is more community-oriented, where, if you find a stray, then work with the social networks and everything to try to get it from even entering the shelter space. And I think that’s where this disconnect has started, and that’s kind of poured over to the community is now like, “OK, we can’t keep doing this.” Something has to shift.
Diego: Yeah. And I think almost 700 citizens have signed this petition to urge the city to hire a sort of qualified animal services director who has experience in animal welfare issues, I guess. And, so, I just wonder what you can tell us about this petition and the influence it’s having on the search for a new animal services department director?
Elida: Yeah, it’s interesting. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but over the last, I would say over the last, at least, year, that there’s been an increase in animal welfare advocates showing up to City Hall on their regular council days and signing up for public comment.
Now, that’s not new. That has happened periodically over the years. But, I can say that in this last year, there’s been a growing number of people coming to show up to really highlight this is a problem. Something’s got to change. And, so, that’s kind of where the former director retired or said he was going to retire or whatever, there had only been more and more people showing up and talking about this and really talking about his leadership.
Now, I haven’t had the chance to talk with (Kebschull) directly, but we’re kind of in the works on that to hear his perspective, right? But, when it was announced that they were going to start looking for a new director, people were really concerned that the same thing is going to happen here. Like, nobody’s going to get a say in it. Somebody is going to be moved from somewhere else. And what they’re really wanting is just, it’s kind of simple at its core. It’s just to hire somebody qualified.
Maybe the ideal person has worked as an animal services director in the past. I don’t know that that person exists. I mean, it seems like it’s a difficult job to fill. But the fact that so many people are signing on to this and the city actually responded, when I was taking a look at the petition, City Manager Dionne Mack actually responded to it.
Now, I think that’s because the petition was initially aimed at the mayor and council, but the mayor and council do not make this hire. So, her response to the group was, or to the petition was that, the city manager hires this position and whatnot and they’re trying to, you know, do a national search or whatever, but that apparently resonated. The petition resonated because the city manager said that, acknowledged it and said that, based on that, they will try to bring in some more community feedback as they’re going through the process, Which is different because in the past, somebody gets put in and I don’t know that we paid too much attention about the hiring process before, but we’re in different times now. So, there’s different leadership roles coming and going here. So, it’s one where we need to pay closer attention because this is one of those departments that is just really crucial.
Diego: Yeah. And you wrote that the search will begin in January. Is that right? Or maybe it’s the interviews?
Elida: Right. So, the application period already started. So, they’ll probably be collecting those and screening candidates and doing the community outreach I would think leading up to the January time frame because they won’t do any interviews until probably the beginning of January since we’re coming into the holiday season. The city manager mentioned that it’s hard to get people from out of town to fly in during holidays to get those things scheduled.
So, it sounds like we might be seeing some more activity in early January and maybe see some – I don’t know if they’re going to have, like, community meetings or if they’re just going to hold smaller group sessions with certain people, stakeholders, if you will. So, that’s at least what they’re hoping for.
Diego: Yeah. So maybe we’ll see a new head of the department hired spring next year, maybe summer, something like that?
Elida: Yeah, maybe. From what I understand, they’ll keep it open until they find the right person.
Diego: And also, just to highlight some of the changes, I guess, with the department, the city purchased the former Morehead Middle School on Mesa Street, right? And they’ve now turned that into a new adoption center. Is that right?
Elida: Yeah. So, that’s kind of another point of contention, right? Because I think a lot of the animal advocates were hoping that would become shelter space to help alleviate the stress on the Fred Wilson location. But it’s not a shelter space, per se. It’s more adoption-center-oriented.
The city spent about $9 million renovating that former Morehead school. When they first purchased it, it was during the migrant crisis. So, it was designed to be as needed an emergency shelter, humanitarian shelter, if you will, as well as Animal Services space.
I think it might, if necessary, serve that purpose. But, as far as the Animal Services side of it goes, people were really hoping, again, that it would become shelter space to kind of, if somebody on the Westside or whatever finds a stray dog or cat, then they could take it there to get it off the streets. But, it’s more adoption-focused.
The city of El Paso’s Animal Services, 5001 Fred Wilson Ave., July 7, 2025. (Brandy Ruiz / El Paso Matters)
Diego: Yeah. And just last thing here, Elida, I appreciate this time. I just wonder, have you dealt with the Animal Services department directly? I wonder if you’ve had any experiences with the shelters or anything like that just as a resident? I just wonder what your experiences have been, if any, with the department and just kind of what that’s been like?
Elida: Yeah. I’ve had a couple of times where I felt like I needed to call Animal Services.
During the pandemic, there were a couple of, there were probably two or three instances where there were some stray dogs in the neighborhood. My sister and I, we have four dogs, so we’re very, we’re dog lovers, we’re pet lovers. And one time there were two dogs that we found and we immediately were like, “Oh, no, let’s call Animal Services to see if they’ll pick them up.” They did not, they were not able to pick them up.
So, my sister and I were, like, “Uh-oh, now we have these two dogs. What are we going to do?” So, we ultimately, we took them to the fire station and had them scan for chips. We got lucky because one of the animals was chipped and we were able to contact the owner and have the owner come pick them up. But in that instance the shelter couldn’t take them in. So we went to the Fire Department firehouse there on the Westside.
There was this incident over at the former Downtown arena site, the Duranguito that’s all fenced in. There was a stray dog pack in there that they were trying to get Animal Services to help get the dogs out of there. But, that was, ultimately, the people that were involved, the citizens, ended up rescuing all those dogs, like, individually.
Diego: Not the city.
Elida: Right, yeah, for the most part.
Diego: Yeah. And I’ll just share this briefly. I had an experience with a stray cat and a mom living in my backyard, and the kitten was severely – had a grotesque eye injury. And to give the Animal Services department credit, they came and they took the cat in and spayed it and fixed its eye, removed the eye and everything. And, so, just to give them credit, I mean, I was impressed a little bit with the response and the willingness to come and help an injured cat or kitten. And, so, to give them credit, but it seems like there’s kind of a mixed bag about the response times and so forth and whether they’re able to respond and all that kind of stuff.
Elida: Well, there was another time where my sister and I came across another stray dog. It was another two-pack, like they seem to escape in twos in the Upper Valley. So, we have an enclosed gate area in our front yard. So, we put the dogs in there as a holding space. And we did call Animal Services and said “Hey, we’ve got these dogs. We can’t keep them or foster them for that matter.” That time they were able to come out and pick up the dogs. So, that was good.
So, we’re like two out of three, you know what I mean? In one instance, they were able to come help. In the first instance, the other resources that they put in place did come in handy because we were able to get the dogs chipped, get their chip read and were able to get the dogs home without them going to the shelter. So, it’s a really tricky job.
Diego: Yeah, and some of your other stories, you’ve kind of just sort of highlighted some of these stories of animals found in the desert and all these difficult challenges that the department’s facing, whether it’s in the shelter or trying to prevent strays from proliferating and so forth out just on the streets or in the desert or whatever and end up in bad situations.
So, yeah, it seems like just a wide range of challenges facing this department. And, so, we’ll be really curious to continue to see what happens with the search for a new director and maybe if they’re able to implement some changes or some improvements to the department and stuff.
Elida: Yeah. It’ll be interesting to see also because this new person, whomever gets hired for the job, is going to have their hands full. And, so, it’ll be interesting to see how the community and how the advocates, whether they’re able to work together or come to an understanding or give this individual an opportunity to kind of feel things out.
Diego: Yeah, if there’s more of a partnership formed as opposed to a more combative relationship, sure.
Elida: The bottom line is that there’s a lot of people that love animals in this community, and the city shelter has got its hands full, no doubt. So, yeah, we’ll see if they’re able to finally get some progress. Not that they haven’t had progress, but a more universal place where people are feeling good about the efforts that are being made, the progress that’s being made.
Diego: Maybe a longer-term leader. We’ll see.
Elida: Right, yeah. Ideally.
Diego: Yeah. So, we’ll leave it there, Elida. But, thanks for talking through this issue that I think a lot of people, it gives them the emotions when you see the animals in the cages and stuff like that. And, so, it’s a really important topic, and we’ll just hope to continue to follow your coverage and see what happens in the next year.
Elida: I’ll say one of my current puppies is from a mother who was abandoned in the desert in the Far Eastside. It touches us all.
Diego: You’re doing your part. Alright, thanks for joining me, Elida.Elida: Thank you.
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