SAN ANTONIO – Animal Care Services is partnering with the Southwest Research Institute to update the city\u2019s data on unrestrained dogs, using machine vision technology to build on a manual survey conducted in 2019.<\/p>\n
The city announced the collaboration in a press release dated Oct. 20, 2026, saying the research will use advanced machine vision technology developed and tested at SwRI to identify roaming dogs and gather information that may help distinguish between owned dogs and true strays. Officials said the updated data is intended to give the department new insight into where roaming dogs are observed and what characteristics may indicate whether a dog is owned or stray.<\/p>\n
San Antonio Animal Care Services Director Jon Gary said the information will help guide neighborhood-level strategies. \u201cThis study gives us another tool to better understand where we are seeing unrestrained dogs while also supporting our broader work to protect the health and safety of people and pets in San Antonio,\u201d Gary said. \u201cUltimately, this study and the data we get from it will help promote responsible pet care and strengthen community connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beginning this month, SwRI researchers will survey the same 32 study areas used in the city\u2019s 2019 effort, using smartphone cameras and automated technology, according to the release. The city emphasized the project is based on a sampling methodology and is not intended to count every unrestrained dog in San Antonio or produce a citywide census. Instead, officials said revisiting the same locations will provide updated information from areas where unrestrained dogs have historically been seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited to test this technology and help the City of San Antonio apply real-world solutions to an issue affecting many residents,\u201d said Mike Koets, a staff engineer in SwRI\u2019s Intelligent Systems Division.<\/p>\n
Field research is expected to continue through December 2026. After analysis is complete, SwRI will provide San Antonio Animal Care Services with a final report summarizing the findings and data collected, the city said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO – Animal Care Services is partnering with the Southwest Research Institute to update the city\u2019s data…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-472043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}