Title
Discussion of Final Plea Program Pilot and Procedure
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FileID
File ID: 2026-01609
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Location
Location: Citywide
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Recommendation
Recommendation: Review and comment.
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Contact
Contact: April Stevenson, Animal Care Services Manager, (916) 808-8333, astevenson@cityofsacramento.org, Community Development Department
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Presenter
Presenter: Ryan Hinderman, Communications and Customer Service Manager, (916) 808-7911, rhinderman@cityofsacramento.org, Community Development Department
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Attachments
Attachments:
1-Description/Analysis
2-Final Plea Background Review
3-Final Plea Pilot Program Procedure - Working Group Draft (April 15, 2026)
4-Final Plea Pilot Program Procedure - Staff Revisions
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Description/Analysis
IssueDetail
Issue Detail:
Final Plea is a marketing strategy which conveys an animal’s risk of euthanasia to the public, typically with an associated “needs adoption or rescue by” date, to encourage adoption and rescue. This topic was first discussed at the March 2026 meeting of the Animal Wellbeing Commission (Commission), and City staff agreed to conduct a six month pilot of the program. The Commission formed a Final Plea working group and developed draft language and procedure.
At the April Commission meeting, the Commission voted to send their recommendation to implement a pilot program to the Personnel and Public Employees Committee (P&PE) of the City Council. The working group then met multiple times with staff about the language and process. Staff created a revised Final Plea process, and included both the working group’s draft procedure and the staff-revised procedure in the staff report to P&PE.
On June 23, 2026, the P&PE Committee recommended that staff: 1) Pause the pilot until the Animal Care Services Manager (Manager) was hired to evaluate the pros and cons of the program, 2) Send a survey to volunteers to get their feedback about the program, 3) Bring a fully developed Final Plea procedure ...
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