Title
Discussion of Final Plea Program Pilot and Procedure
End
FileID
File ID: 2026-01609
End
Location
Location: Citywide
End
Recommendation
Recommendation: Review and comment.
End
Contact
Contact: April Stevenson, Animal Care Services Manager, (916) 808-8333, astevenson@cityofsacramento.org, Community Development Department
End
Presenter
Presenter: Ryan Hinderman, Communications and Customer Service Manager, (916) 808-7911, rhinderman@cityofsacramento.org, Community Development Department
End
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
End
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 back to the Commission.
The purpose of this discussion item is for the Manager to collect feedback from the Commission to take into consideration when deciding whether or how to resume the pilot program, as well as to discuss reconciliation of the differences between the working group’s Final Plea procedure (Attachment 3) and Staff’s revised procedure (Attachment 4).
End
PolicyConsiderations
Policy Considerations: None.
End
EconomicImpacts
Economic Impacts: None.
End
EnvironmentalConsiderations
Environmental Considerations: Not applicable.
End
Sustainability
Sustainability: Not applicable.
End
Commission/Committee Action
Commission/Committee Action: On April 15, 2026, the Animal Wellbeing Commission passed a motion to forward a recommendation to the Personnel and Public Employees (P&PE) Committee of the City Council, for staff to initiate a pilot program to support policy goals related to the promotion of at-risk and senior animals, and to include items such as kennel cards, kennel marketing identification board in the lobby of the Front Street Animal Shelter, and social media, posting and digital notification. During this meeting, commissioners also discussed the details of the pilot program including staff report supplemental material with procedure/draft language submitted by members of the working group. In preparation for the April 15, 2026, Animal Wellbeing Commission, the Commission formed a working group comprised of five (5) commissioners. The group has since met with City staff on May 15, 2026, and June 8, 2026, to discuss and refine the pilot program procedure and language. Additionally, the group corresponded with staff via email. On June 23, 2026, the P&PE 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 back to the Commission.
End
RationaleforRecommendation
Rationale for Recommendation: This discussion will help satisfy the recommendations of the P&PE committee, including helping the newly hired Animal Care Services Manager to consider whether or how to resume the program, and discussing different approaches to implementing the program to assist staff in developing a comprehensive program procedure to bring back to the Commission.
End
FinancialConsiderations
Financial Considerations: Not applicable.
End
LocalBusinessEnterprise
Local Business Enterprise (LBE): Not applicable.
End