Seattle Animal Shelter Revenues & Expenses: 2024 Numbers Have Arrived

seattleanimalwatch
Jul 28
3 min read

The Seattle Animal Shelter (SAS) is a government entity housed under the City of Seattle’s Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS). Earlier this year, we posted an overview of SAS’s revenues and expenses from 2019 to 2023. In this post, we provide an update by adding 2024 numbers obtained via public disclosure requests. We thank FAS for providing background on some of the increased expenditures. They have been incredibly helpful.

SAS funds its own operations through fees and donations. Contrary to common belief, SAS is not solely funded by taxpayer dollars through the City of Seattle’s General Fund. The General Fund only covers the resulting shortfalls when SAS expenses are greater than the donations and fees that SAS receives.

REVENUES

The overall 2024 funding picture remains the same as 2023. SAS expenses are greater than the revenues it generates and the City of Seattle must close the deficit with taxpayer dollars from the General Fund..

Most SAS revenue sources remained stable in 2024. Here are a few items of note:

License fees for dogs continue to be the largest revenue generator for the Seattle Animal Shelter.
In 2023 and 2024, there were large bequests to SAS that approximately doubled “Other Private Contributions & Donations” from 2022.
Adoption fees more than doubled from 2023 to 2024.
Kennel fees dropped by more 75 percent in 2024 but it appears that 2023’s high number was unusual compared to prior years.
Miscellaneous reimbursements tripled in 2023 and remained that way in 2024. These are likely from internal services and accounting adjustments.

Table of Seattle Animal Shelter revenues (2019-2024) with categories like licenses, fees, and donations. Notable is total revenue trend.

DIRECT COSTS

Labor Remains SAS’s Largest Direct Cost. SAS’s largest direct costs are for labor. In 2023, labor costs comprised approximately 67 percent of shelter expenses. In 2024, this percentage fell to 62 percent of total shelter costs even though labor expenditures themselves increased by $1.56 million or an additional 44 percent over 2023 numbers.

SAS has 46 approved full-time positions for a city population of approximately 750,000. Of these positions, 10 are shelter care officers and 15 are field officers, There are two veterinary assistants and two veterinary technicians. The rest of SAS includes administrative support staff and management.

Service Expenditures Almost Triple from 2023 to 2024. The primary reasons for the increase are the following:

Higher payments in 2024 for external veterinary services, particularly to Timberline Veterinary and Veterinary Emergency Group.
An increase in the usage of donation funds for services covered by external donations such as animal licenses, adoption fees, or clinical procedures.
Work conducted on the SAS dog corral turf by Talakai Construction.
Interfund costs recorded as direct costs as opposed to indirect costs. This accounts for 983,533 of the increase.

Animal Food and Care Supplies Are Still Relatively Small Expenditures. Animal food and other care items continue to be small expenditures for SAS relative to the total direct costs, slightly more than two percent. However, the amount spent in 2024 increased by $74,100 from 2023.

Chart displaying Seattle Animal Shelter costs from 2019-2024, listing expenses like labor and rent. Total cost rises annually.

INDIRECT COSTS

We have not included indirect costs in this analysis. Indirect costs are generally overhead costs distributed through multiple departments. Indirect costs are inconsistently represented in SAS published expenses for 2019 to 2024. In response to our question about how best to approach year to year comparison, the City of Seattle’s Office of Finance suggested that we limit ourselves to direct costs and that is what we have done.

OVERALL FUNDING PICTURE

SAS expenditures are greater than the revenues it collects. SAS is supported by the City’s General Fund, and General Fund revenues are what cover the difference between SAS revenues and expenditures. There are many revenue sources for the General Fund, but the largest ones are property taxes, sales taxes, and business and occupation taxes.

The table below shows the deficit resulting from subtracting direct costs from shelter revenue. In 2024, the City of Seattle’s General Fund accounted for more than twice the amount of 2023. In fact, this amount is the largest of the six-year time frame under review.

Seattle Animal Shelter financial table (2019-2024). Shows revenues, costs, and deficits. Green headers and white background.

Sources: City of Seattle Public Disclosure Request, City of Seattle Finance and Administrative Services, City of Seattle Job Description for Seattle Animal Shelter Director