Seattle Animal Shelter Complaints: Park Patrols Show Greatest Increase

seattleanimalwatch
Oct 19
2 min read

We recently reviewed the number and types of animal cruelty complaints received by the Seattle Animal Shelter (SAS); however, SAS is responsible for a great deal more work.

In this post, we expand our analysis to all complaints received by SAS from 2018 to 2024. Of note is the increase in park patrols from 2023 to 2024, most likely due to media coverage of increasing conflict in public parks involving animal owners.

Non-Cruelty Complaint Types

The following are the top complaint types received by SAS and requiring field officer work. There are currently 15 field officers for the Seattle population of approximately 800,000 citizens, or approximately 1 field officer per every 53,333 citizens.

Patrols of public parks to enforce leash laws and identify potential public safety issues surrounding animals and their owners.
Enforcement of laws such as noise, at-large animals, scoop laws, and animal licenses.
Wildlife rescue, relocation, and retrieval of deceased animals.
Strays that may be confined, sick, injured, or deceased.
Transport involving relocation of animals, transport to medical services, or impoundment.

Table of SAS complaint types from 2018-2024. Categories include Parks, Enforcement, and more, with yearly totals and grand total of 38,238.

Parks Patrols Show Highest One-Year Increase

Park Patrols numbers have been unusual since 2020. They dropped by over 60 percent from 2021 to 2022, slightly increasing in 2023. It then leaped almost 60 percent from 2023 to 2024, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Line graph titled "Seattle Animal Shelter: Parks Patrols 2018 to 2024," showing patrol numbers fluctuating, with notable increases in 2019 and 2021.

We reached out to SAS about the sharp increase in park patrols. Was it a change in data collection methods or some other reason. Here is their response:

"When it comes to calls about dogs in parks, 2024 shot back up to 1,242. Again, nothing has changed about how we gather data. We don’t have data for 2025 yet, but can anecdotally tell you that we project the number of complaint calls in this category may trend upward. After the January 2025 Seattle Times article about dogs in parks, calls shot up dramatically."

Enforcement Complaints Are Wide-Ranging

The second highest complaint category is titled “Enforcement” and it encompasses a range of work. Overall, the numbers from 2018 to 2024 appear consistent for all enforcement subtypes with the following exceptions:

At-large animal complaints have been increasing since 2022.
Unlicensed complaints have dropped from ~50 to 10 or less since 2021.
Agency Assists have been increasing since 2021.

Table of enforcement subtypes from 2018-2024. Rows list actions like noise complaints, licensing, and more. Columns detail yearly totals.

Sources: Public Disclosure Request, FAS Email from Jesse Gilliam in May 2024