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Photo: Animal Services Officers discovered Jolene left inside a wire crate in winter—frozen and unresponsive. The Animal Services Division successfully pursued felony animal cruelty charges through the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, and an arrest warrant was issued in this case in April, 2023.
In 2023, the Animal Services Division issued 762 criminal citations for violations of the Kansas City Municipal Code of Ordinances.
The top five most issued citations in 2023 were for animal neglect (inadequate care for animals), failing to spay/neuter, failing to obtain a city license, dogs running at large, and animals creating a public nuisance.
Our Animal Services Division takes a zero-tolerance stance to egregious acts of animal abuse and in 2023 worked with the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office and the Kansas City Police Department to create a referral process for state and felony-level animal cruelty cases.
This unprecedented accomplishment resulted in 7 animal abuse/cruelty cases being submitted to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office in 2023 for state-level prosecution, ensuring we are holding perpetrators of animal abuse in our community accountable for their actions to the full extent of the law. This is the highest number of cases submitted by an animal control agency in Kansas City’s history!
Our vehicles spent 7,566 hours out in the community and traveled 157,175 miles throughout Kansas City, MO, providing essential services to the people and pets in our community.
Officers attended and/or hosted community events throughout the year, including:
In 2023, KCPP’s Animal Services Division continued to raise the bar for enhanced public safety through compliance with local dangerous and potentially dangerous dog ordinances.
In 2023, 17 citations were issued to owners for failing to comply with the mandatory ordinance requirements of owning a declared dangerous or potentially dangerous dog.
Through state-of-the-art GPS geofencing capabilities onboard all Animal Services vehicles, officers are alerted when they are near any address for a dog that has been registered as dangerous or potentially dangerous so compliance can be monitored year-round.
Officers worked 21,626 unique case activities, a 2% increase in the number of calls for service over 2022.
We saw a 231% increase in the number of animals that were abandoned and left behind by their owners in 2023.
We saw a 51% increase in the number of pets left behind due to evictions in 2023.
The Animal Services Dispatch team answered 39,682 live phone calls
The Animal Services Dispatch team completed 12,852 outbound calls.
The average wait time for calls to be answered through the 311 Call Center menu was 25.6 seconds.
| Seizures / Impounds | 2023 | 2022 | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abandoned in Home / Yard | 34 | 116 | 231% |
| Bite Quarantine | 168 | 225 | -25% |
| Cruelty / Neglect | 46 | 53 | -15% |
| Death of Owner | 71 | 54 | 31% |
| Dead on Arrival | 89 | 100 | -11% |
| Evictions | 89 | 59 | 51% |
| Injured | 12 | 37 | -68% |
| Left in Hot Car | 7 | 11 | -36% |
| Other Ordinance Violations | 26 | 1 | 2500% |
| Medical Emergency | 69 | 52 | 33% |
| Meet Police / MAST / Fire | 9 | 41 | -78% |
| Police Arrests | 110 | 105 | 5% |
| Sick | 6 | 10 | -40% |
| Signed Over by Owner in Field | 246 | 347 | -29% |
| Stray/At Large | 2,064 | 1,805 | 14% |
| Total Animals Impounded: | 3,396 | 3,016 | 13% |
As our community continued to face economic challenges such as financial insecurity, lack of affordable housing and access to veterinary care, and rising costs associated with pet ownership, the Animal Services Division saw an overall increase of 13% in animal impoundments in 2023 – the largest number of animals impounded by officers since 2019.
778 (57%) bites from dogs/cats occurred on their property or inside the home
479 (35%) bites from dogs/cats occurred off their property (such as by stray dogs at large)
98 bites from dogs/cats were reported at businesses or were not classified
Officers attended the “Safer Together Missouri” training on domestic violence and animal cruelty hosted by the Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation and joined the Child and Animal Neglect/Abuse Coalition (CANA) for the Kansas City Region.
Chief Ryan Johnson gave a presentation on local animal cruelty data trends for attorneys at the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office in September.
In 2023, our Animal Services Division continued our partnership with two domestic violence shelters, Synergy Services and Rose Brooks, to create ICU (Identify-Connect-Unite) a one-of-a-kind program designed to teach Animal Services officers to recognize the co-occurrence between animal cruelty and domestic violence in the community and make referrals for services.
KCPP’s Animal Services Division partnered with the Kansas City Police Department, and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) in November to host a full day of training for law enforcement, humane investigators, animal control agencies, veterinarians, prosecutors, and judges on the topic of Advanced Animal Cruelty Investigations and Evidence Collection. Topics included warrants, 4th amendment issues, forensics and investigation techniques, interviewing suspects, preparing expert witnesses for trial, and evidence collection.
Animal Services leadership team participated in a mock disaster event in October hosted by KCMO city officials involving 250 first responders and emergency disaster planners to identify opportunities for better collaboration if a natural disaster were to occur in Kansas City.
Chief Ryan Johnson attended a disaster planning workshop in September focused on managing a potential manmade or natural disaster in the Kansas City metro area.
Animal Services and KCPP leadership met with KCMO’s Office of Emergency Management to update the City’s Emergency Pet Sheltering Plan and discussed the role Animal Services plays helping residents with pets in a disaster.
All Animal Services officers complete Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) training to learn the incident command system used by first responders in disaster and emergency situations, including ICS-100, ICS-200, ICS-700, and managers complete ICS-800.
The unification of Animal Services and sheltering services under one organization has streamlined processes to help more residents and brought a higher level of public safety, community engagement, enhanced collaboration, and improved animal welfare that benefits both animals and our community as a whole. This has been one of the hardest years yet for pets and people in Kansas City, and we commend our Animal Services Officers, shelter staff, local outreach groups, and our law enforcement partners for doing this physically and emotionally challenging work to achieve a greater impact for our community.
Public safety remains our top priority, along with enforcing humane standards of care for pets in Kansas City. I am honored to have been elected to serve a 3-year year term on the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA) board of directors and I am so proud to see our division in Kansas City already emerging as nationally recognized leaders
—Ryan Johnson, Chief of Animal Services, KC Pet Project