Memphis City Council appoints new director for the embattled Memphis Animal Services

Memphis Animal Services officially has a new director following a unanimous city council vote appointing interim Director Ty Coleman to the position permanently.

Prior to his appointment as interim director, Coleman garnered a decade of experience in animal welfare management in various Texas towns and cities. Most recently, he served as the Animal Services Manager for Midland, Texas.

Coleman did not make any remarks at the city council meeting. Both Councilwoman Janika White and Councilman J.B. Smiley expressed optimism about Coleman's appointment based on his work so far as interim director.

"I'm impressed," Smiley said, "and it takes a lot to impress me."

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Coleman, who took over as interim director in September, is tasked with pushing the animal save rate to at least 90% or more — a daunting task in the face of a city shelter routinely inundated with large numbers of animals seized from animal cruelty cases.

According to city data, the animal save rate — the rate of animals rescued and adopted versus being euthanized for space, aggression, or illness — dipped to 61.4% in June, the lowest point since former Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland was elected for his first term.

Strickland appointed Coleman's predecessor, Alexis Pugh, after she came on board at MAS following a turbulent period at MAS marked by mismanagement, an abysmal animal save rate that hovered between 20% and 30%, police raids, and criminal charges.

Pugh's tenure at MAS brought a slew of successful policy changes directed at the overall goal of avoiding euthanasia for space.

If the trends of 2022 and 2023 hold, Coleman will be tasked with managing a wildly fluctuating animal intake rate, spurred by seizures from animal cruelty cases, including a recent case in which 135 birds, mostly game fowl, were seized from a man in Nutbush.

Micaela Watts is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal covering issues tied to hospitals, healthcare, and resource access. She can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Animal Services gets new director Ty Coleman after city council vote