How Grapevine’s Animal Services Team Reflects the City Itself

In the world of Economic Development, “Quality of Life” arguments are ubiquitous. Everyone wants to live, work, and play in a positive environment. Most communities pitch themselves as being among the best. Make no mistake: we believe the same here in Grapevine. From our public parks to our top-rated school system, this City has carefully built an ecosystem that balances strong amenities with deep connections. But anyone can say they promote work-life balance and foster a business-friendly marketplace.

The real question is how a City should go about proving it.

Here in Grapevine, we think Animal Services ought to be part of the equation. As the ethicist Mahatma Gandhi observed: “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Admittedly, he wrote those words in a particular context that is generally lost in translation. But it’s hard to think of a more universal pair of societal standards than general cleanliness and protection of vulnerable populations; two categories captured under the Animal Services umbrella. Grapevine shines on both counts, and not just by hitting the right metrics. For our team, the “how” and “why” are just as important as the “what.”

What Even Are Animal Services?

Before we can explain just how spectacular the Animal Services team here in Grapevine is, you’ll need context for what their jobs entail. As in most cities, the department has a broad range of responsibilities united by core elements like animal welfare and community health. They handle stray and wild animals, assist with resident concerns involving pets, and provide literal creature comforts that range from emergency support to adoptive services. No two systems are exactly alike, and the one in Grapevine is, notably, a subdivision of the Grapevine Police Department. Like their brothers and sisters in blue, Animal Services Officers (ASOs) are trained to handle a wide variety of calls.

“We ask our animal services officers to go above and beyond to help people resolve issues that might involve animals. They’re also dispatched by the Grapevine Police Department, so it’s very integrated. We work well together when there are assistances needed by other agencies within the City,” said Kristina Valentine, Animal Services Manager for the City.

 “Our ASOs are trained to handle a variety of animals, domestic and wild. Your typical animals, just by volume, are dogs and cats. But people do have other pets: hamsters, guinea pigs, ferrets, turtles, bearded dragons, and a variety of snakes. Sometimes those exotic or small pets can become lost… our animal services officers help with that, and the shelter does, as well. So we have housing for all those types of animals, and we do adoptions for those types of animals. While we are not licensed rehabilitators, we have connections when wild animals need more assistance than what we can provide.”

As if handling and being prepared to house every imaginable kind of domestic animal weren’t complicated enough, Grapevine’s Animal Services team faces another logistical challenge: rising to the highest possible standard of care while providing the lowest possible barriers to entry. That means striving to beat the American Humane Society’s prescribed live release rate of 90% or higher, of course. But simply hitting that number has never been the only goal in Grapevine.

“We are fortunate to live in a City that is supportive of us. Everyone that works in Animal Welfare wants to help. No one is doing this job with the idea that they want to participate in a negative outcome,” said Madeline Oliver, the department’s Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator. “We are an open-admission shelter, being a Municipal service. We accept anything that is brought in to us, regardless or age, health, or behavior… donations, volunteers, foster homes, resources, community programs, and outreach help us to keep that number above 90% and growing. We are so very thankful for the support we receive, and we encourage people to support their local animal shelters so they can achieve those statistics in the years to come, as well.”

The Power of an Activated Community

It’s hard to express how many tools and avenues of care it takes to run a program as successful as the one here in Grapevine, but a high-level overview of the department should give you some sense of its scale. The shelter spans over 13,000 square feet and includes a full-service veterinary clinic that supports everything from microchipping procedures to pet surgery. The team partners with half a dozen private clinics to provide free initial exams and preventative care for pets upon adoption, hosts multiple microchipping events and pet vaccine clinics throughout the year, and posted an impressive stat line in 2025: 1,698 animals received care; 1,006 were adopted; 202 were safely returned to their owners; and the staff/volunteers provided a whopping 30,000 enrichment activities supported by 10,450 volunteer hours. Mind-boggling numbers for a department that takes any and all animals in need.

Both Valentine and Oliver point toward a client-first model when asked about their success. They’ve built their department around proactive, preventative care and support of pet owners in the community; focusing on reducing the need for intervention rather than having to enforce ordinances or launch investigations. They go above and beyond to equip pet owners for success, ensuring a plethora of resources are within reach for every Grapevine resident and paying extra attention to every animal and prospective adopter during the matchmaking process that sends animals to new homes.

“I really appreciate how much this community is working well together. It’s just amazing what people are doing for our residents and the animals who live here,” said Valentine. 

“We’re just a stopping point in most people and animals’ lives, where they need something and we want to send them off with a little bit more and a little better off than when we first met them.” 

“What we do is preventative, community-focused programming and services to support [pet owners] so there isn’t a reason we have to get involved further,” Oliver added. “We have vaccine clinics throughout the year, and we do two ourselves biannually at the Community Outreach Center. That’s another partnership we have to provide pet food, supplies, and vaccines to the community so that we can keep animals with people that already love and care for them. We don’t want an expensive vaccine or a bag of food to be the reason an animal ends up with us.”

At the highest level, those programs make a huge difference. Microchipping alone accounts for a 238% improvement in recovery rates for lost dogs and an astonishing 2,000% improvement for missing cats. But the truly impressive achievements, at least according to staff, come on a much more personal scale

Fostering, Adoptions, and the Power of a Community That Cares

In police work, numbers tend to oversimplify the picture. An arrest made on the day a crime occurs looks the same on a spreadsheet as one resulting from a decades-long investigation. The same is true for animal shelters. Touting over a thousand animals placed in a happy home last year is impressive in its own right, but it’s especially notable when one considers how many of those animals came into the shelter at a time when they weren’t fit for adoption. Some were in dire need of medical intervention. Others weren’t yet old enough to be cleared, a common issue with kittens who arrive in large seasonal litters that can quickly crowd an unprepared shelter.

That’s where the real magic happens. 

“Our staff does a really incredible job, because in addition to making sure that everything is clean, they’re also getting to know the animals really well,” Oliver said. “Everyone on our team really knows each animal’s quirks and all the special things about them so they can share those during adoption. And then we also train our staff to treat every person who walks through our doors as a potential adopter, without any judgement or preconceived notion about how they might be. We’ve had some matches that have blown us out of the water as the most fantastic matches ever, and on paper you might not have guessed it. That’s the cool thing about the job: every day is a new experience, and it’s really rewarding when you have those wins.”

Of all the burgeoning programs at Grapevine’s Animal Services shelter, few are as impressive as the fostering system. Every animal that comes into the team’s care gets consistent support, from basic necessities to ongoing enrichment activities. But some need extra love, space, or socialization. For them, foster volunteers represent a vital stopgap. Serving in that way is a huge commitment that can mean months of service and a wide array of variables, but Grapevine Animal Services found a ready supply of volunteers.

“There’s a lot of residents and people – from students to retirees – that are looking for ways to give, learn, and contribute. Community businesses and different City Departments that we do recurring events with or that host donation drives with us. Teams who reach out to us to do group volunteer experiences or adoption events,” said Oliver. “On the individual level, too, there are so many passionate people in our community. We have quite a long list of people who are interested in volunteering for our in-shelter program, which is incredible. We’re building our foster program and have the most incredible people I’ve ever met as part of it. They are just so eager to give their time and love and resources to animals – a lot of times, they’re kittens who are too young or small for adoption – and without our foster homes, we would have a very difficult time getting through the Spring and Summer months when we are inundated with kittens every single day. Across the board, I’ve been wowed for the three years I’ve been in my role with how people will come out of the woodwork and share their skills, interests, and talents with us. We truly could not grow the programs we have or offer all the services we do without them.” 

No matter what you’re doing in Grapevine, from launching a business to caring for animals, you’ll hear that refrain: the people here make the difference. The wealth of passionate, dedicated residents in this community is the only reason we can provide the level of service we do in so many industries… and the number one reason so many businesses here thrive.

Learn more about Grapevine Animal Services or sign up to serve with them at grapevinepd.org. For more stories about unique individuals and businesses here in Grapevine, be sure to subscribe to the ‘Growing Grapevine’ podcast and eNewsletter. Got a passion project of your own? Let’s talk about where Grapevine fits into your plans.