Sugar Land appoints police captain as interim manager of city’s animal services department

Capt. Todd Zettlemoyer oversees the Sugar Land Police Department's Special Operations Division. Now he'll be taking over another, very different department: the city's animal services.

Sugar Land, a suburb southwest of Houston, has appointed Zettlemoyer to serve as the city's interim animal services manager and guide the search for the animal shelter's permanent leader. "The vision is to provide the best possible care that we can to the dogs and cats, and make sure that we can get them into a home," he said. The city's animal shelter closed its intake for almost two weeks in March, after reaching capacity.



The city waived its adoption fees and was able to rehome eight dogs and five cats. An anonymous donor also gifted the city with a new air-conditioned enclosure for adoption events. It's a busy time for the shelter.

Animal services is gearing up for "kitten season," when it sees an influx of young cats who require bottle feeding. The city is also in the early stages of developing a new animal shelter, after voters approved an additional $12 million for the project in November. While residents voted in favor of the project in a previous bond, it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to leading the search for a permanent animal services manager, Zettlemoyer has been tasked with helping to plan the new shelter's next steps. "Let’s look and make sure, before we start spending the tax dollars, what do we really need?” he said. “Let’s reevaluate all that and come up with a good plan moving forward.

" As of Friday, the city had 30 dogs and 22 cats available for adoption, with an additional three dogs and two cats in the process of being adopted. Animal services will be at Talyard Brewing for the Paws and Petals event this Friday. The department also will showcase adoptable pets at an Earth Day event at Sugar Land Town Square on April 19.

.