Braston Gray, who in December was named new director of the Corinne T. Smith Animal Center, provided an update on the shelter Tuesday morning during the Brownwood City Council.
“I wanted to hit the ground running and that’s what I was able to do,” Gray said. “Things have been great up there and I’ve been excited to implement a few very small changes. We’re very open to the public now, I like it where people can just walk in and I’ve heard from so many people that they’re so happy to come in. They’ve had some bad experiences in the past but everybody seems to be happy up there now.”
Gray continued, stating, “We’re completely open to the public now so when people need to drop off stray animals they’re more than welcome to do so, and I think that’s helped us and helped them out a lot. Our adoption rates are very incredible right now as well and we’re working on getting a lot of animals out to rescue. Sometime this week we’ve got six going off to New Jersey, so that’s very incredible for us.”
Gray addressed the council in regard to the increase in the animal shelter budget as well.
“I don’t know who put that together and made all those decisions, but it has not gone unnoticed and I can’t thank everyone enough for that,” Gray said. “Thank you to everyone here for putting that together for us. It’s absolutely incredible.”
Gray was born and raised in Brownwood and moved to Lubbock where he worked for Lubbock Animal Services. While there, Gray performed duties in the field, worked with the animals at the center, assisted customers, and helped with the medical treatment of the animals in the service’s care.
Gray was a member of the team that facilitated the transition of Lubbock Animal Services from a shelter with a high euthanasia rate to one that now utilizes public education, rescue partners and other innovations to achieve a life release rate that many Lubbock residents thought impossible only a few years ago.
“I want to thank everybody for allowing me the opportunity to run the shelter and I hope if anybody has some time they come out and say hi to us and see our operation,” Gray said. “I think you’d be very happy with it.”