San Antonio Police Chief Reveals His Love for Cats

SAN ANTONIO – “I’m quite an animal lover, but cats happen to be one of my favorites,” said San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.

McManus denies being a cat whisperer, but he was probably just being humble when a kitten crawled onto his shoulders.

The cat is out of the bag: McManus is a cat guy.

June is National Adopt a Cat Month, which encourages people to think of our feline friends when they’re thinking about adopting a pet. If you follow McManus on X, he posts about the cats he’s fed at SAPD headquarters downtown for the past few years.

But does McManus always have cat food in his car?

“Yep. Go out there right now and you’ll see a big basket of cat food in the back of my car,” McManus said.

The headquarters kitties definitely have a tail on Chief McManus’ vehicle.

“They come when they see the car pull up or come out,” McManus said. “I drive by there on weekends when nobody is there. I usually go in on Saturdays and feed them in the morning, and sometimes on Sundays when I have nothing to do I walk down and feed them.”

He shares his love of cats and shows how he cares for the feral cats in the inner city and his adopted cats at home because he wants to raise awareness for Cat Adoption Month.

San Antonio Animal Care Services’ cat department is at full capacity, promoting the adoption and fostering of cats and kittens, as well as its community cat program.

“We have a lot of feral cats in San Antonio, but there are also a number of organizations, including Animal Care Services, that propose and support the only truly life-saving solution, which is trapping and sterilizing the animals by releasing them,” said Lisa Norwood of San Antonio Animal Care Services.

The Community Cat Program is for feral cats that show up on your doorstep, like the kittens from Chief McManus’ headquarters. The program helps you capture, neuter, vaccinate and release them back into their community, where they live out their lives outdoors and people like McManus provide them with food, water and outdoor shelter.

“There is a need,” McManus said. “I mean, there are so many stray animals on the streets and if you can take care of them, that’s great.”