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Bruce Warren/Auburn Journal
Big Blue gets ready to leave the pen at the Placer County Animal Shelter with Kim Kuenlen, president of NorCal Aussie Rescue.
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Phones are ringing and ringing at Placer County animal-rescue organizations with requests to take in animals, but shelters are full.
The slumping economy and increased housing foreclosures seem to be the root causes of many abandoning their pets. Suzy Bayne, founder of Angels Rescuing Kritters in Weimar, can take in 50 dogs and cats but has no vacancies.
“I get about two calls a day from people who have to move and need a place for the animals to stay,” Bayne said. “I just placed a horse and six sheep.”
The horse and sheep were going to be displaced because the owners, who lived on five acres off Mount Vernon Road, had to give up their property and had no means to take the animals with them.
There was a happy ending for the sheep and the horse, Dell, a 23-year-old Arabian, when the new property owner decided to keep the animals.
“Dell was beautiful with a long white mane,” Bayne said. “I cared for the animals myself until the property was sold this week. We take a lot of animals so the shelter does not get burdened with them.”
Bayne is referring to the Placer County Animal Shelter on Avenue B, headed by Mike Winters, animal services manager. Perhaps because of the increasing number of abandoned pets taken in by local rescue groups, Placer County Animal Shelter took in 400 fewer animals in 2008 than the previous year, Winters said. The shelter took in a total for 3,014 dogs and cats last year.
“We’ve taken in about three percent less animals so far this year,” Winters said. “It seems like we’re getting 100 less animals each year.”
While Winters’ figures show a decrease, that has not been the case with county rescue groups such as the Grace Foundation in Placerville, which gets six to eight calls daily to take in horses, but they have no more room, Bayne said.
Folks who are abandoning their animals prefer calling a rescue group, Bayne said.
“People call us because they would rather give them to us, rather than take them to a shelter,” Bayne said. “If they can call us, it takes a burden off them.”
Bayne hopes that her campaign that calls on residents to spay and neuter their dogs and cats will help make a difference.
The county shelter relies heavily on local rescue groups to take up the slack and sent them 743 dogs and cats last year. Some 195 dogs and cats were shipped to rescue groups out of the county, while 548 were sent to Placer rescue groups, Winters said. Due to the increased costs to care for animals, more older pets are showing up at the shelter.
“We’re seeing a lot of older family dogs that they’ve decided they can’t care for,” Winters said. “We’re seeing more of shepherd mixes and smaller dogs like Yorkies and beagles.”
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Placer County Animal Shelter 2008
Animals sheltered – 3,014
Animals sent to local groups – 548
Animals sent out of county – 195
Note: Animals are dogs and cats.
Some local animal rescue groups:
Auburn Area Animal Rescue – 530-887-5577
Angels Rescuing Kritters – 530-637-4635
A New Hope Animal Foundation – (916) 652-4164
NorCal Aussie Rescue – (530) 268-1600
It's sad to see any animal given up. Older dogs make great pets. I had my dog since she was 8 weeks old until her death at 15 years. She was a great pet even in her older years. Hopefully this economy will turn around so people can afford to keep their animals and of course they should be spayed or neutured. Good luck to everyone and every animal.
Get out & adopt. Give these loving animals a forever home. The number of people giving up there pets is staggering. For those of us who can help, please take action. If you can save one animal you are helping.
I dont feel sorry for the shelter, they turned down a perfectly good adoption request. I have had many great adoptions from the shelter, I own my home on 7 acres have 2 dogs already and a few ferrell cats. I even brought my male dog in to the shelter to see if he would be compatable with the dog up for adoption and they were. I was declined on the adoption because I had ferrell cats. The shelter just prevented the Dog from having a great home.
raiderdave7: Why that's ridiculous that you can't adopt a dog because you have feral cats. I hope you complained to the manager. That sounds like a very stupid policy. I experienced a similar situation at the Roseville SPCA, but they wouldn't allow me to adopt a dog unless I brought all 3 of my existing dogs down there. Kind of hard to do when you have to bring them all in at one time. Besides, what if they all get along there and it's different on home territory? I have years of experience/practice in getting animals to co-exist with one another and yet some snot-nose 20-something told me I wouldn't be allowed to adopt. Oh well, I went to Shasta animal shelter while visiting friends and they didn't have a problem with adopting out a dog to me. I've had him now for 5 years and he gets along just fine with all my other pets. My advice: Go to another shelter if you are dealing with dimwits. It's just too bad the animals pay the price for bureaucratic idiocy.
I would get out and adopt.... if qualification didn't require a cavity search and charge $200 to do so. There are plenty of people that would adopt animals if they weren't so harassed by shelter personnel. Animals don't necessarily have to sleep on your bed and eat at your dinner table to be well cared for. They're too anal about adoption policies. It's easier to adopt a human child now. And there wouldn't be so many homeless pets or overcrowded shelters if the landlords in the area allowed pets on approval. 90% of rentals have 0 tolerance for pets, even if they have property! I can understand not having pets in little apartments, but when there are perfectly good duplexes and houses and you own a well mannered, house trained dog there's no reason you should be forced to get rid of your pet because the landlord has HEARD stories of bad pets at other residences.
The shelter staff workers are the ones who have to euthanize these dogs when they get adopted out to homes for which they aren't well suited and end up getting returned. A returned dog is pretty much a dead dog walking, simply because somebody felt they were "entitled" to adopt a dog that doesn't like cats and that dog chased and hurt (or worse) their cat. This is the reason prospective adopters are carefully screened - to find the home that is the RIGHT match for the dog.
I would think some of the responsibility would fall on the person adopting the dog. The shelter has a check list on the dog cages that tell you if the dog is good with cats, children, etc. It should be a joint effort in the screening process.
Wdapore, how many animals do you think they euthanize already? Many successful adoptions already!! It would make me sick knowing that dog that I wanted got euthanized because I was considered a bad home. Taking a chance on a proven owner would be better than no chance at all, and that is what a lot of the animals have, no chance.
Re: the cavity search this is true the SPCA in Roseville the staffs are rude & uneducated to say the least when comes to positional pet owners. My family has had almost every common animal under the sun goats, sheep, dogs, cats, chickens, cows, llamas ect. We have raised them from birth to having to make the horrible call to put them down & we were turned down because some old lady volunteer did not know what she was taking about. The rescues and shelters have to understand that not every person can meet their STRICT requirements but can provide a loving forever home. They really need to learn how to way their options.
Go to the pound; pay the fees & pretty hassle free.