Hoping for a little luck in moving more impounded canines out of Riverside County animal shelters and into homes, the Department of Animal Services will continue a campaign to waive adoption fees normally charged to adopters until Monday, St. Patrick’s Day.
“With more dogs entering our shelters than our community can adopt, our shelters are facing massive overcrowding as more pets arrive each day,” agency Programs Director Daylin Valencia said.
At the end of February, the county initiated a fee holiday that was supposed to conclude last weekend. However, officials decided to keep the campaign going until St. Patrick’s Day to generate additional community support for the nearly 1,000 dogs, including puppies, that need homes.
The Department of Animal Services is waiving all adoption fees, though basic license fees are still required during the promotion. License costs generally range from $12 to $25 for altered pets.
Visitors are welcome to view prospective pets at the Blythe Animal Shelter, San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus, Coachella Valley Animal Campus in Thousand Palms and Western Riverside County Animal Shelter in Jurupa Valley.
In addition to outright adoptions, some sheltered animals are available to foster. That involves taking the dogs home and nurturing them in an environment where they can thrive outside of cages, officials said.
On Saturday, the county arranged a cross-country transfer of 42 large dogs, partnering with the nonprofit Race for Life Rescue, which flew the pooches from the Inland Empire to New York, where they have been placed in shelters for adoption, according to officials.
Last year, a total 6,262 felines and canines were removed from the county’s shelters for placement in facilities throughout the U.S. and Canada for the purpose of adoption and to prevent them from being euthanized, according to the Department of Animal Services.
The agency’s in the early stages of a reformation initiated last year by the county Board of Supervisors.
A lawsuit filed in August by Rancho Mirage-based Walter Clark Law Group is seeking a permanent injunction against the department’s euthanasia programs. Clark called it a “ground-breaking case” that’s predicated on the 1998 Hayden Act. That legislation, authored by then-state Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Santa Monica, states in part, “no adoptable animal should be euthanized if it can be adopted into a suitable home.”
One organization has alleged the county has the highest pet “kill rate” in the nation.
In September, the board hired Austin, Texas-based Outcomes for Pets LLC Principal Adviser Kristen Hassen to rectify problems within the agency.
Last month, the supervisors approved the Executive Office’s selection of Mary Martin to head the department following a nationwide executive recruitment drive. Martin, who is expected to take over this month, recently served as assistant director for Dallas Animal Services of Texas.
She will fill the spot left vacant by the exit of Erin Gettis, who faced a barrage of criticism in her nearly three years at the helm. Gettis is now an administrator at the Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley.
More information about pets ready to be adopted is available at www.rcdas.org/adoptable-pets.