Pet Adoption
RIVERSIDE (CNS) – From Wednesday and through next week, all canines, including puppies, will be available to take home without adoption fees in Riverside County as part of an effort to free up space at the county’s four shelters, which are operating over capacity.
“With 949 total dogs in our care, it is urgent that we find homes for adoptions and foster,” Department of Animal Services Interim Director Dr. Kimberly Youngberg said. “As we move into spring, we are seeing more pets entering the shelter than we have resources to save, and that’s why we are asking for our communities’ help.”
The agency is waiving all adoption fees, though basic license fees are still required during the promotion, which ends on March 8. License costs generally range from $12 to $25 for altered pets.
Youngberg said the current goal is to locate homes for at least 150 dogs. She said many of the impounded pets are likely runaways who simply got lost.
“We are working hard to reunite pets with the families that love them,” Youngberg said. “We are making 2025 the year that lost pets return home!”
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.
“The pets most in need of foster care are larger dogs, those with medical needs, and those with behavioral challenges,” according to the Department of Animal Services.
The agency is in the early stages of a reformation initiated last year by the county Board of Supervisors.
A lawsuit filed in August, spearheaded by Rancho Mirage-based Walter Clark Law Group, is seeking a permanent injunction against the Department of Animal Services’ 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 nonprofit 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.
Earlier this 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 in the next month, currently serves 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, almost going back to when she took the helm in 2021. 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 rcdas.org/adoptable-pets.
To report a lost or stray pet anywhere in the county, officials asked residents to use petcolovelost.org.
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