Saturday morning started with a scrum standing outside the front doors of the Kern County Animal Services shelter.
Among them was Jo Kantz, a former doctor and mother of two cats. Kantz said she drove three hours from Solvang, a city northwest of Santa Barbara, to find a replacement for two dogs she had lost since March.
“We were devastated,” Kantz said of the last dog, a 14-week-old puppy named Coco. “We had her for two weeks of her fourteen-week life. But she stole our hearts.”
Using a list of ID numbers, she narrowed down a dozen dogs to three, two of which she ended up driving home that day. “I’m just hoping to see if they can get along,” Kantz said.
On Saturday, more than 150 animal shelters statewide lowered adoption fees and boosted incentives as part of the first-ever California Adopt-a-Pet Day.
At the county shelter on Fruitvale Avenue, KCAS senior staffer Megan Clark seemed hopeful.
“It’s a little warm (outside), but it’s a nice day and a lot of people have walked by,” Clark said.
Organized by CalAnimals, which represents approximately 200 shelters in California, the event raised $500,000 with help from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and San Francisco SPCA to offer free adoptions and associated fees.
Vaccinations, castration and microchipping were also provided free of charge.
“But if we have to, we will pay more, and we are happy to do so,” said Matthew Bershadker, CEO of ASPCA. “Honestly, nothing would make me happier than having to provide more grants to save more lives.”
It came at a time when California and the nation are at a “tipping point,” Bershadker said, as shelters are routinely overcapacity by “50, 100, 200%.”
Nationwide, more dogs enter shelters than leave, according to a recent report from Shelter Animals Count, a national nonprofit that tracks numbers across the country. Between 2021 and 2023, this percentage almost doubled in the first six months of each year, from 5.6% to 10%.
In Kern, the provincial shelter has operated at triple capacity over the past two years. Saturday it had 321 dogs and 56 cats, and an average of 25 to 30 incoming dogs per day. Many are pregnant. Many are puppies, left in a holey box on the side of the road. Many are older, larger and therefore less likely to be adopted. Some are injured or mentally unstable.
With a new home still years away, the current site – a converted former brake workshop – has the basic necessities, but functions in an ad hoc manner with cramped quarters that workers have to navigate every day.
According to Jill Tucker, CEO of CalAnimals, organizers have set a nationwide goal of 2,024 adoptions to address the “tremendous pressures caused by overcrowding as the number of animals entering shelters exceeds the number leaving.”
But despite the morning crowds at the Kern County Animal Services shelter, adopters dwindled by the afternoon, much to the dismay of staff. Early on, senior staff member Taylor Meade said he hoped they would double the 17 to 21 adoptions they see in a day. But hours later he said he would be satisfied if they finished on level terms.
“It’s really hard to figure out what works,” Meade said, listing the different promotions they do that lead to different turnouts. “But I think every adoption is a victory.”
