by James Morrison
The Sacramento City Animal Shelter's problems are
two-fold. More animals are coming into the shelter because
people can't afford to take care of them. And budgets cuts
have reduced the staff here by 20 percent in the past couple
years.
"It's not a secret that most social service programs are
struggling, mental health . . . medical coverage. All of us
are struggling. And animals are being affected as well.
And animals aren't the highest on the list of people's
priorities."
Penny Cistaro is the animal care services manager for
Sacramento. She says the city shelter is staffed at less than
half of the nationally recommended level. Volunteers help ensure
animals in the shelter are walked and fed, and their kennels are
cleaned daily. The real impact of the cuts is outside the
shelter.
"We have no ability to do any proactive enforcement.
It's all reactive. It's complaint driven. So, the dog
that someone calls in because it's running at large. The
officers are so backed up with emergencies or higher priority calls
that they can never get to the dog that's running at
large."
There's another problem too.
"Our adoptions are dropping."
The 250 animals in the shelter are typically less adoptable
than the animals you'll find at Happy Tails or the Sacramento
SPCA. That's because the city shelter deals mostly with
strays. Out of the 11 thousand animals a year that come into
the shelter, about 90 percent are strays. So the euthanasia rate is
typically high.
"I would say that about 35 percent of the animals
leave. So that's about a 65 percent euthanasia rate.
That's a high euthanasia rate."
And if an animal comes in that is sick or injured it usually
must be killed. There's no money for veterinary
care.