Contra Costa Animal Services (CCAS) published a statement this morning expressing gratitude to the Contra Costa County community for stepping up to save lives after crisis-level shelter overpopulation led the department to issue an urgent plea for help last Wednesday.
CCAS is thrilled to announce that, because of the community’s response, as of Saturday evening, 79 dogs and 34 cats have been adopted, welcomed into a foster home, been reunited with their family, or have embarked on a new journey with a local rescue organization.
As a result of this phenomenal response, no healthy or treatable dogs were at risk of being euthanized and CCAS’s dog population at the shelter was reduced from 180 to 124 dogs as of Saturday night.
“We’ve been inspired by the hundreds of responses we’ve received to our call to action,” says CCAS Director, Beth Ward. “It was heartwarming to see people responding with kindness, support, and compassion. The unwavering support, whether through adoption, fostering, support of our staff and volunteers, or simply people spreading the word, has made an immeasurable difference in the lives of these animals.”
The statement notes that despite this recent success, CCAS will need to continue to act with urgency due to increased intake at the Martinez shelter.
“There are still animals in need of a helping hand, a loving home, and a second chance. We continue to see a high number of animals coming into our shelter each day. Our kennel population, while reduced, is still near capacity. As a community, we need to keep up this momentum and work together to prevent animals from coming into the shelter, and to ensure we find placements for those that do.”
CCAS currently has over 120 pets seeking permanent or temporary homes and all adoptions are currently free. Interested adopters and fosters can view CCAS’s available pets at www.ccasd.org, or come to meet them at the CCAS adoption center in Martinez. A $25 licensing fee may apply for pet adoptions.
CCAS Adoption Center
4800 Imhoff Pl., Martinez, CA 94553
Hours: Tuesday -Saturday 10AM – 5PM
Wednesday 10AM – 7PM
View Animals Available for Adoption: https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/2424/Available-Animals
Foster Information: https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/6730/Animal-Foster-Programs
Ways to Help
- Adopt a pet locally from a shelter or rescue.
- Become a foster, open your home to a shelter animal. Change their life.
- Volunteer to help animals in our community by giving your time and skills.
- Say thank you to the staff and volunteers that work tirelessly at the local shelter or rescues.
- Become a fan on social media and help share their stories.
- Get crafty, create kitty toys or eye-catching posters to help animals find their forever home.
- Donate items that the local shelter and rescues need to help the animals.
- Support responsible pet ownership, help keep animals out of the shelter.
- Donate to a local shelter or rescue
For more information, contact Contra Costa County Animal Services’ Public Information Officer, Steve Burdo, at 925-393-6836, or by email at steve.burdo@asd.cccounty.us.
This is awesome news good for those who took action and took these animals into their life’s.
While always wonderful when the community steps up to help out our furry friends, this shows how we love and are truly concerned with the welfare of our animals.
Unfortunately, this also demonstrates how CCAS “passes the buck” onto the community by minimizing low cost spay neuter services to the public – services they are charged with providing. Clearly, if CCAS did more to prevent unwanted cat and dog pregnancies, there would be less of a pet over-population problem, and hopefully, no need for a “call to action”, imo.
I say this knowing that the staff and army of volunteers are doing a remarkable job and the best they can with the underfunding and lack of direction they recieve.
Happy for those that found homes.
This is wonderful. But we would not have this problem if the system that is being used to spay our pets was not broken. I can not even start to tell you all the b.s that I went through for a spay appt. They have taken a system that was working very well and ruined it. But kudos to everyone that helped. Don’t forget the cats and dogs that are there, could use toys and bedding. It always makes my heart feel good when I drop off toys.