Calls for adoption and fostering rang out from Santa Barbara County Animal Services after its kennels recently reached capacity.
“We see an increase in adoptions and fostering as well as people bringing in surrenders because the holidays bring many things for many people,” said Sarah Aguilar, the director of Animal Services. “The holidays may bring challenges for people, but at the same time many families are bringing new pets into their home and adopting.”
By Dec. 3, the county was completely out of kennels with 85 dogs in the Santa Maria shelter and 42 in Santa Barbara, prompting employees to send out messages on social media asking people to help. By the next day, 33 animals left with new families, she said.
“People in the community came, they fostered, and adopted,” Aguilar said. “They understand and value that life in a kennel is not ideal, and they certainly don’t want to see us in a position with two or three dogs in a kennel or make decisions of euthanizing for space.”
As of Dec. 12, the North County shelter had 64 dogs, 33 cats, seven rabbits, two parrots, and a lizard—reaching about 50 to 60 percent of what Animal Services can house, she added. However, this hasn’t stopped the county’s calls for help as major weather events, like California’s recent storms, often cause an increase in stray animals.
“There’s been times in our history when there’s major crises going on and maybe we can make accommodations to house twice that number if we needed to, but it’s just not ideal,” Aguilar said. “If there were some type of emergency, we could adapt to make sure pets receive the care they need.”
While staffing shortages have challenged Animal Services since the start of the pandemic, Aguilar said the county approved hiring its first county veterinarian in 2021 and is set to hire an additional six staff members this month to manage workloads and make sure all the pet needs are met.
“There’s never enough staff in the government. You are always trying to be fiscally responsible for your taxpayers,” Aguilar said. “We’ve also seen a giant explosion of volunteer hours at both facilities. We have 1,000 more volunteer hours than we had at the same time last year; that’s like eight to 10 additional staff members.”
Others aren’t so optimistic about the county’s ability to manage the crowding rate. A Santa Barbara County employee told the Sun that many employees are experiencing burnout and extreme stress due to the workloads, prompting some staff—including one registered veterinary technician (RVT)—to quit.
“I can see in their faces how stressed out they are. County jobs are really good; they pay well and have good benefits. They don’t want to leave that job, but they are so burned out and not doing well emotionally,” said the employee, who requested anonymity out of concern for their job.
Higher numbers of animals in the shelter can also lead to more disease outbreaks among the pets, the employee added, causing an already short and stressed veterinary staff to react and treat a higher number of animals to prevent further spread.
“We’ve seen an outbreak of gastrointestinal parasites. Part of that was the crowding issue, and the staff weren’t keeping their kennels as sanitary,” the employee said. “I have never seen that many animals come down with giardia at one time. … The RVTs have it handled, but now it’s up to staff to clean everything. If your numbers are too high than what you can realistically handle, you are going to have disease outbreaks.”
County Animal Services officials told the Sun in an email that it currently has 11 dogs on antibiotics, and six cats are being treated for a cold. There are no active upper respiratory infections among dogs and no signs of the influenza virus that has impacted other shelters in Texas and Illinois.
Although the county employee understood Director Aguilar’s positive outlook regarding animals getting adopted and hiring an adequate number of staff, they said there should be a more honest response to the situation.
“Part of addressing the problem is being transparent that there is one,” the employee said. “I appreciate the optimism, but I’d like people to be transparent about what’s happening.”
This article appears in Dec 15-22, 2022.