The past three months have been busy ones for Santa Barbara County Animal Services.
A new state law requiring pet stores to obtain all dogs, cats, and rabbits from animal shelters or rescue groups, and banning stores from sourcing directly from breeders, went into effect on Jan. 1, and Animal Services is tasked with enforcing the controversial regulations. That same month, the city of Santa Maria put out a request for proposal in hopes that animal services organizations would put in bids for providing animal control and sheltering, services that the county’s Animal Services department already provides.
City staff say the move is an attempt to reduce costs by bringing those animal services in-house and ending the city’s increasingly expensive animal services contract with the county. The proposal deadline was March 22.
Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department Director Alex Posada said a team of staff will be evaluating the proposals using a rating process. The evaluations are expected to take up to 10 days, and once completed, staff will forward a report to the city manager’s office for consideration.
The move came as a shock to Animal Services staff, including interim Director Dori Villalon, who estimates that it would be more costly for Santa Maria to start its own animal control department from scratch.
Animal Services already has vehicles, shelters, kennels, nine officers, and two supervisors that provide around-the-clock animal control services to all unincorporated areas of Santa Barbara County and all municipalities except Carpinteria and Santa Barbara. Santa Maria would have to make a real investment to get those tools in place, Villalon said, adding that the city can’t risk reducing its standards of service.
When it comes to animal control, Santa Maria is the county’s busiest jurisdiction. Animal Services takes nearly 16,000 calls a year throughout the county. More than 5,300 of those calls came from Santa Maria in 2018, Villalon said, and 348 of those calls from Santa Maria were for emergency overnight situations. The county also takes in about 3,000 animals each year, and around 2,000 usually come from Santa Maria.
“So it’s a big part of our business,” Villalon said.
If the city of Santa Maria ends its animal control contract with the county, Villalon said she’s “fairly certain” staffing cuts would have to be made, and that the quality of animal services would drop in the Santa Maria area. Roughly 93 percent of animals taken in by Santa Barbara County Animal Services are released living, a high rate that Villalon said is almost unheard of.
“What I really want the city and community to consider is: Are you going to be able to provide that same level of service?” Villalon said. “Because people have come to rely on a certain level of service that I think is needed in the city.”
This article appears in Mar 28 – Apr 4, 2019.
