Feeling lonely after canceling your holiday plans? Need something to fill the void of social interaction in 2020? Searching for a new companion for the New Year?
Look no further than your local animal shelters! ’Tis the season to bring home a furry friend, and Santa Barbara County shelters are putting on some special holidays initiatives to encourage residents to foster or adopt an animal this winter.
Santa Barbara County Animal Services, ASAP Cats, and Bunnies Urgently Needing Shelter came together to offer a reduced $12 adoption fee through Christmas Eve for the 12 Days of Winter Whiskers event.
“The 12 Days of Christmas is always in our hearts, but not everybody celebrates Christmas,” Animal Services Director Angela Walters Yates said. “We thought, well, everybody can celebrate Winter Whiskers.”
And it’s not just furry pets that fall under the promotion.
“We are highlighting some animals on social media over the 12 days,” Walters Yates said. “We’ve got a rooster featured today. His name is Kamalo. He’s a really cute black rooster with a beautiful red comb.”
On another day of Winter Whiskers, the county featured a bunny named Petey, who has spent more than a year in the shelter environment. A different day, black cat siblings Jack and Jill stole the spotlight. There’s even an iguana up for adoption, and though he lacks whiskers, Walters Yates said he’s still included in the promotion.
If you’re not ready to commit to becoming a full-time pet owner, the county’s Foster Express is back this year.
“It’s our big push to get as many animals out of the shelter system as possible and into homes for the holiday and New Year season,” Walters Yates said. “Last year, it was an incredible success. We only had a handful of animals left in the shelter system. And that was before COVID, before we had this nationwide phenomenon of people craving and getting so much benefit out of the companionship of animals.”
Walters Yates expects the annual fostering initiative to see even greater success this year with more people home for the holidays and able to care for an animal temporarily. Those interested only have to commit to a minimum two weeks of fostering. For renters, this might be a more suitable option than adopting.
“That’s one of the things that we really discovered during COVID, is that a lot of property owners and landlords were more open to their tenants fostering, and that opened up a whole bunch of opportunities for animals that didn’t previously exist,” Walters Yates said.
The goal of Foster Express is to make the process simple and easy. The county will provide anything a foster parent could need to make the pets as comfortable as possible, from bedding to cat litter. Animals Services is also committed to reducing as many barriers as they can in the fostering and adoption process.
“The animal welfare world has gone through a lot of different cycles,” Walters Yates said. “There were times that a member of the public would want to adopt an animal, and the industry made them jump through so many hoops, including home checks and follow-ups.”
Now, that mentality is shifting.
“We’re revisiting all of that and really asking ourselves what’s important. Not every home is the same,” Walters Yates said. “We are challenging ourselves as employees of a shelter system to remove unconscious barriers and judgements that we might have about people in the community that are stepping forward and taking a leap of faith. Let’s support them and try to match them with an animal that fits their lifestyle, their home environment, their family’s needs.”
If you’re not ready to bring an animal into your life but still want to support the cause, CARE4Paws is putting on a holiday matching gift campaign so you can help twice as many animals in need. All donations are matched dollar for dollar through December, up to $25,000 total.
CARE4Paws Executive Director Isabelle Gullo said the organization is already halfway to its goal, and that every donation goes to providing critically needed supplies and services in the immediate community.
As the pandemic rages on, “the need has not diminished whatsoever,” Gullo said. “We’re still spending $10,000 a month on pet food so we can continue distributing countywide.”
CARE4Paws is rounding out the year with 2,000 spays and neuters, 600 more than the organization had planned for. Gullo additionally expects that CARE4Paws will have also given free and low-cost veterinary services to 1,800 pets by the end of 2020.
Highlight
• Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced Dec. 14 that its annual scholarship opportunities are now open for applications. Both college-bound high schoolers and current college students with a primary residence that’s a PG&E customer in Northern and Central California are eligible to apply. “More than 120 awards totaling nearly $300,000 are being made available through PG&E’s employee resource group (ERG) and engineering network group (ENG) scholarships,” according to PG&E. “These scholarships are awarded annually to help offset the cost of higher education.” Information about the scholarships including criteria and applications can be found at pge.onlineapplications.net/applications, and applications are due by Feb. 12, 2021. “Many of our ERG scholarship recipients are the first in their families to attend college. They will be tomorrow’s leaders and innovators,” Mary King, PG&E vice president of human resources and chief diversity officer, said in a statement. “Our ERG scholarships take on even more importance this year because some of our applicants could’ve experienced financial challenges due to COVID-19. We’re proud to invest in these promising young people.”
Staff Writer Malea Martin wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send hot tips about businesses, nonprofits, and good samaritans to spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 24-31, 2020.
