All pet adoptions are free during IndePETdence Days, which will continue through Saturday, June 22.

“Every shelter experiences a lot of stray impounds leading up to and immediately following the Fourth of July holiday,” said Board Chair Chuck Washington, Third District Supervisor. “This adoption event will not only help our shelter operations weather the influx of strays, but more importantly, give new homes and families to the homeless pets in our shelters.”

This marks a second public plea for adoptions in the recent months, following Memorial Day weekend’s 10-10-10 adoption special, a one-day marathon session running 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. that resulted in more than 400 pets finding a home and leaving the shelter.

Riverside County Animal Services is setting the IndePETdence Days goal at 500 animals.

“The 10-10-10 Day was a huge success – and we’re optimistic IndePETdence Days will result in the same community support,” Director Erin Gettis said. “Our shelters are beyond capacity and the help is, once again, desperately needed.”

On average, more than 100 pets are impounded daily at county shelters during the work week. During the summer, that figure soars to more than 150 pets a day.

The number of animals getting adopted or returned to their families is not keeping pace with the impound figures. The daily intake figures are overwhelming almost every Southern California shelter, and each day difficult decisions become a reality.

Animal Services Deputy Director Jackie Schart encouraged families to show off their patriotic pride by doing something special for a four-legged friend.

“What can be more patriotic than granting a dog or cat their independence from a shelter?” said Schart, who oversees programs and operations. “We really hope families can make room in their home for a dog or cat, so we can have additional room for all the frightened pets that end up in our care when the Fourth of July holiday is over.”

IndePETdence Days hours will follow normal operating hours during the three days. Click here to view the hours for the county’s shelters in Blythe, Jurupa Valley, San Jacinto and Thousand Palms.

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A group of elementary school children from Los Amigos Elementary School in Rancho Cucamonga comes to the Friends of Upland Animal Shelter on Monday afternoons, part of the “Reading Buddies” program, to read to the dogs and cats at the shelter.

While some local shelter employees say they haven’t reached pre-pandemic numbers, adoption rates are lower and don’t match the high number of animals coming into shelters now, post-COVID. The dogs coming in are younger — between 1 and 3 years old — and the breeds, shelter employees said, are mainly German shepherds, huskies, and pit bulls — like Hazel.

In 2023, Friends of Upland Animal Shelter took in 1,835 animals, 934 of those were dogs, and one-third were under 5 months old. A report published in 2024 found the majority of those animals were brought in as strays.

That year 1,252 animals were adopted out, 47% of which were dogs.

In pre-pandemic 2019, the shelter reported 2,368 animals came into the shelter and 1,542 were adopted, more than half of those adoptions were dogs. In comparison, 2020  saw 1,540 animals come in, with 1,506 adoptions. Dogs were 33% of the adoptions.

In 2023, the number of stray dogs taken in by shelters nationwide increased 6% in the period from January to November, as compared to 2022, and that number is up about 22% from 2021, according to Shelter Animals Count, which surveys nearly 7,000 shelters nationally. 

“Most of our shelters are overrun with huskies, shepherds, and pit mixes or purebred pit bulls,” said Nikole Bresciani, CEO and president of Inland Valley Humane Society in Pomona. “The reality is, is that the large dogs are harder to place, especially those large dogs that have behavior issues.”

It’s a similar situation at the Rancho Cucamonga Animal Center, according to spokesperson Jennifer Camacho-Curtis. They too have seen an increase in larger dog breeds between the ages of 1 and 3, most brought in as strays, she said in an email.

The Rancho Cucamonga shelter has seen a similar trend in the numbers of animals coming into the shelter compared to what is being adopted out.

Friends of Upland Animal Shelter works with the Inland Valley Humane Society to try to move animals out of the shelters faster and to prevent overcrowding.

Inland Valley Humane Society is faced with a different challenge.

Animals will be adopted or moved to another shelter on Saturday and by the time the doors reopen Monday more animals will have been brought in, Bresciani said.

“No matter how many we push out we’re getting more than we can handle and they’re coming in at an alarmingly fast rate,” she said.

The low adoption rates and high intake rates have created a difficult situation where other shelters they work with have had less of an ability to take animals because their own facilities are at capacity, Bresciani said.

“It makes it frustrating … there were things that we used to be able to do to save more lives,” said Shelly Foglesong, vice president of Friends of Upland. At one time, she could pull animals from the Inland Valley shelter to ease overcrowding, but with Upland at or near capacity that ability has dropped.

It is really a perfect storm, Bresciani said, from unprepared and perhaps uneducated owners, to a drop in animals that have been spayed or neutered following a period of COVID restrictions on those procedures, and owners who are unable to keep their pets after their situations were affected by COVID.

The most common reason Foglesong said she’s heard for owners turning in their pets is lack of living situations where pets are welcome or affordable. The cost of procedures for pets has also been referenced as a hardship.

A poodle was surrendered with a broken leg, Foglesong said. They were offered options for CareCredit or payment plans and the owners chose to surrender the dog.

Despite steps shelters are taking to help with spaying and neutering to reduce overpopulation, Bresciani said, past restrictions during the pandemic caused a backlog.

People also got pets when they were feeling isolated during the pandemic.

The thinking was “I want this pet and I want it to be perfect and I want it now,” Bresciani said, when in reality “pets are like children” with a lot of energy and they also “don’t always do what you want them to do.”

Many shelters, including Inland Valley Humane Society and Friends of Upland Animal Shelter, provide options for training. Inland Valley also has an online rehoming service for owners unable to care for their pets.

Hazel was one of those brought to the Upland shelter as a stray in July 2023. The lack of space in the shelter has her living in one of the meet-and-greet spaces. The door has a paper sunflower with details about the brown and white pit bull terrier, who’s about 6 years old, along with a cheerful greeting.

“We usually put her in the rotations, the kids like seeing familiar faces,” said Sherrie Darrow, volunteer coordinator for Friends of Upland Animal Shelter.

For the children to see that not every animal gets adopted super fast, that’s a good lesson, Darrow said. Some animals, like Hazel, will be around through the school year. Other times they will see a puppy they’ll never see again because it’s gonna get adopted quickly.

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Shelby Nelson, Sareen Habeshian | Contributed

Taking home a furry friend is getting easier in Riverside County.

The county’s Department of Animal Services is waiving all adoption fees starting Monday to offset the packed conditions at its shelters in Jurupa Valley and Thousand Palms.

“We’re at maximum capacity and we need the public’s help to immediately improve the outcomes of dogs and cats currently in our care,” Animal Services Director Erin Gettis said.

As of Monday, the county is caring for almost 900 animals, including 644 dogs. Staffers at the Coachella Valley Animal Campus in Thousand Palms are caring for 211 dogs and 52 cats. The staff at the Western Riverside County/City Animal Shelter in Jurupa Valley are currently caring for 420 dogs and 153 cats.

The county’s Animal Services is a high-volume sheltering organization, impounding more than 30,000 animals annually.

The current trend is not sustainable, the agency said Monday, explaining that more animals are impounded by officers or brought into the shelter by the public than the number of animals getting adopted or transferred to rescue partner organizations.

More than 20,000 animals arrived at the shelter as strays last year, Animal Services said.

The county’s two shelters are seeing an abundance of large-breed dogs, in particular German shepherds and huskies.

“With large breed dogs it becomes challenging with kenneling as some of these dogs need more space, or need to be kenneled separately which compounds our problem,” Gettis said.

Waiving adoption fees is typically only done on special occasions, such as for events and holidays, but waiving adoption fees for the foreseeable future is a new approach for Animal Services.

“It is important we send this message of our urgent need,” Gettis said. “As summer approaches there are additional challenges with kitten season and the Fourth-of-July holiday when Animal Services sees a large increase of impounds.”

The public can help with long term efforts to address pet overpopulation in Riverside County by spaying and neutering their pets, microchipping them to help reunite lost pets with their families, putting a collar and tag on your pet to help when they are lost, and spreading the word on the importance of these important steps to help combat pet overpopulation, Animal Services said.

Residents who can’t adopt are being asked to assist in other ways, such as signing up to be a volunteer to help socialize and walk with the larger breed dogs, or fostering animals in their homes, especially kittens.

“At the moment, this is a call for immediate action,” Gettis said. “Please help reduce the number of animals in our care by adopting or rescuing large breed dogs. The shelter is full and we cannot do this without your help.”

For more information on adopting a pet from the Riverside County Department of Animal Services, check the website https://www.rcdas.org.

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