In 2023, Santa Cruz County animal shelters experienced a 23 percent increase in animal intake, with a 56 percent rise overall in the last two years. This jump called local communities and organizations to action to support animals in need.
Adoptable “Prescilla” located at Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter.
Running over-capacity shelters in the Santa Cruz County, lacking resources and funding, has created a strain on shelter workers. Failed conversations between management, workers, staff, volunteers, and community members led to an unannounced walkout on Nov. 30, 2023.
A petition with a list of demands was created by the union representing shelter workers, SEIU 521. The list included requests for aligning Joint Powers Authority pay structure with other employee wages, filling necessary positions, and obtaining needed resources to preserve the animal welfare already at over-capacity.
“Shelters are bursting at the seams,” said Pete Cooper, the development and communications manager for the Santa Cruz Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). “Our role is to focus on those animals that need help and to make sure that they are safe, cared for, and loved while we find new families for them.”
The Santa Cruz Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) works with county shelters and has partnerships extending to Monterey and the Central Valley. As a non-profit organization, they protect insecurely housed animals and maintain active humane communities through adoption, advocacy, and education.
Nonprofits like Santa Cruz SPCA are essential for supporting county shelters at-capacity. When required, SC SPCA facilitates the transport of animals through the county, from Watsonville to Santa Cruz and vice-versa.
Adoptable german shepherd “Daisy”, currently being cared for in foster through Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter.
General Manager of the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter (SCCAS), Amber Rowland, explains that the housing crisis, along with financial ability, limits the pool of those able to adopt.
Rowland described handling funds for shelter operations, in a district as large as Santa Cruz County, as challenging.
“[The Joint Power Authority] provides 70 percent of our budget, the rest we have to raise through either our fees or our donations,” said Rowland.
The Joint Powers Authority (JPA) is a legally established body made up of 9 board members that allows for multiple agencies to oversee animal control and sheltering services for Santa Cruz County.
Over the last 10 years, contributions from JPA to SCCAS have increased by an average of 4.3 percent a year, unaligned to the county’s rising cost of living.
”More people are living in smaller spaces,” Rowland said. “They don’t necessarily have a yard for a big dog or, you know, enough time because they’re having to work two jobs just to stay in the place where they live,”
Rowland attributes the recent influx to various societal factors.
“As the wage gap continues to widen, people are less and less able to afford pets and less and less able to afford spay-neuter surgeries,” said Rowland.
A major component in the steep cost of veterinary treatment is the shortage of practicing vets available for full-time hire.
The pandemic, along with a lack of spots in veterinary schools, caused the shortage of vets, which is projected to reach 15,000 short by 2030.
Costs attached to veterinary education play a significant role. In the United States, the average in-state tuition for veterinary school is 200,000 dollars, whereas out-of-state is 270,000.
Dr. Maris Brenn-White (DVM) and Shadia Valverde (RVT) care for a patient following an operation at Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter’s in-house veterinary clinic.
SCCAS was left without a full-time vet for over two years after its last veterinarian retired in 2020. Without in-house veterinarians, affordable spay and neuter programs such as Planned Pethood were suspended. SCCAS recently hired Maris Breh as a full-time, in-house vet.
“You’re always trying to decide: do we have the resources to help this animal or not,” Breh said. “I look around the room at the end of the day and I think that this animal wouldn’t be alive if we weren’t here. That is all the motivation you need.”