RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A marketing campaign targeted on shifting cats out of Riverside County animal shelters and into properties, sparing them from euthanasia attributable to house constraints and different limitations, is beginning to take form, officers stated Tuesday.
The “5,000 Cats Challenge” is an effort to extend “reside outcomes” for the lots of of felines that find yourself in one of many Riverside County Department of Animal Services’ 4 shelters yearly.
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On Monday, the division hosted a panel dialogue that includes a number of people who focus on cat rescues and animal habits. The chief matter was the county’s voluminous “consumption” of cats and kittens final yr and stop giant numbers of the home pets from turning into a pressure on the shelters sooner or later.
“In 2023, the Riverside shelters had one of the highest cat and kitten intakes in the nation. This year, we’re happy that the Department of Animal Services is inviting the community to help save 5,000 cat and kitten lives,” stated panelist Dr. Kate Hurley, program director of the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program.
“At this time, our employees is working carefully with the visiting consultants to stipulate plans to extend reside outcomes for cats and kittens,” Department of Animal Services spokeswoman Kerri Mabee advised City News Service. “The plan will … embrace eradicating boundaries to adoption and growing foster and spay/neuter alternatives.”
The 5,000 Cats Challenge will try to duplicate the nationwide “Million Cat Challenge” initiated in 2014 that resulted in over one million felines throughout the nation being spared euthanasia over a five-year span.
Animal rescue organizations can be a part of the countywide marketing campaign. Mabee stated mass adoption and fostering occasions are deliberate, probably starting in April.
“This alternative stands to make a big distinction within the lives of cats locally and coming into the shelter system,” Department of Animal Services Director Erin Gettis stated.
According to Mabee, about 125 cats and kittens within the county’s 4 shelters are in want of adoption or foster placement at the moment. The Western Riverside County Animal Shelter in Jurupa Valley has the best quantity at 65, which Mabee famous fluctuates each day.
Information on adoption and fostering alternatives may be discovered at
