A New Day Dawns

When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, we learned an important lesson: Many, many people have animals in their lives, and their animals matter to them. Those displaced by Katrina searched desperately for lost pets, and even amid flooding and destruction, many refused to evacuate if that meant leaving their pet behind.

The takeaway: Helping animals helps people.

Fortunately, new leadership at Animal Services and County Public Health is all about serving both. This couldn’t come at a more critical time, as municipal animal shelters are overflowing with animals whose owners can’t afford to house or feed them.

Animal Services Director Sarah Aguilar, backed by Public Health Director Mouhanad Hammami, is spearheading an entirely new approach. The goal is to build programs that help people and animals close to where they live.

What does this look like?

Among the “no-brainer” stuff they’ve done, Animal Services now has more hours for phone support and in-person shelter services, Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday and after-hours adoptions and support can make a huge difference for working people. They’ve already seen a 30 percent increase in lost pets being reclaimed!

Resources can be so short for so many people. For pet owners struggling financially, food pantries can make all the difference, as can low-cost vet care. Animal Services’ Project PetSafe, as well as its partnership with community-based CARE4Paws, means that pet owners can come to one of our three shelters (Goleta, Lompoc, Santa Maria) for resources and support.

Volunteers feel the difference in the 14 months since Aguilar took the role of director. She has reenergized a volunteer program that enriches the lives of its participants, helps care for shelter animals, and promotes adoption and community engagement. Volunteers donate more than 1,800 hours every month, including an outreach team focused on marketing and adoption events.

Fostering has grown greatly. For instance, October 2023 saw nearly twice as many foster placements as in October 2022, as Animal Services has expanded the program to engage many more community members. Fostering not only reduces the burden on shelters, but it is also an incredibly enriching way for families to help animals, and for kids to have quality time with animals. The Doggy Day Out program even allows families to take a dog out for a shelter break, with more than 180 excursions in November alone.

Animal Services has always depended on nonprofit partners like ASAP (cats), BUNS (rabbits), and a number of dog rescue organizations. The new leadership has grown these partnerships in critical ways: 

• Expert dog behavioralists from Shadow’s Fund work with Animal Services to reinvent the dog volunteer program and how dogs are cared for at the shelter.
• The S.B. County Animal Care Foundation, CAPA, and K-9 PALS raise money to help with the cost of caring for both owned and stray animals needing extensive veterinary care.
• The North County Stray Task Force is a coalition of shelter staff, city representatives, and volunteers that has dramatically improved outreach to reunite stray animals with their families.
• Animal Services works closely with CARE4Paws’ neighborhood clinics (held from Santa Barbara to Nipomo) to reach low-income families in need of basic services for their pets, such as microchips, flea control, and vaccines. Animal Services’ pet license sales also provide significant funding for free spay/neuter.

How Can You Help?

• Adopt, Don’t Shop:  Adopting from a shelter instead of buying a pet helps reduce the number of animals in need — and the cost is much lower!
• Volunteer!  Animal Services relies on volunteers for everything from answering phones to video editing and everything in between. If you have a skill, it can be used to save lives and spread the word.
• Give Fostering a Try:  Animals get a break from the shelter, and shelter staff can learn more about a pet for a better adoption match. Start now by participating in Home for the Holidays Fostering.
• Donate:  Gifts to the shelters or any of their partners help to provide programs that benefit the whole community (sbcanimalcare.org).

Between the housing crisis and the end of the pandemic, the news is full of stories of animal shelters forced to kill healthy, adoptable animals whose owners can’t afford their care, or didn’t know where to look for their lost pet. This is a tragedy not just for the animals who die for lack of space and resources. It’s also a tragedy for the people who loved and lived with these animals. Santa Barbara County has managed to dodge this bullet, keeping shelter numbers down to a manageable level because of this innovative, community-based, collaborative approach. Let’s do our part to help our innovative Public Health and Animal Services leaders to continue to serve us so well!