Riverside County Supervisor urges cities to build their own animal shelters amid criticism over euthanasia rates
Riverside County’s Board of Supervisors responded to backlash regarding its Animal Services.
During the meeting, Supervisor Karen Spiegel questioned where certain groups were obtaining data about the county’s euthanasia rates. Supervisor Kevin Jeffries called on individual cities to build their own shelters.
We had the opportunity to get more insight into Supervisor Jeffries' comments.
He clarified that he didn't intend to call out the three cities listed as agenda items regarding their Animal Service contracts.
During last night's meeting, he pulled out all three items and took the opportunity to address all cities that contract with the county's Animal Services.
Ultimately he called them to build their own shelters.
Riverside County Supervisor, Kevin Jeffries defended the county’s animal services and called for individual cities to find solutions regarding their stray pets.
"The reason for my statement was twofold. One, we want better service. We want better capacity for the animals that are coming into shelters. Nobody takes pleasure out of having high kill rates," said Supervisor Jeffries.
He explained he wants Riverside County cities to manage animals within their own boundaries.
"The goal of my speech, was to convince the cities that they need to start doing their own shelters," added Supervisor Jeffries. "Their own operations, because we don't have the capacity in the county to meet this overflow of animals. We need the cities to look at doing their own shelters so that we can start reducing the population in the few shelters that we do have in this county."
I asked Supervisor Jeffries, "Is the county still looking to provide funds, for (cities) to provide further services and shelters?
"As a general rule, I would say, no. I mean, we're we're strapped, as it is, with our operations," answered Supervisor Jeffries.
He adds that the county is open to helping certain cities finance the shelter expense through a loan.
Supervisor Jeffries explained that more shelters, mean more capacity and ideally less euthanasia rates.
"More ability to provide individual care for the animal being brought in, you need that capacity, that depth in order to handle surges that occur," added Supervisor Jeffries.
Jeffries said he wasn’t identifying any particular city over another during Tuesday’s meeting.
One of the cities listed in the meeting’s agenda regarding their Animal Services contract with the county was Desert Hot Springs.
City officials say they still contract a small portion of the city's animal services with the county, but their Animal Care and Control Services have overall become self-sufficient.
"The City of Desert Hot Springs took this on years ago, when I became mayor in 2015 and 2016 we brought back our own animal control center and did our own animal control," said Desert Hot Springs Mayor, Scott Matas.
He says he’s been able to grow the facility over time.
"We've taken responsibility for our overpopulation of some of these stray animals. And most recently, we took on the Humane Society's sanctuary, so that was given to us no cost" added Mayor Matas.
The Mayor of Desert Hot Springs also says the city can operate a ‘no-kill shelter’ because it can take animals to the sanctuary.
Overall the goal is for cities that rely on the county’s animal services to build out their shelters and provide resources to better serve animals.
Then they won’t have to bring abandoned pets to the county shelters, where there’s limited capacity, leading to higher risks of euthanasia.
