Just 51% of cats that went into Riverside County-run animal shelters in 2023 made it out alive.
It’s an unacceptable number to the county’s Department of Animal Services, which is taking a multi-pronged approach — including no longer taking in healthy stray adult cats — in hopes of saving 5,000 cats’ lives in 2024.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, March 12, voted 5-0 to approve the 5,000 Cat Challenge and the policy change on accepting mature felines that aren’t surrendered by owners.
A veterinarian sterilizes a cat in the custody of Riverside County animal services. Officials are taking steps, including not accepting healthy, adult, free-roaming felines, to reduce the number of impounded cats who don’t survive. (Courtesy of Riverside County)
“We hope with these efforts that we’ll be able to make this significant change in our department and save more cat lives in Riverside County,” Director of Animal Services Erin Gettis told supervisors.
“Five thousand cats is a large number and we’re up for the task.”
When it comes to cats, the department, which operates four shelters and serves large swaths of the county — some cities use nonprofit groups such as Animal Friends of the Valleys for their animal services — is accustomed to large numbers. It reported having the largest cat intake in the nation — roughly 13,000 cats — in 2023.
Launched in January, the 5,000 Cat Challenge is modeled after the Million Cat Challenge, a partnership linked to UC Davis and the University of Florida that is credited with saving 5 million cats nationwide since 2014.
To meet its goal, the department will sterilize, vaccinate and ear-tag feral adult cats trapped by residents, volunteers and animal welfare groups before releasing them. It will continue to take in cats whose owners die or are no longer able to care for them, assuming they can’t be fostered or adopted out.
Working with rescue groups, the county has already held three events in which feral cats were trapped, spayed or neutered, tagged and released, Gettis said.
The department offers data to support its new policy.
Lost cats, according to the department, are 13 times more likely to be reunited with owners through non-shelter means, and more than 60% of lost cats return home on their own with less than 2% of cats in shelters being reclaimed by their owners.
Feral cats are unsocialized, legally free to roam and “would be neither appropriate nor happy as traditional pets in a home,” a resolution on the new adult cat policy states. “These cats have found a source of food and shelter just as other wild animals have.”
To help pet owners keep their cats and dogs, the department has a pet support program providing food and other help. More than 4,000 pets — two-thirds of them cats — have avoided shelters since the program started in 2023, officials said.
Other cat-saving measures the department is pursuing include expanding cat foster programs and removing barriers to adoption.
The department also expects to take in 5,000 fewer animals in its shelters by not renewing animal services contracts with San Bernardino County cities, Gettis said.
The county’s strategy has the support of Best Friends Animal Society, a nonprofit animal welfare group headquartered in Utah. “The programs and steps outlined in these resolutions are essential to increase lifesaving in Riverside County,” Holly Sizemore, society chief mission officer, said in a news release.
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The new policy on adult cats in shelters drew criticism from Theresa Han-Sebti, a self-described animal services volunteer.
While saving 5,000 cats is a worthy goal, “not accepting healthy adult cats will have the direct effect of people dumping these often unaltered healthy cats, which will then go on to produce (an) exponential number of kittens and more cats,” Han-Sebti told supervisors Tuesday.
The 5,000 Cats Challenge is not simply about accepting 5,000 fewer cats into shelters, Gettis responded.
“That’s not the goal,” she said. “In fact, we know that in order to (save 5,000 cats), we have to provide 5,000 surgeries in order to make that kind of a difference.”