July 6, 2006

San Jose animal shelter ‘graduates’ 40 pets to new homes

New low-cost clinic promoted at adopt-a-thon

By Laura Rheinheimer
Times Intern

A large Sylvester the Cat wailed his arms outside of the San Jose Animal Care Center to let people know that it’s kitten season. The shelter held a “pet graduation” recently to send dogs, cats and rabbits to new homes and promote its new low-cost spay and neuter clinic.

Snowball gets some attention from shelter volunteer Will Farrell. Photo by John Hwang/San Jose Animal Shelter

Montell, a staff favorite, is a pure-breed pit bull who was scheduled to be euthanized the next day. Fortunately, just as the event was wrapping up, Montell was the last animal adopted on Saturday.

In total, 40 animals were adopted, including 21 dogs, 17 cats and two rabbits.

“We’re happy about that,” said Julie St. Gregory, spokesperson for the shelter, even though the goal of 55 was not met.

The adopt-a-thon was held at the Monterey Road animal shelter to get the word out that cats, dogs, rabbits and other pets need homes.

Anastasia Stafford and her teenage daughter Crystal Carothers drove from Santa Cruz to adopt a 3-month-old German shepherd and Rottweiler mix.

“I always wanted to take a puppy home,” Crystal said. “I always feel bad for them.”

The shelter was also promoting their new clinic, St. Gregory said. At $5 for male cats and $10 for female cats, the new clinic offers services for San Jose, Los Gatos, Cupertino, Milpitas and Saratoga residents with kittens over 12 weeks old.

It’s kitten season, said St. Gregory, and the animal shelter is aiming to send as many kittens and cats to homes as possible. Currently, around 1,000 cats are euthanized each month at the shelter’s clinic, St. Gregory said.

“Our kittens this year haven’t been adopted quickly,” said Julene Perry, who has volunteered for a year and a half at the clinic.

Taking a pet home isn’t as easy as stopping by the shelter. “We require that everybody who’s in the family be here,” said shelter volunteer Carol Fitting. They also ask that existing pets be brought to the clinic to interact with the new pet.

Also, anyone renting an apartment is supposed to bring written permission from his landlord before taking a pet home. Many apartment complexes have restrictions on weight and breed, Perry said. Some landlords don’t allow pit bulls at all, which may account for the high numbers of them that end up in the shelter.

Fitting said the saddest thing is when a puppy gets adopted and ends up back in the clinic. According to St. Gregory, this happens with more than 20 percent of the pets adopted.

Part of the problem is that people have misconceptions about dogs and the care they need, explained shelter coordinator Kelly Trevillian. The longer the animals stay in the clinic, the more likely they are to get sick and eventually euthanized, Trevillian said. “We have such a high volume; we have to manage the space.”

Even though the shelter doesn’t have the resources to train each animal, part of the adoption package includes information on training. “We try to educate the public,” Trevillian said.

If a puppy doesn’t get proper training while small, it can end up back in the clinic as a jumpy big dog, Trevillian said.

“The whole reason dogs end up here is training,” St. Gregory said.

In order to prepare for the event, Trevillian said the shelter held on to some animals longer than usual, like Montell. Even though not as many animals were adopted as she had hoped, she still considered it a success. “Anything above and beyond a normal day is good,” Trevillian said.

Some attendees came just to look, while others were determined to leave the shelter with a new pet. Evergreen residents Pete and Diana Bernal have plenty of experience with dogs—their last one lived 16 years. They came prepared to find the perfect dog.

“We’ve been reading up on dogs,” Pete said. Added Diana, “We’re taking our time to make the right choice, to be fair to the animal, too.”

Dan and Kim Lloyd traveled from Eureka to visit relatives and paid a visit to the shelter to adopt Marco, a German shepherd and Rottweilier, keeping the name given by staff members.

“We’ve been talking about getting a dog for a while,” Dan said. Of the adoption process, Dan said everything was explained well. Along with a new member of the family, each animal comes with a goody bag with toys, treats and information on training and care.

The San Jose Animal Care Center is located at 2750 Monterey Road, San Jose. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed on Monday. The phone number is (408) 578-PAWS (7297) and the Web site (which features pictures of available animals) is www.sanjoseanimals.com.