San Jose: : San José Animal Care and Services Urgently Needs the Community’s Help
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Jay Terrado, Deputy Director, Animal Care and Services
408-794-7223; jay.terrado@sanjoseca.gov

San José Animal Care and Services Urgently Needs the Community's Help
With the help of fosters and rescues, hundreds of pets are being cared for, yet, shelter pets continue to wait months hoping to be adopted

SAN JOSE, Calif. (May 25, 2023) - The San José Animal Care and Services (ACS) Center is experiencing record-high numbers of pets entering the shelter and staying longer. The shelter urgently needs the community to adopt or foster a shelter pet.

"Now is a great time to consider fostering or adopting a shelter animal," said San José Mayor Matt Mahan. "With our shelter at capacity, taking in an animal can save the life of another."

The shelter currently has 915 pets on site: 255 dogs and puppies, 598 cats and kittens, and 62 other pets, such as rabbits. To manage the number of pets and provide optimal care, the shelter is limiting intake from the public to only sick, injured, or aggressive pets, and our Animal Services Officers are triaging animal pick-up due to the lack of space.

"There is a national crisis in shelters across the country, with more pets entering shelters and staying longer," explained Jay Terrado, Deputy Director of ACS. "I thank our rescue and shelter partners that have transferred animals from ACS to other shelters and partners. Their support immensely aids our efforts with ensuring shelter animals have the best opportunity of finding a forever home."

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In the last 30 days over 691 animals were adopted, rescued, transferred, and returned to owners or the field. The community has also helped ACS by fostering 378 animals in the last 30 days.

"I am a proud parent of two shelter pets and am thankful for the work done at ACS by City staff and partners. Every day, they ensure the safety, welfare, and quality of life for all the animals in our community," said City Manager Jennifer Maguire. "Pets are like family members and an important part of our community. I urge our community to help a shelter pet by adopting or fostering."

In March, San José ACS took in an average of 188 pets a week. That number jumped up 85% in April to 348 pets per week on average, and those are just stray pets. Last month the public brought 743 kittens to the shelter, a 297% increase from March 2023. That number will continue to grow as we head into the peak of kitten season in June.

The community can help the shelter pets at the ACS Center by:

Adopting: All adoptions are completed in person at the Center at 2750 Monterey Road, San Jose, on Monday's noon - 4 p.m., Tuesday-Friday's 10 a.m. -6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday's 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Fees for dogs over six months old are waived through June 30, 2023. See all the adoptable pets at https://gis.sanjoseca.gov/apps/petcompass.

Fostering: Consider fostering to give a shelter pet all the benefits and love of a home for a few days, weeks, or months. You can foster an available pet of your choice or join us for "Foster Fridays," beginning May 19, to take a dog or kittens for the weekend. Stop by the shelter any Friday through June 30 and receive on-the-spot training to take home kittens or one of 10 pre-selected dogs for the weekend.

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Don't Kitten-nap: If the kittens are safe, observe to see if the mother returns from a safe distance. The best thing to do for kittens is to keep them with their mother. If a kitten is visibly sick (thin, crusty-eyed, dirty), or if mom has not returned for over 12 hours, please bring them to ACS. Our intake is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Found a stray pet: Please consider keeping the pet in your home — even for a few days. Most pets are found within the first 72 hours thanks to flyers posted in neighborhoods and social media posts on Nextdoor, Facebook, and Paw Boost. If you lost a pet, you can complete a lost report at the shelter.

Need to rehome a pet: Please reach out to your network of friends and family, and post on self-rehoming platforms like home-home.org and www.adoptapet.com.

About the City of San José
With nearly one million residents, San José is the largest city in the Bay Area and one of the nation's most diverse and creative. San José is a global innovation center in the heart of Silicon Valley, making up one of the world's greatest concentrations of technology talent and development.

About San José Animal Care and Services
San José Animal Care and Services serves the 1.3 million residents and pets of San José, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Milpitas, and Saratoga. The Care Center is an open-admission shelter welcoming over 15,000 pets each year in need of care until they are reunited with their family or find a family to call their own. Animal Care and Services provides for the physical and medical needs of the pets in their care, rescues animals in distress, investigates animal abuse, enforces animal control laws, license pets, and supports community cats with no-cost Trap, Neuter, Return services. Learn more at www.AdoptAPetSJ.org.


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