Home Contra Costa County Contra Costa Animal Services to Place Temporary Freeze on Owner Surrenders at Shelter

Contra Costa Animal Services to Place Temporary Freeze on Owner Surrenders at Shelter

by ECT

A leaked internal memo that was published on Claycord.com Saturday, highlights that the Contra Costa Animal Services Department will temporarily no longer be accepting animals from owners who wish to surrender them.

Contra Costa Animal ServicesAccording to a memo sent out this week, this temporary freeze in their owner surrender policy will start on Wednesday Feb.3, and last about a month at the Martinez and Pinole shelters.

The department also announced their night deposit boxes will remain closed until further notice.

According to Steve Burdo at Animal Services, he said it was unfortunate that an excerpt from an internal staff memo that a volunteer got a hold of was sent to a news outlet.

“Over the last couple of days we’ve been working to alert the Supervisors and the 18 city managers that we have contracts with about the temporary freeze. Our plan was to send a press release on Monday once we have communicated with all of the cities and their police departments,” explained Burdo.

Burdo stated that they will still be accepting owner surrenders that are sick, injured, under twelve weeks of age, or as otherwise required by law.

“The reason for the temporary freeze is to be able to create some space in our overcrowded shelters while we develop an intervention plan to better support families in keeping their animals in their homes,” said Burdo.  “We placed a page on our website yesterday that includes resources to help families keep their pets.”

More details are expected to be released Monday. Below is a copy of the leaked memo.

 

Greetings CCCASD Team,

Please see below for some important updates regarding a temporary change in our owner surrender policy, our new Adoption/Intake Coordinator and other CCCASD news.

Temporary Freeze On Owner Surrender Policy

Effective Wednesday, February 3rd, Contra Costa County Animals Services Department (CCCASD) will be temporarily ceasing the acceptance of owner surrendered animals at our Martinez and Pinole shelters due to the volume of animals at both facilities.

Certain exceptions to this temporary freeze will be made for animals that are injured, unhealthy, under twelve weeks of age, or as otherwise required by law. During this temporary freeze on accepting owner surrendered animals, families in need can email [email protected] or call (925) 335-8300 to determine if CCCASD can accept their pet.

Additionally, CCCASD will be indefinitely closing our night deposit boxes for animals that are surrendered during hours that the department is closed to the public.

Surrendering an animal to the shelter should be a last resort. High owner surrender rates leads to overpopulation in our shelters, which increases the possibilities that animals will get disease and/or experience behavior problems. Properly managing shelter inventory and the health of the pets in our care improves the chances of finding homes for the animals at our shelters.

CCCASD leadership expects this temporary freeze on accepting owner surrenders to be in effect for roughly a month, during which time the department will be developing an intervention program to help support County residents in keeping their animals in their homes. While this temporary freeze is in effect, CCCASD will continue to receive and impound animals that are sick, injured or abandoned, as well as strays and animals that are confiscated as a result of active investigations or impounded by other law enforcement agencies in Contra Costa County.

We wanted to make you aware of this temporary change in policy before we announce it to the broader community. We are currently compiling a number of helpful resources to place on the CCCASD website that will educate County residents about what they can do to keep their animals in their homes, as well as providing resources to help them humanely rehome their animals should they need to. We expect that information to be online by COB today, well before this policy is implemented.

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1 comment

IWORKATHOME Jan 31, 2016 - 10:38 am

A volunteer? Does he know that the volunteer manager sent that memo to the 100’s of volunteers in the database? Stop throwing volunteers under the bus and own the fact this was in no way marked “confidential” and anyone (including staff) could’ve forwarded it to anyone. It is alarming that this guy is just now getting around to alerting the supervisors and city managers when this is supposed to start happening on THIS Weds?

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