Long Beach is no stranger to the phrase “man’s best friend.”
Long Beach Animal Care Services had a record-breaking year in 2015 for saving animal lives.
The percentage of impounded dogs and cats has decreased by 28 percent in the last 10 years from a total of 10,318 to 7,510. The total of euthanized dogs and cats has decreased by 64 percent in the last 10 years from 6,676 to 2,379 animals killed.
Less animals are being euthanized and more animals are being found homes due to an increase in volunteers and local partnerships.
“Basically we have just been building partnerships in the last three or four years … we have been building our relationships with a lot of rescue groups and shelters in the area, so we have been able to move more animals,” said Ted Stevens, manager of Animal Care Services. “…Partnerships with Fix Long Beach and Friends of Long Beach Animals that do spay and neutering help the animals from coming here.”
Through the spring season, Long Beach Animal Care receives more stray kittens than in any other time of the year.
In Long Beach, it is the law to have pets spayed or neutered. Long Beach Animal Care stresses that owners must spay and neuter pets to prevent the overcrowding in pounds, especially during the peak seasons such as spring and summer.
Long Beach Animal Care is an open intake shelter that takes in all animals including dogs, cats, rabbits and occasionally snakes, horses and reptiles. In some situations they take illegally possessed exotic animals.
Dropping off an animal comes with a small fee to encourage owners to take care of their pets rather than dump them
“There are fees associated with relinquishing your animal and people don’t understand why that is,” April Devane, volunteer with the Animal Resource Team, said. “…As soon as [a pet] comes in the door and into a kennel, it’s going to have to have all its shots and [workers] are going to have to feed it and clean up for it. Even though it’s a city shelter and taxpayer dollars go towards it, there are still other costs.”
Social media may have contributed to the higher adoption rates. Long Beach Animal Care recently developed smartphone app LB Pets where users can learn about animal safety and view what animals are in the shelter.
“We had a professional photographer here with us, and when we started updating the pictures and doing more of a professional [shoot], making the pet look like one who could be in a home or with a family, we saw a huge spike in the animals that were being adopted,” Outreach Coordinator Kelly Miott said.
A Long Beach resident looks at the selection of available cats that were ready to adopt, guided by a Long Beach Animal Care employee.
About five years ago, the shelter came up with the idea of photographing the animals. The photographs were not by professionals and made the animals look scared and unfriendly, according to the shelter. It was not until the shelter hired a professional photographer that the pets began to look more appealing.
“Having a photographer and using social media to help reunite pets with their owners was huge. We’re doing a lot more pictures to help them out in the first place, so it’s a culmination of so many different efforts including the volunteer efforts and just awareness,” Miott said.
Photographs of lost and found pets in need of homes are accompanied by a description and uploaded to the shelter’s Facebook and Instagram pages
The shelter also created a new hashtag, #LBLostFoundPets, to organize the lost community pets to make it is easier to reunite owners with them.
One of the most helpful ways to save an animal’s life is simply to have more volunteers.
“The number one thing [people] can do is come to the shelter and volunteer,” April Devane, volunteer with the Animal Resource Team, said. “Or [just] volunteer with a rescue group like Fix Long Beach.”
Devane said if people want to help out, Animal Care Services can always use volunteers on Saturdays. The shelter can be reached at 562-570-7387.
“The more volunteers we have here, the more the animals have a chance to get out of the shelter,” Devane said.