RiversideShelter.com
Title
Riverside County Department of Animal Services
Description
Riverside County Department of Animal Services is part of the Community Health Agency. The department operates the Riverside City/County Animal Shelter, the Coachella City/County Shelter, the Blythe Shelter, field services out of the Hemet office, and contracts with Ramona Humane Society in San Jacinto and Animal Friends of the Valleys in Lake Elsinore to provide full shelter services in those areas. The county provides animal services to all of the unincorporated areas of Riverside County.
It is the mission of the Department of Animal Services to guide our business practices according to the best interests of the animals within our care and the public we serve. We promote safe, healthy and humane human/animal coexistence through public education, humane sheltering, responsible pet placement, progressive law enforcement and pet overpopulation reduction.
We envision a day when euthanasia is not routine and is utilized only to end the suffering of those that cannot be helped due to terminal illness or deep-rooted behavioral problems that compromise the health and safety of the people and animals within our communities. The Department of Animal Services seeks to achieve the goal of 100% adoption of all healthy and adoptable animals within three years through collaboration and strategic alliances with adoption partners and adoption outreach. Volunteer development will also aid this goal with assistance in the areas of pet placement, foster care, clerical, fund raising and special events. Animal Services realizes we are an “open door facility” and are mandated to offer a safe haven to animals that are unwanted rather than the alternative of having them turned out into the streets left to forage for themselves. Within the next years, our desire is to develop programs designed to keep animals within their current homes through behavior modification, low-cost veterinary referral, spay and neuter assistance, foster care and food bank assistance. We recognize the link between animal cruelty and more serious crimes and we strive to be a leading agency in early education and intervention to reduce these crimes. Pet overpopulation plagues most of the United States resulting in death to millions of animals each year through euthanasia. To combat this problem Animal Services desires to expand its spay and neuter program to provide mobile services, open new stationary locations with subsidized care, offer subsidized vouchers for spay and neuter for the low-income public, develop broader partnerships with veterinarians within the community and explore chemical alternatives to traditional surgery. Along with the multitude of community outreach programs, Animal Services will develop education programs to work directly with teachers on K-12 curriculum, create bilingual literature for all of our services and seek new ways to send our humane message to people in rural communities. We recognize a distinct connection to public health through our efforts in zoonotic disease control and will continue to broaden our disease quarantine and control methods throughout the county to ensure public health and safety. Furthermore, we will continue working with disaster response agencies to enhance our response in the event of a disease outbreak, man-made or natural disaster. Lastly, our vision is futile without the support of our employees and retention is the key. It will continue to be the goal of Animal Services in the future to develop more intensive training programs, provide adequate equipment to ensure safety for both the staff and the animals they care for, offer competitive compensation, provide employee recognition, and create a work environment that is rewarding, friendly and fun.
Contact
- County of Riverside
-
- Riverside CA
- US 92504
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- 5950
