Animal rescue leaders countywide hold summit in Willits, Coast leaders react
Editor’s note: This article is the first in a series about how animal care and control will be transformed on the Mendocino Coast.
The Community Foundation of Mendocino County brought Mendocino County’s leaders in caring for animals together for a retreat in Willits this week to find solutions to big problems and to discuss some good news too.
On the coast, the county animal shelter was permanently closed last month, and all animal care services are being taken over by the Mendocino Coast Humane Society. A nonprofit taking over services that the city and county provided has provoked surprisingly little debate. Inland services for animals also face challenges with overflowing populations and anguish over the need to euthanize.
Worrisome trends are shared across the county, such as a shortage of veterinarians, a drop in the number of volunteers since the pandemic and a desperate need for getting spay and neuter services into gear.
The Community Foundation’s retreat included rescue and specialized animal welfare groups. “It was interesting to learn and hear from the wide variety of groups, from rescue to spay/neuter,” said Steve Sapontzis, who runs Second Chance Rescue in Fort Bragg with his wife Jeanne Gocker. Second Chance provides many services to the coast, including a weekly event at the Fort Bragg Food Bank that provides free flea/tick repellent, collars and leashes, doggie jackets and sweaters, and toys and treats to mostly low-income clients.
“We also sign dogs up, both over the phone and at the Food Bank, for free canine spay/neuter, shots and microchips, nail clipping, and for financial assistance with vet care,” explained Sapontzis. “Twice a year, spring and fall, Second Chance brings the Care-A-Van to the Food Bank for a free canine health care clinic, which includes shots, microchip identifications, and vet exams. And we pay for dry dog food to be available free at the Food Bank week in and week out.”
He reported that the retreat identified needs and new strategies. For example, the Mendocino Community Foundation is now playing an even bigger role in facilitating solutions. “There were a few needs we all agreed on,” he said. “First and foremost, we need many more veterinarians to provide adequate, let alone good, care for the animals who depend on people for their well-being. Second, more spay/neuter programs would go a long way to solving many of the rescue and shelter problems the animal welfare groups work so hard to overcome. Third, where did all the volunteers go?”
Judy Martin, executive director of the Mendocino Coast Humane Society, also attended. She is leading the effort to take over the county operations related to everything the county provides except animal control, which will still be handled by police and the sheriffs’ department. Under her leadership since 2020, the Humane Society has been offering a much wider range of services through a full-time veterinarian; the Humane Society continues to offer critically needed affordable spay and neuter surgeries. She echoed Sapontzis’ concerns and said another biggie was the mobile spay and neuter county van. She said that the county has gotten funding for a mobile spay and neuter unit but it has not been launched on the road.
When the county announced the Fort Bragg pound was closing, the City of Fort Bragg stepped up to bolster its existing funding of the Mendocino Coast Humane Society. This week, the Humane Society submitted a proposal to the county for funding and cooperation with the county.
Mendocino County 4th District Supervisor Dan Gjerde, who knows all the coastal animal players, agreed that getting the mobile and other spay and neuter services in gear is a very good idea, not just for the benefit of the animals but for financial reasons as well.
“If they can get more dogs and cats spayed and neutered, that is just going to mean less unwanted animals in the future to find funding to deal with,” he said.
Gjerde said the Humane Society’s proposal was delivered to the county this week and is being reviewed by staff. When that process is complete, staff will give a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. Gjerde hopes to get everyone to the table so they can craft innovative ways to deal with animal care services in a time when the county has less money but can still play an important role.
Martin noted that the county can make a big impact just by getting its spay and neuter van finally into gear.
Amid challenges, some good news
Sapontzis provided a report on some of the more optimistic news discussed at the Community Foundation’s retreat:
“First, [Mendocino County] Animal [Control] has received a $100,000 grant from UC Davis to help buy a new Care-A-Van, and the county will also contribute toward the $250,000 cost of the new vehicle. The existing CAV is 20 years old and well past its prime. [The Care-A-Van provides vaccinations and health checks among other services.]
“Second, UC Davis has a surgical trailer they are willing to donate to the Coast Humane Society to locate permanently on its campus. MCHS would like to use this facility to increase its spay/neuter program. What is also needed for that, however, is more veterinarians. Judy [Martin] is thinking about maybe offering veterinarians a chance to spend a little vacation time on the coast if they donate some of that time to doing operations at the Humane Society. Third, the Community Foundation is planning to expand its grants for animal welfare projects and will be coming out with guidelines for applying for these grants in the near future.”
Martin is investigating a single family home next to The Ark Thrift Shop that the Humane Society owns as a possible work-trade space. To attract more vets, her dream is to renovate that home, now being used for storage by the Thrift Shop, and offer it to visiting veterinarians in exchange for work while vacationing on the coast, where quality rentals are rare and house prices are as high as the median income is low.
Veterinarians who want to move to the Mendocino Coast have been horrified at the high cost of housing, especially for staff. Dr. Veronica Thomas was unable to sell her Detrick Veterinary Clinic on Franklin Street. It now sits closed, after decades as an important center of care for the town’s animals. The Humane Society has picked up some of that slack, but many owners now go as far as Santa Rosa for regular pet services. Martin has also made the local shelter a no-kill facility. That means animals are not killed because they can’t be adopted. (The shelter does offer euthanasia services to pet owners.) She has been bringing in adoptable animals from overcrowded inland sources and sites as far away as Stanislaus County. A gaggle of happy Malinois puppies arrived from the Covelo the day this reporter visited and were providing gallons of kisses to the staff and visitors.
UC Davis also gave a separate grant to the Mendocino Coast Humane Society. “They are really happy that we are a small town with a small town shelter that is able to provide a full-time veterinarian,” Martin said. “So they like to support us, and they like that we serve a large area with a large low-income population.” She said that grant will be used to upgrade the veterinary clinic and equipment.
The national media has reported that the veterinary shortage is being felt all over the USA, especially in rural areas where veterinarians have always played an outsized role in local communities.
UC Davis reported to the California Legislature in March that despite a concerted decades-long effort by the state to reduce euthanasia, it continues to increase. The university, considered the top agricultural and domestic animal study school in the state, included Fort Bragg among 66 recipients out of 110 applicants for grants last year.
“Priority was given to proposals that demonstrated an innovative approach that had the potential for spread and scale, and that leveraged novel partnerships and community engagement. Animal shelters with existing programs or the ability to create new programs to provide subsidized services to animal shelters in high vulnerability areas were also given priority,” the UC Davis report to the California Legislature said.
The Mendocino Community Foundation’s new grant program will expand on its substantial 2022 effort in the area of grants for those in the animal care field.
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