Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter staff want more help as animal intake increases

SANTA CRUZ, CALIF. (KION-TV)- Shelter space for animals at the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter are packed.

The shelter is left with no choice but to try and fit in as many animals as possible. All while a staffing shortage is hitting the county shelters and others across the country.

Animal Services Coordinator Jillian Ganley gave some examples of the things they’re dealing with.

“We still don't have a full-time vet, we have a bunch of contract vets, so we're kind of piecemeal together to just get by,” Ganley said.

According to shelter staff, some key positions are being defunded too. Like the Education and Programs Development Manager.

“That person oversees many crucial programs such as Healthy Pets for All, which is assisting the neediest animals in our community with getting vaccines and ones over Vet exam, offering free spay and neuter," Ganley said.

With programs like this gone, unplanned litter can increase, which could lead to more shelter animals.

Staff are feeling the effects of this like Megan Carroll who compares this job to others she’s had in the past.

“I worked with children, chronic illness in special education,” Carroll said. “When I started, it was a manageable load, and then after that, it's just progressively gotten to the point where I don't know if I've ever been burnt out, but I'm there.”

Her colleague Ganley said she feels the same way. 

“The negatives are definitely outweighing the positives,” Ganley said. “And we stay here because we love this job. But at the same time, it really does take a toll on your mental health.”

According to the shelter's intake numbers, the total number of dogs and cats grew by 1078 from this year to last.

It’s even higher compared to 2021 where they’ve taken in 1392 more pets this year.

So what's management looking to do to help the shelter staff? General Manager Amber Rowland gave some insight.

“There are some internal efficiencies that we can try to build up a little bit,” Rowland said. “And also just supporting one another is super important. And so our team is very versatile and very agile and, and we try to make sure that people can back each other up as needed.”

Although there’s some extra revenue coming in, there’s still more work to be done for the new general manager.

“We did just get a 10% increase from all of our JPA members,” Rowland said. “So that will help a great deal with our funding. But we've been operating at a significant deficit and so that's just one of the realities that we have to face moving forward.”

To add to the extra funding, Rowland is looking to... “Identify some additional funding sources that are going to be stable enough to allow us to expand our staffing.”

Rowland says she'll look to bring back their clinical program. Once that’s done she’ll look to rebuild other programs from there.

Not only is the goal to bring some relief to the staff and volunteers but also to make sure these animals that need forever homes continue to get the care they need.

The shelter says in the past two weeks there have been a total of 105 adoptions.

Staff also started a petition to bring more awareness to the situation that the staff is dealing with firsthand. To learn more about the petition click the link here