Rescue work proves incredibly challenging this year. We continue to experience the aftershocks of the Covid years when shelters operated at half-staff to comply with social distancing mandates and animals people sought to surrender to them were turned away. Many of those animals were left on the streets, unsterilized. They had kittens, and their kittens grew up and had more kittens, and so on. This year, they’re finding their way into shelters, and, as a result, the volume of animals admitted and in need of rescue and adoption at Devore Animal Shelter, our exclusive rescue focus, is three times the numbers we usually see this time of year.
This year, the most crippling aspect we’re facing is a lack of people willing to foster. People on our Facebook and Instagram threads clamor at us to save this cat or that at Devore Animal Shelter, but we can’t help them. Some express outrage at the daily euthanasia carried out at Devore Animal Shelter, demanding, “Where are the rescues???” Well, people willing to open their hearts and homes to actively help save lives comprise rescue groups and make them a viable force. When there’s an excessive volume of animals in need, but a shortage of people willing to help, rescue groups like ours do their best but, sadly, can’t keep up, and, regrettably, animals die.
Due to these struggles, we cannot accept surrendered cats this year.
We know you’ve sought us out to avoid surrendering your cat or cats to the shelter. We sincerely wish we could assist you, but sadly, we just don’t have the available foster placements that would enable us to do so, nor are we able to direct you to a different group who might help because, unfortunately, all rescues are struggling this year and we don’t know of any who aren’t. Nor do we know of any no-kill animal sanctuaries in Southern California.
The only solution we can offer to ensure the cat or cats you seek to surrender remain out of the shelter is to foster them through us, provided you are willing to adhere to our fostering procedures and protocol and continue to foster them in your home until they are adopted. By applying to become a Kitty Devore Rescue foster parent, you will ensure the cats you seek a safe harbor for will find their way to a new and forever home without risk of illness contracted at the shelter or, should no one come to adopt or rescue him, her or them, euthanasia. Through our fostering program, we will cover the funding for you to vet them according to our responsible rescue standards and listed for adoption. Please know, however, that we cannot predict how long it may take for an interested adopter to apply to adopt them.
If this option is of interest to you, you can find more information about our program and our fostering application here:
Kitty Devore Rescue Fostering Program Overview and Application
•
If you want to surrender your cats to Devore Animal Shelter, please know the shelter is currently over capacity. While Southern California rescue groups like ours work diligently daily to rescue as many as we can, the volume is too high this year, and many adorable, healthy, and perfectly friendly and adoptable cats are being euthanized to make space for new and incoming cats. The average rescue rates are about 40/60. Surrendering your cat or cats to Devore Animal Shelter will likely be the end of the line for him, her, or them. Also, know that kittens under eight weeks old and unaccompanied by their mother will be euthanized immediately upon surrender at the shelter as they don’t have the staff or resources to care for infants this young.
If you have found a kitten or kittens under five weeks old who require bottle feeding, please seek assistance from one or both of these unaffiliated Facebook groups:
Bottle Baby Feeders – San Bernardino – Los Angeles
Los Angeles Bottle Baby Kitten & Puppy Rescue