A Timeline of Care

1973 – Grass roots organization, Golden Empire Humane Society, founded to help abandoned cats and dogs and to promote spay and neuter and humane treatment of all animals.

1998 – AnimalSave was created as a special project of the Golden Empire Humane Society to end the needless killing of companion animals in Nevada County.

1999 – Foster/Adoption Program established. “Last chance” dogs and cats were taken from the local shelters and placed in foster homes, spayed/neutered and adopted into permanent homes. Many of these animals had behavior or health issues that prevented them from being adopted from the shelter or, because of over-crowding, they were scheduled to be euthanized. In the last decade, we have found loving homes for over 2,000 dogs and cats.

Due to efforts by AnimalSave and other local animal welfare groups over the years, the euthanasia rate at the local shelter has dropped from 70 percent to 2 percent. Our Foster/Adoption Program shifted from taking “last chance” animals from the shelter to taking them directly from the community BEFORE they reached the shelter. We realized we could provide a better service by taking litters of puppies and kittens and placing them in foster homes where they could be properly socialized and trained to be good family animals. We provide early vaccinations, worming, testing and medical attention, and the animals are spayed or neutered before they are adopted out. We have a strenuous adoption interview process so we can be sure the animals we’ve invested so much in are adopted into forever homes and the rate of return is quite low.

1999 – Low-Income Spay/Neuter Program begins. While very effective, we realized that the problems with overpopulation and abandonment could never be completely resolved through adoption efforts alone. We knew we would have to step up and take on the huge task of providing spay/neuter education and assistance. The Low-Income Spay/Neuter Program began and grew quickly in response to overwhelming demand. AnimalSave volunteers transported dogs and cats several times a week to a clinic in Auburn in their personal vehicles.

1999 – AnimalSave Thrift and Treasures Store opens to raise money to support AnimalSave’s growing programs. Proceeds from the thrift store provide for about 18 percent of our program costs.

2003 – Trap/Neuter/Return Program begins in response to another growing community need: the proliferation of feral cats. Again, dedicated volunteers trap feral cats; we spay/neuter them, give vaccinations and return them to their outdoor homes. We provide traps and instruct individuals on how to trap feral cats in order to get them altered. As a result of these efforts, the feral cat population has been reduced. We do significant work with feral cats, especially as the economy has worsened and more people are abandoning their cats to the wilds. We frequently take young kittens from feral mothers, put them in foster homes where they are hand-tamed and eventually adopted as domestic cats.

2003 – AnimalSave launched a formal capital campaign to build the Adoption and Education Center on land donated to AS. After several years of fund raising, challenging land use restrictions, escalating building costs and a change in community need required that we reevaluate our plan to build the Adoption/Education Center. Animal Save conducted a comprehensive organizational evaluation and strategic planning process to determine how it could leverage its resources to best serve Nevada County’s animals and the community.

As a result of that process, we determined the programs we had in place provided a continuum of care that was actually keeping animals from entering the shelter system to begin with. We determined we should look at ways to more effectively and efficiently deliver our services. Our very active Board of Directors made the difficult and, for some, unpopular decision to redirect our efforts from the Adoption Center to more pressing needs. The most significant need identified was for more efficient, effective and affordable spay/neuter services in this county.

2006–  Cat Adoption Room opens. When a sister organization, FONCA (Friends of Nevada County Animals) closed, AnimalSave was the only organization equipped to fill the gap and take on the cats and kittens they had been sheltering. The Cat Adoption Room houses up to 15 – 20 cats and kittens while they await adoption.

February 2008 – AnimalSave’s Low-Cost Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinic arrives. AnimalSave took delivery of a 33-foot state-of-the-art surgical van manufactured by Deloitte in Ohio. The cost to purchase and equip the van was about $170,000. An anonymous donor contributed $80,000 toward its purchase. The van can accommodate 18–20 animals depending on the number of large dogs scheduled for surgery.

The AnimalSave Low-Cost Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinic began operating in March 2008. The Clinic operates three days a week with two contract veterinarians with experience in high volume spay/neuter, an RVT (Registered Vet Tech) with 21-years experience, a Spay/Neuter Clinic Manager, Volunteer Vet Assistants and many other volunteers. In just over two-years, we have altered over 4,000 dogs and cats, preventing the birth of at least 20,000 unwanted animals. We have altered over 800 feral cats brought to the Clinic by individuals concerned about controlling overpopulation and improving the quality of life for these wild cats.

2008 – Supplemental Low-Income Pet Food Distribution Program begins. When another sister organization, Pet Adoption League, closed we took on the challenge of filling the gap by funding and operating a program to help people keep their pets by providing supplemental pet food. We have distributed over 60,000 pounds of pet food.

Through our four main programs; Low-Cost Spay/Neuter, Low-Income Pet Food Assistance, Foster/Adoption, Feral Cat Trap/Neuter/Return and our Humane Education and Re-Homing Assistance programs, we believe we are delivering an important public service that prevents dogs and cats from becoming homeless and entering the very costly shelter system.

Programs and Numbers
Low-Cost Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinic Program
2009 – Spayed/Neutered 1,862 dogs and cats

Foster/Adoption Program
2009 – Adopted 341 cats and dogs

Low-Income Supplemental Pet Food Distribution Program
2009 – Distributed 42,000 pounds of pet food

Trap/Neuter/Return Program
2009 – Spay/Neutered 400 feral cats at a cost to AS of $15,000

Humane Education Program
2009 – Spoke at clubs and provided information to schools and other organizations to enhance the culture around animal welfare and responsible pet guardianship.

Re-Homing Assistance Program
2009 – Provided guidance, assistance and a venue to help pet owners re-home their animals in a responsible way.

Funding
AnimalSave’s programs do not come without cost. We receive no government funding. We operate solely on private donations. From pennies dropped in dog and cat banks at local businesses, grants from the animal welfare foundations, proceeds from donated cars, small and large donations from individuals, fees from the spay/neuter clinic and adoption fees, thrift store earnings, income from our annual fund raiser (the Santa Paws Auction), and other special events we are able to provide our services.