TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

For years, aggressive efforts by nonprofit animal rescue groups have saved the lives of thousands of dogs and cats that Kern County Animal Control didn't have the money, space or staffing to shelter.

But that effort faltered a bit in 2011, with rescues saving 1,422 fewer animals than the year before, according to a Californian analysis of county records. That's a huge 28 percent drop.

The number of adoptions, transfers out of the shelter and animals returned to their owners also fell. The toll was high: animal control officers had to euthanize 965 more animals last year than the year before.

The numbers show that despite years of debate, planning and reform, Kern County has achieved little true change in its fight against animal overpopulation.

Animal activists and shelter staff say the only true solution is to spay and neuter thousands of dogs and cats, slowing the birth rate and stemming the tide of stray and unwanted pets into the shelter.

But the county has limited funds to subsidize spay and neuter surgeries. Construction of a low-cost spay and neuter clinic has barely been discussed.

And while Kern County supervisors often talk about animal owners taking responsibility for their actions, they have twice refused to pass a law that would mandate responsible behavior.

RESCUE CHALLENGE

Recent problems include shelter staff struggling to build and maintain good working relationships with rescue groups while also battling increases in parvo-virus and distemper cases that have cost some adoptable animals their shot at a rescue.

Nearly all of the rescue groups are based outside Kern County and have to coordinate trips of hundreds of miles to pull multiple animals from the shelter at one time.

There is often competition among rescues for pure-bred and other highly adoptable animals. And the average Kern County citizen has just as much right to adopt an animal as the rescues do.

Handling all those moving parts can be tough for county shelter staff who have been short-staffed this past year.

"The staff is really caring down there. But they don't have enough staff," said Salinas animal rescuer Debra Long of the Animal Friends Rescue Project.

Disease has complicated the rescue effort as well.

Animal Care Worker Sally Breyer, who works with rescues to save shelter pets, said the past couple winters failed to produce the freeze needed to kill of strains of common canine and feline viruses. That has resulted in higher numbers of parvo and distemper cases in the shelter.

Long remembers a litter of puppies that came up for adoption at the Kern County shelter in December.

There was a lot of interest from both the public and rescue community, she said.

Shelter staff were working through the long list of people who wanted the dogs and getting them prepped for adoption.

But Long said the process took three weeks and, as things were wrapping up, the puppies came down with parvo, a highly-contagious and deadly disease.

They all had to be euthanized.

NEW EFFORTS

Breyer said Kern County Animal Control is doing everything it can with the resources it has to help rescues, keep animals healthy and encourage the public to take care of their pets.

County vouchers, which pay all but $20 of the cost for a spay or neuter surgery, are handed out to low-income pet owners on the third Saturday of every month at the county shelter on South Mount Vernon Avenue.

And the county now offers $3 parvo and distemper shots at the neighborhood rabies vaccination clinics it holds regularly, hoping to curb outbreaks in the community and ultimately the shelter.

But the biggest effort may be the trips Breyer and other staff are making to Burbank, San Francisco and other rescue-heavy areas.They take van loads of animals to groups that can foster and find new homes for the animals.

"A lot of these smaller organizations run on a system of foster homes," Breyer said.

It's much easier for those rescuers to drive to a nearby parking lot and take a hand-off from shelter staff than to drive to Kern County to pick up the animals.

The transports, which started in early December, save lives.

"If it gets those animals out two, three days sooner, they're less likely to get sick," Breyer said.

COMMUNITY PROBLEM

A total of 30,732 animals from Bakersfield, Mojave, Tehachapi, Arvin, Lamont, Taft and the Kern River Valley were handled by Kern County shelters in 2011. Of those, 64 percent were euthanized, an increase in the rate of euthanization from the 61 percent recorded in 2010.

Long mostly blames local pet owners for the overpopulation problem.

"The public does not vaccinate and they do not spay and neuter," she said.

Breyer said the cost to alter an animal can be daunting, even for the most animal-friendly person.

"Our residents care. They just need the help and the options," she said. "In our economy and our poverty level, nobody has $150 to shell out for a spay-neuter even though they love their little dog."

Kern County needs a low- or no-cost spay neuter clinic and to create a financial incentive for people to fix their pets, Long said.

The county has come a long way in its efforts to improve its operations and its efforts on behalf of animals, she said, but will never "get a breather at the shelter" until it levies stiff fees on animal owners who want to keep their pet's reproductive organs intact.

Kern already has a two-tier licensing fee that offers a discount for pets who have been fixed and has re-launched a team of officers to issue notices to the owners of unlicensed animals.

But Long said the county needs to go much further.

OPTIONS

Moving further, however, would involve Kern County re-starting the debate over whether to mandate the spaying or neutering of animals.

County supervisors have considered the requirement twice, only to face a fierce backlash from animal owners who breed their pets and sell the offspring.

Breeders argued any spay-neuter mandate would invade their personal and business privacy. And they argue that the unsavory breeders causing the problem would simply go underground.

Supervisors have sided with the breeders, instead supporting increased work with rescues, spay-and-neuter vouchers, land use rules requiring licensing of owners with a large number of animals, and licensing sweeps.

Janice Anderson, a member of the Kern County Animal Control Commission, which advises the Board of Supervisors on animal control policies, has always opposed mandatory spay-neuter laws.

She said the county's animal enforcement and shelter system has been battered by management changes and budget cuts. While good programs have been planned and launched, the hurley-burley has kept the system perpetually rattled.

That is changing, she said.

Supervisors have agreed to send more money to animal control, make it a stand-alone department that reports directly to them and hire a department head to run the organization.

There are a lot of great people and great things going on at animal control, Anderson said, but "we need solid footing. We need somebody at the top who is going to stay in place. "

And the system needs time for the changes to take hold and show dividends.

Supervisor Jon McQuiston said the effort to promote low-cost spay and neuter must be "very aggressive" and that animal control officers should focus on enforcing licensing and holding "irresponsible owners accountable for what they're animals are doing."

But he said, the board will not consider the mandatory spay-neuter issue on its own, though the public could ask for the idea to be looked at.