Inside Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter

The Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter (SCCAS) serves the county and city of Santa Cruz and the cities of Scotts Valley and Watsonville. They are separate from the private, non-profit Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SCPA) in Santa Cruz which each year places about 800 unwanted dogs and cats into new homes. They also educate people on humane treatment of animals and operate a pet food bank.
However, the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter takes in local pets, receiving approximately 5,000 animals a year most of which can be strays, rescued, or put up for adoption by families who can no longer care for a pet. Some of the animals have health issues and need to be nursed back to health before they can be placed for adoption.
SCCAS also offers low cost spay/neuter services, 24 hours emergency animal rescue and animal control, outreach to the homeless with pets, humane education programs, and free vaccination fairs. While SCCAS always has cats, dogs, and rabbits for adoption, no domestic animals are ever turned away from the open-admission shelter, so there could be birds, farm animals, even reptiles or fish at SCCAS!
Legally, the SCCAS is obliged to hold stray or rescued animals for only 72 hours (plus the day the animal arrives), however, they hold animals at least five days, placing a photo on their website so people searching for their pets can check to see if they have them. For people without computer access, they have a telephone recording which tells about found animals. But the best way to search for your lost pet is to come into the Shelter and check!
They sometimes have animals in their facility for weeks and months. They do not generally euthanize animals unless there are untreatable health issues or behavioral traits which make the animal unadoptable.
SCCAS receives much of their budget from contracts with local municipalities and through dog licensing but a sizeable percentage is from grants, donations and fundraisers. A small percentage of their budget comes from Santa CruzCounty. There is a full-time veterinarian on staff along with 30 employees. They also rely on a dedicated crew of 300 volunteers from the community.
One of the best reasons to adopt from a shelter is because most of their animals have lived with a family and can relatively easily adapt into a new household. Also, adoption from SCCAS includes spaying/neutering, a microchip, worming, vaccinations and a certificate for a free health exam.
Their website is full of excellent information and is easy to navigate. You can even see photos of some of the really cute animals available for adoption: www.scanimalshelter.org. Visit them at 2200 7th Avenue, Santa Cruz, telephone 831.454.7200.