Fix Our Shelters felt a response was needed in regards to a City of Sacramento homeless encampment (Camp Resolution) being cleared and the impact to the pets of the unhoused and the seemingly direct correlation of the killing of existing shelter animals because of it. We sent the following email to City of Sacramento Leaders:
Hello Sacramento City Leaders,
Most of you know me from our group Fix Front Street. Due to the ongoing issues we have seen in Sacramento City Animal Services since Director Zimmerman took the helm, it prompted us to create the non-profit Fix Our Shelters. Our goal at FOS is to advocate, educate & legislate on behalf of animals, with the primary focus being municipal shelters.
We monitor Front Street's statistics daily, we look at their kennel space and euthanasia numbers. Throughout much of this year the number of dogs in the kennels ranged between the mid 150's to the high 170's. Prior to the clearing of Camp Resolution, we noticed a spike in euthanasia at Front Street which coincided with a significant drop in the number of dogs being housed in the kennels at the pound. It dropped to 140 dogs being housed. At the time we first noticed, FOS was unclear of the reasoning, as we were unaware of the animal impact at Camp Resolution. We now see a clear connection between the spike in euthanasia with the originally anticipated number of 50 dogs that the City & Front Street leadership thought they would be intaking.
The City of Sacramento has failed over the handling of the unhoused crisis for years (as well as failed at animal services), but now it appears your failures with the unhoused are directly resulting in the massacre of animals.
The City has been working on the camp closure for literal years now and has known for months that it would definitively be closing. Why then were the plans for the animals so last minute? There was zero public outreach of the animal needs from Front Street. The minimal outreach that did happen, happened at the very end of last week, For example an email went out from Director Zimmerman to other shelter directors asking for them to transfer some animals out on the (I believe) Friday before the Camp Resolution sweep on Monday and AFTER multiple dogs had already been killed to make room.
Front Street's last social media post prior to the Camp Resolution sweep was on August 21st and it was about chickens. Once again, where was the urgency to save animals? There were only 2 social media posts that made mention of the need to get animals safely out of the shelter (see attachments) and they were posted over the weekend by individuals that did not represent the City nor Front Street and had a very limited reach.and again were posted after the city appears to have made room by killing animals they already had.
Why does killing seem to be the first response always for the shelter's need for space? In June and July of this year, about 1/4th of the number of animals entering the shelter did not make it out alive. Their live release rate for this period was lowest of the other closest municipal shelters in our region. Why is the city accepting this as normal and ok?
I also did not see any local news reporting on the need to clear shelter space prior to the sweep or prior to the killing, however the City and Front Street has certainly used the local news as a prop after the fact. KCRA's headline today is "Front Street Animal Shelter caring for Camp Resolution dogs, cats as residents work to find housing for them" ... Well doesn't that sound nice & kind? The reality is not nice nor kind. In addition to the pre-game warm-up of killing for space, there's no mention of what often happens to the pets of the unhoused once they enter the shelter system in Sacramento.
Per a quote in the KCRA article from Front Street's Homeless Outreach Assistance Program (HOAP) liaison, Jenna Topper “Ultimately, our goal is to support pet owners to be the best pet owners they can be” & “The relationship between an owner and a pet is, you know, an unfathomable bond” Why then isn't the city of Sacramento & Front Street Animal Shelter living up to those same standards of being the best that they can be and honoring those unfathomable bonds? Instead those animals are killed due to minimal effort and either end up at a rendering plant or a landfill.
Pets of the unhoused often come in with behavioral issues of varying degrees as well as they quickly develop kennel stress. In most instances, the response from Front Street is not to do anything other than pass out some drugs to them to calm them down. There is no immediate attempt to neuter which would alleviate many behavior issues in the young male dogs, which are much more likely to be euthanized "for behavior" or "space & behavior". There's no real human interaction with these dogs once the behavior label has been placed on them. Instead what happens is these dogs with the behavior and kennel stress labels are moved to the quarantine kennels, out of public view. The problem with that is, once they are out of public view, they are much less likely to be adopted, because the average visitor to the shelter won't even know they exist. In turn, they are more likely to be euthanized. Unless changes are made, the 11 dogs that actually did come in from Camp Resolution will meet this same fate, if the owners are ultimately unable to reclaim.
This is a sick, vicious cycle, We have been bringing up the multitude of issues as to what is going on at City of Sacramento Animal Services for over 4 years now, With the exception of when former Councilmember Ashby spoke up in December of 2021 demanding change and accountability and belief in the advocates prior to her leaving for the Senate, (ironically while we were arguing against the HOAP funding because we knew it would be mismanaged),, the city has done absolutely nothing to improve the problems with Front Street. The problems with Animal Services have only increasingly gotten worse (much like the homeless crisis).
Given that there are far better solutions, some as simple as a social media post, animal culling should not ever be the answer.
When will the City of Sacramento leaders do and demand better?
At the very least, please stop gaslighting and using your media contacts to present a false image.
I look forward to each of your responses,
Elyse Mize
Fix Our Shelters
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