A few tears, a couple of stray barks and lots of hugs and handshakes greeted the news last week that the Santa Cruz County Animal Care and Control had received official recognition from the Best Friends Animal Society as a No Kill Shelter.
Lt. Jose Peña, the county’s animal control supervisor, invited representatives from a host of local rescue agencies to join him, his staff and a pair of canines in sharing the news with the County Board of Supervisors last Wednesday.
Peña cited the dedication of the animal control staff and the collaboration of the rescue agencies in achieving “No Kill” status – which indicates a save rate of 90 percent or better for animals entering and leaving the county shelter, which consists of only 20 available kennels.
Best Friends provided a $100,000 grant and arranged a mentoring program with Pinal County Animal Care and Control to help Santa Cruz meet its No Kill goal.
“The way the public views us now is totally different,” Peña said in an interview on Best Friends’s website. “We get more donations, more help, more everything from the public.”
The recognition comes as a difficult time for animal protection efforts in the county. The Santa Cruz Humane Society, a nonprofit not affiliated with the county, announced in July it would be shuttering its operation in the next few months due to financial constraints. There is insufficient room in the county shelter to accommodate the Humane Society’s animals, so efforts to rehome those are underway. Meanwhile, the county is considering options for funding short- and longer-term solutions to its lack of capacity, including a new animal control facility with a price tag in the millions of dollars.