November 5, 2004

October 28, 2004

San Jose Animal Care Center opens its doors to needy animals from five cities

50,000 square-foot facility is largest of its kind on West Coast

By Shari Kaplan
Editor

“Pick me; pick me!” “Where’s my human?” “I could use a hug!” “Who wants to play?”

If stray, lost and abandoned animals could talk, the halls of the new San Jose Animal Care Center (SJACC) at 2750 Monterey Road would echo with many such questions and exclamations. Not that translation is really necessary to understand a dog’s eager bark or tail wag, or a cat’s musical meow or gentle head-butt.

This outgoing terrier mix is one of hundreds of furry friends looking for new homes at the San Jose Animal Care Center.

The animals can’t speak or write of their needs, however, nor can they build themselves a shelter, so the city of San Jose stepped in to help them. As of Oct. 1, San Jose became the sole provider of animal shelter services for its own 920,000-plus residents, as well as those of Los Gatos, Saratoga, Cupertino and Milpitas.

“This is an open-door facility—we take it all. Any abandoned or stray animals are welcome. If people no longer want their pets, they can bring them in,” says Jon Cicirelli, deputy director of San Jose’s Animal Care & Service Division. Not limited to canines and felines, the SJACC also welcomes rabbits, rodents, birds, reptiles and other small pets. If the shelter doesn’t have the right facilities to care for certain unusual or exotic species, staff will place them with members of rescue and foster care groups who specialize in these animals.

All incoming animals are evaluated by veterinarians and staff behaviorists to see if any problems, such as serious illness, injury or aggressive nature, preclude them from being adopted. If there’s no hope for physical or emotional rehabilitation, the animals are euthanized. However, this is a last resort, according to Cicirelli.

Lost or stray pets brought to the shelter by citizens or animal service officers are put in holding kennels in the hopes that their owners will come and claim them. If not claimed after a number of days, they are put up for adoption, along with animals surrendered by their owners. All animals are screened for diseases and, if not already altered, are spayed or neutered by professional veterinarians on-site.

“People have different reasons why they give up an animal. Some people get in genuinely bad situations. The most common reason for giving up an animal is when people are moving or have landlord issues,” Cicirelli says.

“Other people just don’t want the animal anymore. But at least they made a smart decision to bring it to a shelter, rather than setting it loose, or handing it off to someone who’ll pass it on to someone else.”

The first stop for prospective pet parents is the Adoption Gallery, a bright, spacious area with cafe-style tables (with plenty of pens for filling out adoption papers) and rows of windows through which dogs and cats can be viewed without unduly disturbing the animals. “It has sort of a store-front quality of presentation. We want to make it more pleasing for visitors,” says Cicirelli. “If a facility is attractive and appealing, more people will come and more people will adopt.”

A touch-screen kiosk is also available for people to check if their lost animal has turned up at the shelter or to “browse” among adoptable animals by breed, picture, gender or age; the same features are also available via the SJACC’s Website.

If adopters are attracted to a particular furry friend, they can request a session in one of the “get acquainted rooms.” Here, shelter staff or volunteers introduce human and animal in a quiet environment and allow them time to get to know each other.

Dogs may also be taken outside to the back courtyard, where special enclosed areas allow them to peek, sniff and visit—albeit through a fence—with dogs already owned by the people considering adoption.

“We’d hate to have a dog go home and get into a big fight with the other dog who lives there,” Cicirelli says of this canine compatibility test. “We’d rather have people bring their dog here first, so they can meet.”

Elsewhere in the attractively landscaped courtyard are additional rooms with viewing windows—this time just for cats, who outnumber dogs—along with dog kennels that visitors can walk through on their own and ask for assistance if they wish to interact with the dog.

“Part of our adoption campaign is that you get a really ‘good deal’ here! Where else can you pay $105 and get a dog that’s been spayed or neutered, vaccinated and microchipped and comes with a one-year license?” says Cicirelli, referring to adoption fees for dogs younger than six. Older dogs cost $55, with the price dropping to $25 if adopted by senior citizens. Cats, which leave the shelter with the same attributes as dogs, cost $75 or $30, depending on whether they are younger or older than six. Seniors can adopt cats for just $15. Fees for other animals vary from $5 to $20.

Cicirelli says the 50,000 square-foot, $18 million shelter has been in the works since 1999, although bureaucratic red tape, disagreements among participating cities, a contractor’s unexpected bankruptcy and bad weather all contributed to delays in getting the project underway.

San Jose created its Animal Care & Services Division as a response to the Humane Society Silicon Valley (HSSV) announcing it could no longer provide animal shelter and field service contracts to all of Santa Clara County’s cities. The Santa Clara-based shelter currently accepts animals from the cities of Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Campbell and Monte Sereno. The seeds of change were actually planted in 1998, when the HSSV board of directors voted to begin phasing out its contracts with ever-expanding San Jose to house the city’s stray animals.

HSSV President Christine Benninger says the SJACC is a boon to whole South Bay, because it increases resources and shelter space for animals many times over, which in turn will help reduce the need for euthanasia.

“Too many animals are euthanized in shelters throughout the Bay Area because there is no room in a particular shelter, they are sick, need prolonged therapy or have a behavioral problem that renders them unadoptable,”

Benninger says. “We want to work with the city of San Jose to change that, and we welcome them as our newest partner in animal welfare.”

According to Cicirelli, the SJACC is the largest single animal shelter in California, so it’s well up to the task. And it’s still growing, with a 4,500 square-foot phase opening by the spring of 2005 to house additional cats as well as a spay and neuter clinic. In the near future, the shelter will also offer animal care classes, volunteer orientations, vaccination clinics, spay/neuter clinics and adoption fairs.

The San Jose Animal Care Center is located at 2750 Monterey Rd. It currently has a broad range of volunteer positions available to animal-lovers ages 18 and up. For more information about volunteering, adoption or any of the shelter’s other services, call (408) 578-PAWS or visit www.sanjoseanimals.com on the Internet.