Riverside County animal shelters are celebrating.

“Everything is empty, not one animal in kennel b, and it was full before all of this happened,” says a happy Marisa Sanabria the supervisor at the Riverside County Animal Campus in Thousand Palms.

Kennel b is empty, the cat kennels are empty, and most of kennel a is empty too.

Sanabria says this is an unexpected side effect of COVID-19, “We’re just all shocked here, we’re amazed in the 20 years I‘ve worked for riverside county animal services, I’ve never seen our shelter this empty.”

She says there, only six dogs are left, “And usually we have almost 200 dogs and I‘m going to say about 60 cats.”

Sanabria says people forced to stay at home finally have time for the pet they’ve always wanted, “They’re home now and they have a lot of time to spend to train their new pet.”

Plus animal rescue groups are picking up pets from the shelter and adopting them out as fast as they can get them.

“We’re adopting dogs like crazy, everybody is stuck at home so it’s a good time for people to acclimate to new pets to their family so we’re pulling as many as we can out of the county and city shelters,” says Jon Nimitz with the Coachella Valley Humane Society.

Nimitz says they also give those who adopt a two week trial period to make sure they and the pet are a good match.

Riverside County Animal Services says they also have resources available for people who are having a hard time keeping their pet during this crisis.

They are open by appointment only.

Click here to visit their website: RCDAS

Address:
Coachella Valley Animal Campus
72-050 Pet Land Place
Thousand Palms, CA 92276

Phone:
(760) 343-3644

People Sheltering at Home Clearing Riverside County Shelters