Riverside County Warns About Bringing ‘Stray’ Cats To The Shelter — Some Might Be Pets

When the Riverside County Department of Animal Services took in the highest number of cats out of anywhere in the country, only a little more than half of the animals left the shelter system alive.

Now, shelter operators are trying to flip the script on how people approach cats they think are strays. Because as it turns out, some of those cats weren’t actually strays, which meant the shelters were being clogged with what were essentially “catnapped” pets.

Jaclyn Schart, the deputy director for the Riverside County Department of Animal Services, said people have been told for years that if you see an animal outside alone, you should bring it to a shelter.

“So people did that, and unfortunately what happened is we were kidnapping people's cats,” she said.

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But fewer than 1% of the cats that end up in a shelter are reclaimed by their families, according to Schart. She noted that a lot of people were trying to be helpful by bringing them in, but that can quickly cause overcrowding.

Last June, the Riverside County Department of Animal Services had more than 600 cats across its four shelters, with more than 400 at the Western Riverside location alone.

“We need help,” Schart said. “We cannot take in that many cats because we can't help them, because they're going to get sick in our environment when we're that crowded.”

To help the department focus on the sick and injured animals that need care most, Schart said you shouldn’t worry if you see a cat hanging around outside and the top of its left ear is clipped. That’s known as eartipping and is a nearly universal sign that a feral feline has been fixed and vaccinated.

Representatives for L.A. Animal Services and O.C. Animal Care did not respond to requests for comment on their own stray cat populations.

'Crisis of kittens'

Michael Phipps-Russell is the executive director for Loving All Animals, which provides adoption services and educational programs throughout Riverside County.

He told LAist the euthanasia numbers can be breathtakingly difficult to face, and the county’s kitten population has a lot to do with it.

According to data from the Animal Welfare Coalition of Riverside County, more than 11,000 kittens were brought into shelters last year.

May saw the most by far, with 2,282 kittens coming in for care, compared to about 1,800 in June and 1,200 in July.

Phipps-Russell said to reduce the kitten population come springtime, you have to start ramping up spaying and neutering between July through October.

“If we don't become more aggressive at this, we're going to have even worse numbers in 2024,” Phipps-Russell said.

Part of the problem, he said, is how huge Riverside County is. If a spay and neuter clinic opens in downtown Riverside, that’s still about a five-hour round trip for people and pets living in Blythe.

He said it’s important to offer these services in all areas, even the outlying ones, year round to make a difference.

“If we reduce the number of kittens in the community, then we can reduce the amount of shelter euthanasia,” Phipps-Russell said.

How you can help 

The county’s “5,000 Cats Challenge” is modeled after the nationwide “Million Cat Challenge” to help shelters save lives.

If you have a cat and it isn’t fixed, keep them inside.

That will help make sure more kittens aren’t being born, and it’ll also help you avoid a citation. Riverside County requires all cats and dogs to be spayed or neutered.

The Riverside County Department of Animal Services also offers free engraved pet tags and adoptions whenever it's raining, according to Schart.

You can take a look at the adoptable cats and kittens at the Western Riverside, San Jacinto Valley, Coachella Valley, and Blythe shelters here.

If you can’t make it to those locations, more than a dozen Petco and PetSmart stores across the county also have feline friends up for adoption.