The only things we lacked were confetti and those giant checks that take three people to hold up. But the TBC Gives team traveled around town today in a van with our very own paparazzi to hand deliver the more than $14,000 donated by the community for our Tails of Bakersfield fundraiser.
First stop: The Bakersfield SPCA. Total: $4,036.
According to Director Sandy Dralle, the donations will go to offset the costs of preparing animals for adoption, which includes spay/neuter, vaccination, pet food, a month of insurance and a veterinary check-up. While adoption fees for dogs are $76.50 and cats $54.50, the actual cost to prepare each animal is at least $265, not including if the animal needs treatment for an illness or injury. "It's the community donations that make up the difference," Sandy said.
Also, due to the increased awareness through Tails of Bakersfield, Sandy said the SPCA has seen 225 more adoptions during the 6-week period of the fundraiser this summer than during the same period last summer. "Many people came in because so many of the dogs in the photos had come from the SPCA," Sandy said.
Second stop: ALPHA Canine. Total: $7,271.25.
Director Marilyn Stewart was shocked to hear the community had donated so much. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. You guys are amazing," she said. The rescue organization plans to use the money for more proactive programs, such as giving more spay/neuter vouchers to low-income pet owners. The shelter is currently at capacity, with 97 dogs.
"What we're up against is we get 30 to 40 calls per day from people who want to drop off their dogs. If we doubled our facility, we'd fill it in a week. Then where would we be? But if we help people spay and neuter their pets, then we cut the puppy rate. This (facility) is reactive. We want to be proactive," Stewart said.
Third stop: Kern County Animal Shelter. Total: $1,211.25.
Division Chief Denise Haynes and Director Guy Shaw gladly accepted the community donations, saying the money will go for blankets, toys, shoe boxes for the kittens, and other materials. The agency's nonprofit, Friends of the Kern County Animal Shelter, also buys bigger items such as a new front-loading washer and dryer for the shelter and a travel crate to return a pit bull to an owner in Texas who had fallen ill while driving through Bakersfield with her dog.
The money will also go to offset costs for gas and supplies for transporting animals to rescue groups in other cities such as Seattle and Las Vegas, which have higher demand for adoptions than animals available.
Last stop: The Cat People. Total: $1,626.25.
We met with Barb Hayes at the Pawsitively Cats thrift shop on 18th Street — one of the nonprofit's means of fundraising. "This is just great. It's wonderful," she said.
The money will go toward veterinary bills for preparing cats for adoption, plus giving low-income people vouchers for cat food, litter, and spaying/neutering their pets. Hayes said their group does everything it can to help people keep their cats rather than have to give them up or abandon them in parks or elsewhere. "This year has been particularly bad. We're seeing full litters abandoned, moms and their kittens."
The Cat People does not have a shelter facility. They operate using a network of "foster families" and currently have about 200 kittens and cats under their care. Because of this, they do not accept cats from the public, but rather focus on emergency rescues where the cats' lives are in danger, Hayes said. The nonprofit has just, however, made a five-year goal to open a cat sanctuary and retirement home with an adoption center. "We've just run out of foster homes," she said.
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