Lower Lake >> Across the community, feral cats slink around parking lots like fiends. Most of them aren’t fixed, and their numbers never seem to dwindle.
“We have an epidemic of unspayed and unneutered animals here in Lake County,” said Terri Larsen with Animal Assist and Rescue. “The impact on our community is devastating.”
But feral cats outside stores are only part of the problem. Many pet owners don’t take their cats and dogs to the vet to have them fixed. As a result, unwanted animals seem to wander neighborhoods. They spread disease, they continue to increase the stray population, they die.
Animal Assist and Rescue wants to put a stop to it. Incorporated as a nonprofit in December of 2015, the organization works with a number of entities — from local vets to Lake County Animal Control to the Clearlake Pet Project — to provide low and no cost spay and neuter services.
Their most recent project, a pet pantry, is upping the ante. Animal Assist and Rescue is giving pet food to low income families and survivors of the Rocky, Valley and Clayton fires with one caveat — pets must be fixed. Proof is required. If an owner doesn’t have proof that their animal has been spayed or neutered, they can visit a vet for a certificate.
“Why provide food for people who are not properly taking care of their pets to begin with?” Larsen asked.
The group began in the aftermath of the Valley Fire. As the owner of Lake County Magazine, Larsen had access to fire affected areas closed to the public. When she traveled up into Cobb, she noticed all the cats running around. So she got in touch with animal control and Middletown veterinarians, tipping them off every time she headed into the mountains and spotted new cats.
However, the issue didn’t seem to ease when these areas were reopened to the public. Cats still roamed in alarming numbers. Then Larsen saw the pleas of people looking for the pets they were forced to leave behind in the chaos of evacuations. She began trapping animals and reuniting them with their owners.
In the process, she noticed the abundance of stray and feral cats wandering the areas as well. She did what she could, taking them to vets to have them fixed, then returning them to the wild. But when kitten season rolled around, with the SPCA’s seriously limited resources and the overwhelming number of animals flowing into animal control, Larsen knew more drastic measures had to be taken.
That was when Animal Assist and Rescue, Inc. began their fight to reduce the number of unfixed animals living on the streets of Lake County. In addition to spay and neuter services, as well as caring for sick and injured animals, the nonprofit has also teamed up with PetSmart Charities to adopt out pets in Santa Rosa. Since April of 2016, they’ve adopted out 83 cats and kittens. That’s 83 fewer strays on the street.
The nonprofit organization has also recently received a grant from Banfield Pet Hospital. Each person who adopts a cat through Animal Assist and Rescue receives a gift certificate for their next vet visit.
“It’s very satisfying when you bring an animal down there and someone falls in love with it,” Larsen said. “There’s no better feeling than that in the world and it doesn’t get any better than that.”
The Santa Rosa PetSmart has been instrumental in getting the pet pantry off the ground. So far they’ve given Animal Assist and Rescue four massive truckloads of every type of dog and cat food imaginable, all donated by their customers. In fact, that particular PetSmart store holds the record for the highest number of donations.
Like the nonprofit itself, the pet pantry began in the aftermath of a blaze. Just a week before the Clayton Fire, Larsen closed on a building in Lower Lake, which she had bought to expand Lake County Magazine’s business endeavors. Then when the fire devastated many of their neighbors, Larsen and her crew turned the building into a distribution center. They accepted everything, from furniture and dishware to clothing and pet food.
But the pet food dwindled, and Animal Assist and Rescue reached out to PetSmart. They received such a generous donation, they suddenly had so much food that they didn’t know what to do with it all.
The pet pantry was born.
All fire survivors are eligible to receive one week’s worth of food once a month. Proof that they lost their homes in one of the fires is required. Anyone whose household makes less than $25,000 a year can also claim a week of pet food.
For those who would like to take advantage of the pet pantry, but don’t currently have their pets fixed, Animal Assist and Rescue will help with spay and neuter services.
If this sounds like quite the undertaking, that’s because it is. The organization is almost constantly running at a deficit. Larsen estimates that their overhead medical costs outweigh donations by 30%.
“The good news is we get all the kitties fixed and get them into wonderful home,” she said, adding that anyone who wants to adopt a cat must fill out an application and pay a hefty fee. “We’re not going to give to anyone who is going to neglect the animal.”
And with the help of Jeremy Williams and Cindy Midkiff, who essentially work for free, Animal Assist and Rescue, are able to continue their efforts as well as work toward their ultimate goal — open an animal shelter that would allow cats and dogs to stay indefinitely.
Anyone who wants to donate to the organization can do so through PayPal: paypal.me/slcvalleyfirecattrappers@gmail.com. Donations can also be sent directly to PO Box 1375, Lower Lake, 95457.
The pet pantry is located at 8466 Lake Street, Lower Lake. Contact Animal Assist and Rescue, Inc. at 701-6029.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
