Shelter won't take healthy stray cats

The department will sterilize, vaccinate and ear-tag feral adult felines before releasing them

Just 51% of cats that went into Riverside County-run animal shelters in 2023 made it out alive.

It’s an unacceptable number to the county’s Department of Animal Services, which is taking a multi-pronged approach — including no longer taking in healthy stray adult cats — in hopes of saving 5,000 cats’ lives in 2024.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 5-0 to approve the 5,000 Cat Challenge and the policy change on accepting mature felines that aren’t surrendered by owners.

“We hope with these efforts that we’ll be able to make this significant change in our department and save more cat lives in Riverside County,” Director of Animal Services Erin Gettis told supervisors.

“Five thousand cats is a large number and we’re up for the task.”

When it comes to cats, the department, which operates four shelters and serves large swaths of the county — some cities use nonprofit groups such as Animal Friends of the Valleys for their animal services — is accustomed to large numbers. It reported having the largest cat intake in the nation — roughly 13,000 cats — in 2023.

Launched in January, the 5,000 Cat Challenge is modeled after the Million Cat Challenge, a partnership linked to UC Davis and the University of Florida that is credited with saving 5 million cats nationwide since 2014.

To meet its goal, the department will sterilize, vaccinate and ear-tag feral adult cats trapped by residents, volunteers and animal welfare groups before releasing them. It will continue to take in cats whose owners die or are no longer able to care for them, assuming they can’t be fostered or adopted out.

Working with rescue groups, the county has already held three events in which feral cats were trapped, spayed or neutered, tagged and released, Gettis said.

The department offers data to support its new policy.

Lost cats, according to the department, are 13 times more likely to be reunited with owners through non-shelter means, and more than 60% of lost cats return home on their own with less than 2% of cats in shelters being reclaimed by their owners.

Feral cats are unsocialized, legally free to roam and “would be neither appropriate nor happy as traditional pets in a home,” a resolution on the new