March 12-16 is National Wildlife Week! Orange County is a beautiful home not only to us and our pets, but to wildlife too. Now that Spring is around the corner, wildlife may be integrating itself into our lives a little more as it is peek breeding season for most of these animals. Here are some tips on how to share our homes with these wildlife animals to help ensure safety for us and our pets, as well as discouraging destructive behavior. • Cats and small dogs can be easy prey for predators and should be supervised as closely as possible or kept indoors. • Keep pet food indoors and do not leave food of any kind outside at night. Food left out at night will be taken as a welcome invitation by wildlife, and may prompt a future visit. • Remove any fruit which has fallen to the ground. • Store trash in covered, heavy-duty containers. • Keep yards free from potential shelter such as thick brush and weeds, and enclose the bottoms of porches and decks. • Eliminate garbage, debris, lumber piles, etc. • Check fencing and try to eliminate access points to roof tops. • Change automatic sprinkler settings regularly. Click Here for more information on tips to keep your pets safe from wildlife. Click Here for more information more information on the wildlife in Orange County.
OC Animal Care hosted its last event at the City Drive location, and we had a great turnout! On Saturday, March 10th and Sunday, March 11th, the shelter’s “We’re Moving Adoption Event” helped 69 shelter pets find a home! 22 cats, 35 dogs, 10 rabbits and 2 exotic pets were adopted. OC Animal Care is excited to close this chapter and move to our brand new state of the art facility. Thank you to everyone who came to our final event, shared their love and support and adopted a shelter pet.
The County of Orange celebrated the completion of OC Animal Care’s new shelter with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 7. The new, modern OC Animal Care shelter at 1630 Victory Road replaces the aging OC Animal Care shelter in Orange built in the 1940s. “We are here to resolve a critical need in Orange County,” said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, whose Third District is home to the new facility. “This facility will be the hub of education, setting the standard for ethical and transparent animal care for the entire country. The humane treatment in this facility is designed to raise live adoptability rates that currently stand at 96 percent for dogs and 57 percent for cats. The goal is 100 percent responsible adoption for all pets.” Officials from some of the contract cities, including Tustin, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Newport Beach, Villa Park and Yorba Linda, were in attendance to take self-guided tours of the new facility. On behalf of his City Council colleagues and staff, Tustin Mayor Al Murray presented the County of Orange with a Certificate of Recognition, stating he looks forward to continuing the partnership. read more
Our Animal Control Officers are awesome! On Tuesday, February 27, Officer Staveley and Officer Vazquez responded to a residence where a Barn owl had been stuck inside a fireplace for a couple of days. Our officers were able to reach and safely remove the owl who was later transported to a licensed rehabber. Thank you for helping this beautiful animal! Click Here for more information on local wildlife in Orange County.
On Sunday, March 4th, we attended OC Animal Care Night at Honda Center. Staff, volunteers and pups went to the Hockey Spot where they rooted for the Ducks, listened to music and met with the Power Players. They won the game, and OC Animal Care won big with all of the donations brought by Ducks fans! It was a day to remember, and all of the doggos who attended the event were adopted! We’d like to give special thanks to our amazing partners, the Anaheim Ducks, for all of their support.
Please join us in congratulating our February volunteers of the month, the amazing husband and wife team Tim and Ann! This pair of perfect volunteers are retired groomers who bring years of experience and love to our shelter pets. Tim and Ann are exceptionally patient and in just 4 months of volunteering with us have helped groom and beautify more than 30 dogs! Some of the pets they groom are very fearful, uncomfortable or have never been groomed before so it takes them many dedicated hours to help some of our shelter pups become their most beautiful selves. We are so appreciative of Tim & Ann for their incredible efforts to help our shelter dogs look their best and find their forever homes more quickly.
Today is Spay Day USA! In recognition of helping reduce and bring awareness to this cause, OC Animal Care hosted a Spay Day USA discount event last Saturday! All dogs, cats and bunnies adopted from our shelter on Saturday, February 24th received a free spay/neuter. A total of 34 shelter pets (21 dogs, 11 cats and 3 rabbits) were adopted into loving homes! Special thanks to Pet Qwerks Toys also stopped by to join in the festivities, and brought treats for all of our shelter dogs and goodie bags for all who adopted. Here at OC Animal Care we would like to thank staff, volunteers and everyone who adopted a shelter pet during Spay Day USA! To learn more about the importance of Spaying or Neutering your pet or see a list of low cost spay/neuter clinics, visit: http://www.ocpetinfo.com/edu/clinics
On Tuesday, February 6th, Animal Control Officer Ramirez rescued an injured Red-Tailed Hawk at Carbon Canyon Regional Park. The injured bird was laying on its side unable to fly, and was later transferred to an avian specialist. Great job Officer Ramirez! Click Here to learn more about the wildlife in Orange County!
We would like to congratulate Barbara as our January volunteer of the month. Barbara has long been a well-loved fixture at OC Animal Care, assisting with rescue pets and the shelter intervention program as well as extraordinary networking of animals in need to adoption partners. Just a few months ago Barbara decided to branch out and become a volunteer as well at OC Animal Care and specifically in our Greeting assignment. Our Greeters are such an important part of our shelter experience for visitors, and we are so lucky to have Barbara’s smiling face up front to say hello to community members and guide them where they need to go. Despite her busy schedule Barbara has already donated nearly 40 hours to making the shelter experience better for everyone! Let’s all congratulate Barbara as Volunteer of the Month for her extraordinary service to our shelter pets and community! Thank you Barbara!
During the month of February, OC Animal Care held their annual Adopt a Shelter Rabbit Month. We encourage everyone to hop on down and find some bunny to love! All floppy eared friends adopted during February received a free spay/neuter and microchip. Month long event was a success, and a total of 20 bunnies found their forever homes!
