Are you considering buying a pet? Should you buy from a breeder or an animal shelter? Although buying from a breeder seems like the safer bet, getting a pet from a shelter is beneficial to the community, the animals and even the people.

The Rancho Cucamonga Animal Shelter is an open-admission shelter, which means that they will take in any animal, including those that are old, sick or stray. The shelter spays and neuters their animals, unlike the typical breeder, which helps with overpopulation and abandonment. The shelter also vaccinates, deworms and microchips their animals. According to community programs specialist Barbara Hansen, who oversees the volunteer and foster programs, they are not a 100% no-kill shelter.

“With some shelters saying they are no-kill, that means they’re very limited. They don’t take in strays and abandons; they only take in what people give them. So they are very limited and they have high restrictions,” said Hansen.

The Rancho Cucamonga shelter is available for adopting typical dogs and cats, but people often don’t know that they house a variety of different animals too. The shelter carries many types of animals. They have dogs and puppies, cats and kittens, bunnies, guinea pigs, birds, hamsters and even pigs.

“Those front doors are open to anyone who needs to surrender an animal if you live in the city. It could be a 16-year-old dog, it could be kittens and a mom cat, it could be an iguana, it could be a goat, it could be 25 rabbits. Whatever it would be, we can’t say, ‘Sorry, we’re closed today, we are full.’ We are always open to the public for owner surrenders, stray animals, and abandoned animals,” said Hansen.

There have been many dogs and cats that haven’t lived their full lifespan, killed because of an insufficient amount of people who are willing to adopt. On the other hand, the Rancho Cucamonga Animal Shelter only puts down animals that are either too sick, not responding to medications, or too aggressive. Also, they prefer to euthanize their animals using a painless needle that only takes 4 to 5 seconds to work. According to Hansen, their kill rate is less than 12%, while other kill-shelters have a kill rate of 40 to 60%.

According to Hansen, about 20 volunteers visit the animal shelter each day to walk dogs, feed rabbits, socialize with kittens, and more. This allows the animals to get comfortable with humans.

“We definitely encourage volunteers and staff to socialize with kittens, underage kittens, and cats with behavior problems, because if not, those cats are going to be sitting in the corners, under the blankets, scared].  [If] you can’t touch them, and then how are we going to adopt them into homes?” said Hansen.

Also, adopted pets come at a much cheaper price than they would if purchased from a breeder.

“Breeders are charging $500-600, maybe even $900 per puppy, whereas our prices for a dog are $100 and a puppy is $120,” said Hansen.

There are hundreds of pets at the shelter that are available for adoption today.

Volunteering at your local animal shelter can be a beneficial activity too. It can teach important skills like problem solving and responsibility.

“We open the kitten nursery where we can allow 12- to 17-year-old kids with a parent because that way it’s teaching them about animals, it’s teaching about nutrition, it’s about nurturing, it’s about overpopulation. All these animals coming in, especially in the summertime, really gets kids to start asking,” said Hansen. “It’s a good way of communicating to young people to start thinking about those issues.”

Making a donation to your local animal shelter is a final way to allow the shelter to expand and improve its facilities..

To learn more about how you can help your local animal shelter, please visit https://www.cityofrc.us/cityhall/animalcare/ or call (909) 466-7387. To contact RC pets for questions, concerns or for more adoption information, please email [email protected]. They are also located at 11780 Arrow Route, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739.