Tell Us YOUR Story
Your elected officials need to know your real life experience with local animal services. The most powerful catalyst for change is the truth. Please share in the form below:
We want to become a no-kill community where we save 90% or more of the cats and dogs that enter our county shelter. With your support, we can do it.
Riverside County's 5,000 Cat Challenge has led to real, demonstrable progress in the saving of cat lives.
The save rate for cats in July was 67.1%.
The save rate for dogs in July was 75.6%, up from 72% in June.
We Are 90 is a local initiative of Best Friends Animal Society to help educate and mobilize the public and elected officials to take the final steps in achieving a 90% save rate in the Riverside County shelter system.
We Are 90 is a community-focused, community-led effort to demand a commitment from local elected officials and shelter leaders to implement lifesaving programs and save at least 90% of the healthy, treatable animals that enter our shelters.
We Are 90 is about uniting for a common goal: engaging the community to take the next steps to achieve no-kill.
Together, we can achieve 90%.
Riverside County has made initial strides in saving the lives of the companion animals living in our community.
Recently, the Riverside County Department of Animal Services (RCDAS) has begun to implement critical programs and best practices, such as community cat and intake diversion programs, that will result in even more lives saved.
In fact, on March 12, the County Board of Supervisors passed two resolutions aimed at saving 5,000 more cats in 2024 and reducing shelter intakes. These resolutions will implement several steps that include:
Increasing Trap Neuter Vaccinate Return (TNVR)
No longer impounding community cats
Expanding foster care for kittens
Managing admissions of cats with shelter's capability
With the focused leadership of the current shelter system, Riverside is within reach of achieving no-kill status, where 90% of the healthy, or treatable, animals that enter the shelter ultimately leave alive.
But no shelter can achieve no-kill without the support of the surrounding community and local elected leaders.
We Are 90 aims to educate and organize the people of Riverside around this amazing moment to support the local shelter in taking the final steps to reach no-kill.
69% of all no-kill shelters are government-funded or government-supported, just like our shelters here in Riverside.
We have the opportunity to make Riverside the next no-kill shelter. Together, We Are 90.
Riverside County Department of Animal Services (RCDAS) had an overall save rate of 63% according to 2023 data. That’s 20,274 of the 29,972 that enter the shelter.
Riverside County Department of Animal Services (RCDAS) euthanized 37% of the dogs and cats that enter their shelters, according to 2023 data. That’s 11,189 out of 29,972.
Only 49% of cats and 73% of dogs entering the shelter left alive.
To achieve No-Kill status, around 8,192 more pets need to be saved per year. That’s ~5,300 cats and ~2,900 dogs.
Communities across the United States are working hand-in-hand with their shelters to achieve no-kill.
In fact, ~57% of all shelters in the U.S. achieved no-kill status by 2022, which is an incredible increase from just 24% in 2016. It can absolutely happen here, too!
Riverside County Department of Animal Services (RCDAS) is already doing many of the important things necessary to save lives. There are three ways the community can support RCDAS in getting to no-kill.
One of the most important ways a community can partner with its local shelter to assist in lifesaving is to volunteer to be a foster.
Opening your home and providing love, resources, and human socialization to a healthy, adoptable pet until it finds its adoptive home helps alleviate pressure on the shelter and its staff and allows space for more animals.
No-kill communities depend on a network of dedicated fosters who can be relied upon for temporary assistance.
If you are interested in fostering—whether it's kittens, puppies, or adult cats and dogs big or small—let our team know and we’ll get you connected to the right place.
We won’t get to 90% without fosters. We won’t get to 90% without you.
RCDAS has committed to instituting a community cat program throughout its shelter system, which is a humane alternative to simply catching-and-killing lost or unowned outdoor cats.
Instead, these cats are safely trapped, spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and then returned to where they are found. Over time, these programs reduce the outdoor cat population while reducing the spread of disease and numerous nuisance behaviors, such as aggression and spraying, through vaccination and sterilization.
Robust community cat programs are critical to ending the unnecessary killing of healthy outdoor cats.
We cannot achieve 90% without a robust community cat program.
Strategic Intake is a system of scheduling non-urgent shelter admissions through an appointment-based system. By managing its intake of these pets, the shelter can plan around available resources, greatly increasing the pet support and level of service it can provide to each person and animal in need of support.
Beyond helping the shelter better manage its resources, research also shows that the likelihood of reuniting a lost pet with its owner increases when the local shelter utilizes managed intake because the good Samaritan with the lost pet likely lives in the same neighborhood as the owner.
In these instances, the pet never enters the shelter, never strains shelter resources, and is reunited with its owner—a win for everyone!
Implementing Strategic Intake requires retooling and rethinking how things are done, and may require additional front-end service staff or resources, such as appointment software or additional trainings.
Together, We Are 90!
We Are 90 isn’t anti-shelter. We absolutely believe in community support for the shelter. We cannot achieve a 90% or better save rate without the buy-in and support of the community. There are two big ways you can directly support the shelter and its material needs, as well as save a life in need of a loving home. Click below to learn more.
Your elected officials need to know your real life experience with local animal services. The most powerful catalyst for change is the truth. Please share in the form below:
Have a question? Ready to use your voice to make lifesaving change in our community? Ready to become a foster?
Shoot our team at We Are 90 a line, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!