Without hesitation, Jennifer Brent says spay and neuter is the most important service the Sacramento SPCA offers the community.
“I think it’s the most powerful tool we have to limit pet overpopulation,” says Brent, who was recruited last year to head the SSPCA after CEO Kenn Altine retired.
Brent says the SSPCA is a national leader in spay/neuter, calling its 10,000-square-foot Zoe K. McCrea Animal Health Center “phenomenal.” The center performed more than 18,000 low- and no-cost spay/neuter surgeries in 2024.
Living in a city with two major rivers has risks. Half a million Sacramentans don’t want their homes flooded or lives put in danger.
Here’s the catch. We also cherish the river parkway. The lower American River is designated “wild and scenic” for a reason. The forested waterway is a year-round playground for hikers, bikers, boaters and birdwatchers.
Cinnabon is a cinnamon-colored pit bull, all muscle with a tongue that dangles from a smile stretching the limits of her wide jawbones.
Okapi, a solid black German shepherd, has gigantic puppy paws that, at 4 years old, she has yet to grow into. Tom is a senior—an 8-year-old mix of rottweiler, shepherd, perhaps a little pit bull.
All three dogs are gentle, calm and curious. They are ideal candidates to get out of the county animal shelter and walk a park trail, lounge on shaded grass, sneak favors on a restaurant patio—even for just one day.
The dog stood in front of a used tire shop in an industrial section of town. His gait was slow and weary over dirt and gravel. A cardboard box on a cement pad by the front door was his makeshift doghouse.
Filth gripped his ratty black and white fur. Twisted mats hung from his torso.
A passerby called 311 to report a loose dog in poor condition. A city animal control officer went out. He spoke to the dog’s owner and left—without the dog.
“We did go out and while it’s not the best setup for him, he does have access to the back area of the shop,” says Phillip Zimmerman, manager at the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter.
For more than a year, American River Parkway supporters have called for a redesign of erosion- control plans by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Army Corps intends to bulldoze through fragile river parkway landscape, destroy riparian habitat, replace shoreline with rock and rubble, and threaten countless wildlife to protect the city from floods. The project, called Contract 3B, runs from the Howe Avenue bridge to east of Watt Avenue.
But when a draft environmental impact report generated negative comments from the public and agencies—as many as 1,900 letters—the Army Corps postponed its work until 2026.
