It’s not complicated. High-volume spay/neuter is the most effective way to stop the influx of unwanted dogs and cats.
Lacking such a program, Front Street Animal Shelter has big problems.
In the five years since Phillip Zimmerman took over as Front Street manager, the city’s homeless animal population has exploded. Stray dogs and cats entering Front Street grew from 6,309 in 2022 to 8,457 in 2024.
California has a state bird, bat, amphibian, reptile, crustacean, flower, grass, mushroom, tree, insect, slug, seashell, rock—but no snake.
Michael Starkey wants to change that with the giant garter snake.
Reaching 64 inches long, the giant garter snake is a threatened species found only in the Central Valley. He lives in freshwater marshes, such as Yolo County’s flooded rice fields. He eats fish and amphibians, including the invasive American bullfrog.
A great blue heron flew over Dr. Andrea Willey’s kayak on the lower American River. Something dangled from the waterbird’s beak.
The heron crossed the river and landed on an island. “I saw the top of a single tree shake violently. That’s when I realized something was wrong,” Willey says.
Willey paddled to land, climbed the riverbank and crossed felled trees until she found the bird. “He had swallowed a fishing hook and hung himself in the tree. He was spinning and flailing.”
Willey cut the heron loose with her bike lock key. Unable to restrain him, the bird flew off.
“I searched and searched. I had to locate him,” Willey says. So she assembled a group of volunteers. “We rescued the bird three days later. Unfortunately, he died the next day.”
That was August 2023. The Waterbird Habitat Project was born.
The city’s Front Street Animal Shelter has a problem. Unwanted pets keep coming.
In three years, stray dogs and cats entering Front Street increased by 2,148—from 6,309 in 2022 to 8,457 in 2024.
More animals mean more killing. In 2022, Front Street euthanized 747. In 2024, the shelter killed 1,462—nearly double.
To address the statewide animal overpopulation crisis, Gov. Gavin Newsom included $50 million in the 2020-21 state budget to help California animal shelters stop killing adoptable dogs and cats.
Four years later the killing continues.
There are many ways to work around the law. Let’s start with the nearly 600 dogs and cats in “foster to adopt” at the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter, headed by Manager Phillip Zimmerman.
The concept is simple. California law requires shelters to spay or neuter animals prior to adoption. Under “foster to adopt,” animals are released to “adopters” as “foster pets.”
As foster pets, they don’t need to be altered before leaving the shelter.
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.
