Animals & Their Allies
Speak No Evil
Long meetings. Tedious dialogue. Sitting on a government commission is thankless.
The city’s Animal Wellbeing Commission is no different. Commissioners serve because they want the best outcomes for Sacramento’s homeless pets.
The last thing volunteer commissioners need is a city spokesperson publicly accusing them of harming the animal shelter.
But that’s what happened at February’s commission meeting.
Feline Friend
Always a dog lover, Sacramento resident Gary Cooper didn’t think much about cats until a Maine coon mix planted himself on Cooper’s doorstep 20 years ago.
After several months of leaving food for the young feline and watching him roam the neighborhood and scrap with another cat, Cooper scooped up the stray and brought him inside to join the family, which included five rescue dogs.
Now Cooper calls himself “a crazy cat lady.” He’s rescued seven felines over two decades. “I understand how wonderful they are,” he says.
Stand & Deliver
Professional, polite and well-spoken, Julie Virga is a powerhouse. She’s relentless, determined and uncompromising.
She doesn’t mince words or pull punches when advocating for Sacramento’s dogs and cats. She requests meetings with city officials, sets agendas and gets attention.
A Sacramento native, Virga has rescued, fostered and rehomed countless animals, and volunteered as a foster parent for the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter.
Missing In Action
The dais seat reserved for the head of Front Street Animal Shelter has been occupied by someone else at the past two Animal Wellbeing Commission meetings.
Front Street Manager Phillip Zimmerman has been absent. Apparently, he’s not ill or out of town. He’s a lame-duck leader who chooses not to attend.
Zimmerman posted on social media he plans to retire in May. Meanwhile, he’s still on the city payroll, but often missing in action.
Saving Lives
Saving Lives Community clinic makes spay/neuter a priority By Cathryn Rakich December 2025 One unaltered cat and her offspring can produce 100 kittens in two years. An unaltered dog and her offspring can give birth to more than 100 puppies in two years. In just...
‘Sadvertising’
The dog’s graying muzzle proves she’s no youngster. She’s been bred so many times her swollen nipples hang down.
The cat’s scarred face is evidence of too much time on the street. He’s wary of strangers but warms up quickly.
No aggression. No medical problems.
What’s It Going To Take
Buttercup lives on a 3-foot tether in a homeless camp near Downtown. The tan, mixed-breed dog is 3 years old. She’s had three litters—24 puppies.
Buttercup is one of three dozen dogs who have lived and died in a lineup of tattered tents off Highway 160 over the last three years.
In that time, 155 puppies were born. Forty-nine died, 65 were sold or traded, 25 are gone.
“Gone means the puppies just disappeared,” Debbie Tillotson says.
Under Her Watch
Kennel floors covered in excrement. Beds and blankets crusted with diarrhea and vomit. Water bowls lined with green slime.
Animals languished in squalid and inhumane conditions without relief under the leadership of Staycee Dains, then-general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services, according to reports from a national animal welfare organization.
Now Dains is shelter operations manager at Sacramento city’s Front Street Animal Shelter.
Dains held leadership positions at animal shelters in Pasadena, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Long Beach and Ohio. In 2023, she was named general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services, overseeing six LA city shelters.
Disturbing Allegations
Under Philip Zimmerman’s leadership over the last five years, the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter has ignored spay/neuter laws, increased euthanasia, turned away unaltered stray animals and let hundreds of animal control service calls go unanswered.
A recent city audit also cites a lack of a community spay/neuter program, overcrowded kennels, unfinalized policies, uncollected fees and low employee morale.
Now, Zimmerman has hired Staycee Dains to run Front Street’s shelter operations.
Dains, previously with Long Beach and San Jose animal shelters, was named general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services in 2023, overseeing six LA city shelters.
Too Little, Too Late
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.
Saving Snakes
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.
Take Your Tackle
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.
No Excuse
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.
It’s The Law
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.
Next Level
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.
