Coachella Valley Animal Services Pleads for Help

Urgent plea: Coachella Valley Animal Services Need Help

Riverside County Coachella Valley Animal Services Campus located in Thousand Palms, 72-050 Petland Place, is experiencing significant access issues to the shelter as a result of ongoing flooding impacts from Tropical Hilary over the weekend of Aug. 19-20.

The only paved and legal access road to the shelter remains under several feet of water and the ways in which the water would normally be drained, pumped or removed appear to be overwhelmed, broken or Incapacitated. Resolution timeline is unknown.

Residents can view all of the available Coachella Valley Animal Campus shelter pets here: 24Petconnect: Lost, Found, and Adoptable Animals

If you fall in love with any of them here, we ask that they send an email to shelterinfo@rivco.org, along with the pet ID number and Animal services will make arrangements for adoptions or fostering at an offsite location.

All of the pets are safe and receiving care. We don’t wish for them to languish in the shelter and hope that the community will come together to help them find new and loving homes, said Kerri Mabee, public information officer for the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

The shelter is located off Bob Hope Drive where the off ramp collapsed.

The area where the shelter is located is in the north part of Coachella Valley where approximately 14 inches of rain fell on the surrounding areas of Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs and Thousand Palms during a 1000-year storm event in the foothills above the shelter. The only legal access to the shelter is via one paved access road that is under several feet of water.

The animals are currently safely being cared for by staff who access the shelter by parking a mile away from the campus and shuttled by Animal Control officers who spend up to three hours per day on this effort. Access to the campus for staff is made via an emergency route accessible by 4-wheel drive trucks that can cross rough terrain. The shelter building suffered minor damage from the storm.

The shelter has been closed to the public since Aug. 21 and there is no date for when the water may be cleared from the roadway to be passable or when the public will have access to the shelter. Only priority one calls are being serviced by the animal control officers providing assistance to the public during this time. The shelter currently has more than 260 animals in care that have no viable way to leave the shelter under the present conditions.

The greatest priority for assistance with the animals at present is for large dogs to be moved out of the shelter to rescues, other shelters and nonprofit facilities. The large dogs at the Coachella Valley shelter are highly adoptable, friendly, young, social dogs (play group friendly) the majority of which can best be described as shepherd mixes.

See more of them here: https://24petconnect.com/RVSD1Adopt. Next priority would be adult cats, followed by puppies under 6 months (approximately 40), kittens (approximately 30), and last priority is small dogs. The shelter is also expecting a large surge of animals from the public once the shelter reopens after being closed for so long and so this effort will clear space for that surge whenever it comes.

Specific needs include:

• Transport out of the shelter for 260 animals. Possible charter of plane or other transport routes.
• Funding for gas and staffing to transport in county dog trucks if necessary.
•  Contact within state and out-of-state rescues/agencies/shelters for relocation of our animals.
• Temporary support staff funding.
• Temporary Driver for shuttling staff to the shelter to lighten the load on officers.
• Food and supplies which may be a challenge for supply chain later in the recovery of the Coachella Valley.
• Donations to assist with any of the above.
•  Massive social media and marketing push through partners to help get lost pets home through PetCo Love Lost since the public cannot access the shelter.