Contact: Tom Snyder
Phone: 760.601.3756
tsnyder@animalsamaritans.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Boxes of Abandoned Pets Appearing in Thousand Palms
Thousand Palms, CA – July 15, 2013: Yesterday morning, Animal Samaritans’ shelter
attendant Margie Orei spied a 1-1/2 foot by 1-1/2 foot cardboard box outside the front
door of AnSams’ no-kill animal shelter and instinctively knew what was inside. The box
was sealed shut with packing tape. Someone had punched small, crude holes in the
sides, presumably for air, but then taped over them. Only a small slit at the top of the
box remained unsealed. Inside, three dehydrated, lethargic kittens struggled for life,
crammed together with their own feces and urine, and a fourth dead sibling that
succumbed to the heat and lack of air.
About six hours later, Animal Samaritans’ Adoptions Alliance Rescue Coordinator,
Michelle Bergeron, was at Riverside County Animal Shelter (aka the pound) looking at
animals to rescue, when she saw a box of six abandoned puppies. That marked the
third box of abandoned newborns she had encountered this month.
Some people actually believe they are helping animals by boxing them up and dropping
them off at an animal shelter, like swaddling a human baby and leaving him or her on
the doorstep of a church or monastery. Someone inside will help, right? But boxing up
animals in our desert heat can be lethal, even at night, especially for nursing newborns.
And for the animals that survive, dehydration and oxygen deprivation can cause lifelong health problems, including brain damage.
Finding unwanted newborns is a true dilemma. What should you do if you discover a
half-dozen puppies whelping and wriggling beneath your porch, for example? Or your
kids tell you there are kittens with their eyes shut in the drain pipe across the street?
In California, abandoning dogs and cats—even outside of a no-kill shelter—is a
misdemeanor crime. So once you take them in, you should know what to do with them.
If you encounteIr stray kittens or puppies, Animal Samaritans recommends you take the
following steps:
1. Move the infants to a cool, safe location. If you have personal pets, keep
them separated, as the infants may carry diseases and parasites.
2. Attempt to hydrate the animals by providing water in a shallow dish or cup for
them. They may or may not drink it. Do not use a deep bowl that a feeble kitten
or puppy could drown in.
3. For overheated puppies and kittens, dab their paws with rubbing alcohol to
help cool their body temperatures.
4. If possible, trap the mother so that she can continue to nurse her young after
you have rescued her babies. *In many cases, however, feral dogs and cats will
abandon their young if threatened or their hiding place is discovered.
5. Decide whether or not you can bottle feed the kittens or puppies until they
can eat solid food on their own, which normally occurs between 5 and 6 weeks of
age. *A kitten or puppy who can feed itself is much more likely to survive life in a
public shelter. Most public animal shelters do not have the staff or budgets to
bottle feed infant kittens and puppies. Private animal shelters like Animal
Samaritans have a limited number of staff and volunteers to care for and bottle
feed infants, and often these resources are already in use—especially during
kitten and puppy season, which is heaviest April through September. Also, by
law, Animal Samaritans is required to send stray dogs and cats to a public animal
shelter to ensure they do not take ownership of an animal that a pet owner may
be looking for. With newborn kittens and puppies, the situation becomes murky;
however, there is the potential that a pet owner wants to keep all of his pet’s
puppies or kittens, and legally he or she owns them.
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6. Contact your local public animal shelter for their business hours before
taking a stray animal (or litter of animals) to them. For residents of Desert Hot
Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indian Wells,
Indio, Coachella, and unincorporated cities of Riverside County, call Riverside
County Animal Services at 760-343-3644 or visit their website, www.rcdas.org.
For residents of Palm Springs, contact the Palm Springs Animal Shelter at 760416-5718.
7. Take the stray kittens or puppies to your local animal shelter. Local public
shelters will not charge you a fee to turn in a stray animal or litter of animals—this
is different than surrendering a personal pet. Go inside and talk to a staff
member; don’t just drop the infants off in secrecy and sneak away. Again, if the
animals are weaned, their odds of becoming adopted and having a life as
someone’s pet dramatically increase!
Animal Samaritans is a 501 c 3 non-profit organization established in 1978 to improve
the lives of animals and people. As the Desert’s leader in quality & affordable veterinary
care, they run a professional, state-of-the-art veterinary clinic at the Animal Campus in
Thousand Palms. Animal Samaritans also provides free Pet Therapy to local seniors,
hospital patients, and disabled children. Their bi-lingual humane education staff teaches
school children throughout the Coachella Valley responsible pet ownership, animal
cruelty awareness, and respect for all living creatures. At their no-kill animal shelter,
Animal Samaritans commits to its shelter dogs and cats for life. What’s more, each
month Animal Samaritans rescues over 100 at-risk dogs and cats from our local public
shelters through its Adoption Alliance animal rescue program. For more information
visit www.animalsamaritans.org
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