When the city changed its contracted animal shelter in 2022, it also changed how it would address stray animals. Gone were the years of notably high euthanasia rates, favoring instead tracing animals back to their homes, Fresno Deputy City Manager Alma Torres told the Fresno City Council that year.

Taking animals in depends on the ability to provide care, Torres told GV Wire.

With the change came a reduction in animal pickup rates, multiple sources say, including one Fresno veterinarian.

Dr. Whitney Janzen, veterinarian with Animal Medical Clinic, says city policy is causing an animal overpopulation problem that will only get worse without a change.

Many in the city and county who call to have animals picked up are simply told to leave the animals where they are if they’re not presenting a danger, several people told GV Wire. For their part, city of Fresno administration says they’re doing all they can do to contain overpopulation, but at the end of the day, it falls on pet owners to be responsible.

Janzen fears overpopulation may blow up into a public health crisis.

The public may shy away from the idea of euthanasia, but the alternative — letting animals die on the streets — is worse, she says. Achieving low euthanasia rates begins with proper education for pet owners and greater availability of spay/neuter programs, she says.

“You have all these stray animals, they’re potentially dangerous, carrying diseases, spreading diseases around — parasites, giardia is everywhere in Fresno,” Janzen said. “Parvo rates are high, we have all kinds of communicable diseases. We even get rabies here in Fresno. We had a kitten with rabies not too long ago.”

Packs of Roaming Dogs Attacking Fresno County Residents

The city has experienced a rise in calls about packs of animals, said Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias.

“We’ve had reports in west Fresno of a postman being bitten by a pack of dogs, we’ve had reports of it taking place in Sunnyside, we’ve had reports of it taking place in north Fresno, near our schools and community centers,” Arias said. People have told him they don’t use trails anymore because of dogs roaming the area.

In Coarsegold, a pack of dogs killed a woman in December. Beyond dogs, A Fresno County woman’s contact with a bat in December led to the first rabies death in the area since the 90s.

Stray animal numbers grew in part because during the pandemic, sterilization was not considered essential, Torres told GV Wire. Arias said many animals the city finds also belong to unhoused people.

Torres said almost all the packs of roaming dogs can be traced back to people’s homes.

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“They’re jumping the fence, or they’re leaving their home to go chase cats,” Torres said. She said they check to see if other calls match dog descriptions or see if anyone has video evidence from doorbell cameras.

In one case, they captured a pack of dogs and found one of them had a tag. The dogs were nearly three miles from their home.

When in packs, dogs can be much more aggressive, Arias said.

“The city has now taken the position that any pack of dogs that are reported will be picked up, because when they’re a pack, they’re immensely more dangerous than just being a single animal, a stray animal,” Arias said.

Intake Policy Based on ‘Capacity for Care’: Torres

The rise in packs of dogs comes two years after a significant city policy change.

The city’s former shelter contractor, the Central California Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Animals once had a remarkably high euthanasia rate. When Janzen was in Purdue, Indiana for her doctoral degree, she remembers reading about aggressive kill policies in the Central Valley, specifically.

In 2022, when the city opened the Fresno Animal Center, the city reprioritized returning lost pets to owners.

Torres told city council then that 80% of lost pets are found in their own neighborhood. The new policy would reduce intakes to the shelter.

With the shelters always full, the city has to triage intake, Torres said. They base taking an animal in on their ability to provide care, she said.

“We’re prioritizing the animals that truly need our care, which is sick, injured, and those that are posing a threat to the community safety,” Torres said.

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Many of Janzen’s clients have been told to not take animals to the shelter, she said.

Limiting intake has consequences, Janzen said.

“Ideally, animal control would pick up stray animals and fix them, but they’re not doing that,” Janzen said. “They’re just continuing to stay on the street, reproduce. To me, I’m concerned about it becoming a public health issue, not just for our animals, but for people.”

Personal Accountability Needs to Be Improved to Stop Overpopulation: White

Since Dec. 1, 2023 the Fresno Animal Center has taken in 6,800 dogs and cats, said city manager Georgeanne White. In that time, they’ve also done 6,600 spays and neuters. The Fresno Animal Center has 177 dog kennels and 128 for general population. The shelter currently houses 204 dogs.

White said any implication the city isn’t doing anything about overpopulation is false. She said government alone can’t tackle the problem.

“We have an amazing group of rescues who we partner with and so many community members who are fosters,” White said. “But at the end of the day, personal accountability needs to be improved. If you choose to have pets, keep them secured on your property. Microchip them so you can be reunited if they get out. Spay and neuter them so the overpopulation problem doesn’t get worse.”

Fresno County funds trap, neuter, release programs with the Kirkland Foundation.

Euthanasia a Symptom of City’s Larger Problem: Too Many Animals Breeding

Education can stem the tide of Fresno’s animal overpopulation rates, Janzen said.

The root problem is with pet owners, Janzen says. Many people don’t spay or neuter their pets. And when animals get out, they breed. California considers cats to be free roaming, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be fixed and vaccinated, she said.

In other parts of the country, cold winters keep stray populations in check. But San Joaquin Valley weather allows animals to thrive and reproduce all year long, Janzen said. The same goes for diseases. In the Midwest, parvovirus can’t live in the soil during the cold, Janzen said. It can in the Central Valley.

Not picking up strays leads to more animals.

Adoptions during COVID boomed. But now, the trend has reversed and people, unable to take their animals to a shelter, will simply dump their pets, especially out in the county.

Many of those then go on to breed. The same goes for animals that may simply be jumping the fence. Janzen acknowledges space is extremely limited. A disease outbreak recently further impacted available space, said Arias.

But not admitting animals is oftentimes worse, Janzen said. And euthanasia can be a more humane death than dying on the street, she says.

“If we want to keep our euthanasia rates low, the path to that isn’t sweeping the problem under the rug by just not taking in more animals,” Janzen said.