Join OAS and Our Pack Saturday August 6th at 12:30 for a FREE Pit Bull 101 class. Whether you have a pit bull type dog at home or are curious about getting one, this class will answer all your questions. Humans ONLY! Please leave your dogs at home.
Van Winkle is Available for Adoption!
ORIGINAL STORY HERE and ORGINAL CHANNEL 5 Story.
Van Winkle is now almost fully recovered from his time of horrible neglect and he’s ready to be adopted. His foster parent brought him to the shelter today to get “beautified” with a professional grooming from Pi, an animal care attendant. She volunteered her time today to make Van Winkle look super handsome for prospective adopters. He wasn’t sure what she was doing but he was very tolerant.
If you are interested in adopting Van Winkle, we will be accepting applications and setting up appointments to meet with him during the Petfinder Adoptathon this weekend. If you are interested, send us an email here.
If you are interested in donating to Van Winkle’s care or other OAS shelter animals like him, visit the Friends of Oakland Animal Services.
Petfinder’s Adoption Celebration! This weekend!
We are joining fellow rescue organizations, East Bay Humane Society, Norcal Golden Retriever Rescue, Animal Rescue Foundation and San Francisco SPCA, to celebrate Petfinder.com’s 15th Anniversary this weekend. We will hold an adoption event at the Shelter at 1101 29th Ave from 12-5pm on Saturday and Sunday (July 16/17).
Oakland Animal Services will adopt out dogs who are already spayed/neutered for $35, cats over 6 months of age will be free and rabbits for $15! Famous Van Winkle will also be available for adoption this weekend – so if you are interested in making an appointment to meet him – please email us.
“A New Day for Fight-Bust Dogs”
21 Rabbits Rescued
The East Bay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (EBSPCA) and Oakland Animal Services (OAS) – a unit of the Oakland Police Department, collaborated last week to rescue 21 rabbits from an Oakland home. The case, in which rabbits were being raised for food in inhumane conditions, highlights issues related to citizens raising livestock animals in the urban City of Oakland. On Tuesday, June 22nd, a humane advocate from the East Bay SPCA visited a home to follow up on a complaint concerning rabbits; Oakland Animal Services and an Oakland Police patrol units responded to assist. At the home near Lake Merritt, they found multiple rabbits in two small, wire cages in the backyard. In a thorough search of the yard, the rescue team found additional rabbits hidden under a plastic tub on the side of the house. Living conditions for the animals were deemed inhumane. No food or water was visible for any of the animals. The owner of the rabbits, who was allegedly raising the rabbits for food, had been feeding them only white rice. The animals were transported to the EBSPCA where veterinary staff examined them. From the original 21 animals, three required additional veterinary care. These three, including a baby rabbit with deformed back legs most likely a result of poor nutrition, remained at the EBSPCA. The remaining 18 rabbits were transported to Oakland Animal Services, increasing the city shelter’s rabbit population from 32 to 50. OAS is working closely with SaveABunny, a rabbit rescue organization based in Mill Valley, CA, to find placement for these rabbits and is asking anyone who may be interested in adopting a bunny to contact the shelter. Oakland Animal Services and East Bay SPCA regularly receive calls from citizens who are concerned about livestock in their neighborhood—whether because of the smell, the noise, and/or inhumane living conditions. Oakland Animal Services is participating in the City of Oakland Planning Department’s efforts to update the City’s zoning regulations for urban agriculture. “We want to ensure there is oversight in place on livestock in the City to prevent an increase in the number of inexperienced individuals raising and slaughtering animals inhumanely,” says Webb. For additional information on the rabbits or on Oakland Animal Services, contact Megan Webb, Director, Oakland Animal Services, 510-535-5604, www.oaklandanimalservices.org. Rabbits were found in two small wire cages, one hidden in a plastic container and three in a plastic pail under a piece of carpet. |
A BIG Thank You to Deloitte.
For the second year in a row, over 40 staff from the San Francisco Office of Deloitte volunteered their time on Friday during the company’s IMPACT Day to give the shelter some much needed TLC. Deloitte staff cleaned plants, painted and installed new baseboard. They also generously donated two new laptops and outdoor furniture for our animal socializing areas. We could not thrive the way we do without this kind of outpouring from generous people like the staff at Deloitte. The staff, volunteers and animals at OAS thank you, Deloitte!
Animal Farm Foundation – Thank You!
Thank you to Animal Farm Foundation for sponsoring Martha Cline, our Animal Care Coordinator, to attend their week long internship. We look forward to learning more about how to help pit bulls at the Shelter.
Van Winkle Update
Fun Stories from the Adoptathon
The Free Fur All – Maddie’s Matchmaker Adoptathon last weekend was so much fun! We had a lot of great stories from the event. Here are just a few:
Dave Duffield, founder of the Maddie’s Fund, and his daughter, Laurie Peek, visited Oakland Animal Services and got a full tour by Oakland Raider’s Jarrod Cooper. He introduced Mr. Duffield to Kansas, one of our very favorite dogs in adoption. This was Mr. Duffield’s first time meeting a pit bull and it sure seemed like he liked it!
Jarrod Cooper, of course, had to stop during the tour with Mr. Duffield to give this mastiff some attention.
We’ve already heard a lot of happy stories from very happy adopters. This photo is from Missy Kissy’s adopters right after she got home from the shelter – she sure did make herself comfortable!
The Easterbrooks wrote to tell us about Cary: We are thrilled that so many pets were adopted over the weekend adopt-a-thon! We are even MORE thrilled with Carys (formerly Milly), who came home with us on Saturday! She loves her new home, her new bed, her toys, and us! We are so happy; she is incredibly sweet, playful, loving, and smart! After only 2 days, she is well on her way to being house trained, sits and stays, and is learning the new house rules very quickly. She is having fun in the back yard, going for long walks, and playing like the perfect puppy she is (she already knows how to fetch a ball, bring it back, and drop it in Mommy’s hand)! Thank you for a wonderful experience.
Share your Happy Tail here.
166 Animals Adopted in Two Days! Thank you to Maddie’s and Many More!
We had an incredible weekend participating in the second annual Maddie’s Matchmaker Adoptathon! We adopted 93 dogs and 73 cats to loving, qualified homes in just two days! List of adopted animals here. And, the Maddie’s Foundation will donate over $100,000 to Oakland Animal Services to help support our work to adopt animals and improve the quality of life of animals at the shelter. We have a lot of people to thank for their hard work.
Maddie’s Foundation:
Of course, we want to thank Maddie’s Foundation for creating and supporting the Adoptathon — inspiring more than 70 organizations across Alameda and Contra Costa counties to go above and beyond what they thought was ever possible. Last year, we adopted 133 dogs/cats at the Adoptathon, a number we could have never expected, and then this year we adopted 166! We are inspired to see how we can increase our adoptions daily.
Our Wonderful Staff, Mentors, and Volunteers:
This event took weeks of planning and preparation by staff and volunteers.The animals had to be prepared for adoption, including temperament tested, spayed/neutered, photographed, groomed and their information uploaded to our website. Our PR committee and volunteers worked on getting the word out about the event. They put together a spreadsheet together of all of the animals and their medical needs which Roger Davies then converted into an incredibly useful website that showed and tweeted all of the animals adopted in real time! And, of course, during the days of the event, staff and volunteers helped citizens find their perfect animal, educated them on their new animal’s needs, and helped them complete all of the paperwork to finalize their adoption. What a team!
See video of staff and volunteers: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150267807487664&oid=119220341425722&comments
Woof Doggy Day Care and Hotel
Woof was a huge part of the event’s success. Jacque Preble, the Owner of Woof, opened up her boarding facility to hold dogs and cats for the event so they could be close to the Stoneridge Shopping Center to be shown at the Maddie’s site location and Woof served as a site for the event too! We had many dogs and cats adopted out of these locations. They also groomed many of these dogs. Thank you to all of Woof’s staff for volunteering to help at the event and taking care of our animals during their stay! You guys are amazing!
Happy Hound Daycare
Thank you to Happy Hound for donating their time to groom and beautify so many of our dogs before the event. This definitely helped them get adopted! Thank you to all of the volunteers who drove them to and from Happy Hound for their spa sessions.
There are so many more people and groups to thank….we thank all of you!!!