Front Street's Director Zimmerman, at the direction of UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine has been "removing barriers" to adoptions, seemingly at the expense of reducing the protection to animals.
Asking questions about the potential adoptive home, according to Koret & Zimmerman is a 'barrier", so don't ask questions. Obviously, this is a potentially dangerous stance to take, but is it an effective way to adopt more animals? Front Street's own data would suggest it is not.
In 2019 (pre-Zimmerman) they had 8,683 adoptions, with 340 adoption returns. Almost 10 full months into 2023, they have had over ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ (2,149 less to be exact) but the adoption returns are almost as many at 329. Just 11 less adoption returns than they had in 2019 when they had many, many more adoptions. So not only have the removal of "barriers" not increased adoptions, they have set an alarming precedence with adoption returns.
Adoption returns harm animals. It causes mental distress when they are brought back to the shelter and many of the animals shut down, with kennel stress increasing. Kennel stress is a top reason the shelter uses as an excuse to euthanize. It's also looked at as a "flaw" of the animal to be returned, versus a failure of the shelter.
Reportedly this "removal of barriers" also means sending ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ animals to live with the unhoused. We have heard this was a practice used by Zimmerman when he was in Stockton, as told to us by members of staff. Per members of the Sacramento community this risky method of increasing live release rates has continued since Zimmerman took the reigns at Front Street.
The opinions of the unhoused adopting from the shelter will vary I am sure, but I think the one thing we can all agree on is if they are going to allow the adoption, the shelter should absolutely not release the animal until it is spayed or neutered.
The protection of animals is not a "barrier", it is a necessity of preventing harm to the innocent lives that can't safeguard themselves... And as a shelter director, that should be Zimmerman's primary objective. Too bad it is not.
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