is an official Safe&Happy
partner
of DocuPet
Kern County Animal Services (KCAS) provides professional and compassionate animal services to the people and pets of Kern County through the promotion of responsible pet ownership and community resources, the prevention of animal cruelty, and the creation of a safe and healthy environment for lost, stray, or homeless animals.
As an organization, KCAS is truly dedicated to improving the lives of the people and pets in Kern County. They are always trying new things, taking new approaches, and staying nimble to improve the animals' outcomes in their facilities. The staff and volunteers are passionate and love the animals that come through the doors.
For KCAS, license fees provide the funding to offer services directly to their community. Simply put, the more licensing fees received, the more Officers KCAS can have out in their community rescuing animals, and the more low-cost spay and neuter services will be available.
But why stop at license fees as a means to support our local animals? We are proud to call KCAS an official Safe&Happy Partner. There are quite a few ways to support the important work they are doing, and we hope you’ll join us in our mission to provide them with all the help and resources they need.
“The web-based simplicity of DocuPet allows our staff to focus so much more of their time and energy on caring for the animals in our shelter, such as supervising meet and greets with our adoptable pets, supervising regular play groups of adoptable dogs, and providing one-on-one interaction with the public in regards to our adoptable pets or the low-cost services we provide.”, –Nick Cullen Director of Kern County Animal Services.
Kern County Animal Services needs our help
The limitations that KCAS faces to their meaningful programs, foster system, education efforts, and medical services come down to resources: there’s just not enough space, staff, volunteers, time, or funds to be able to support all the animals or those who care for them, as much as possible.
How to help:
License your pet
License your pet
License fees are an important part of KCAS’ operating budget. Plus, lost pets with licenses spend little to no time at the shelter, opening up resources for the pets that truly need them. License your pet here.
Make a donation
Make a donation
Make a direct donation to our Safe&Happy Fund at checkout, which gives donations to KCAS. You may also make a donation here.
What is the Safe&Happy Fund?
In an effort to provide animal organizations with as much funding as possible, we created our Safe&Happy Fund. We will always donate 20% of every designer tag purchase to our Safe&Happy partners in order to provide additional funding for KCAS’ vulnerable animals and the staff that serves them. Pet owners are also presented with the option to make a direct donation to the Safe&Happy Fund during the checkout process.
Kern County Animal Services by the numbers
We hope that by providing residents with as much information as possible, the positive impact pet licenses have on the community is not just understood, but valued.
49
Staff
Members
2,072
Pets
Fostered
4,670
Pets
Adopted
11,451
Pets
Served
593
Lost Pets
Reunited
95
Volunteers
*Per year
More than just a shelter
Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinics
Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinics
Happening 4-6x/month (per month!) throughout Kern County, these important procedures are offered for only $20–$40. They also offer spay/neuter vouchers to low-income residents to have these procedures done at a participating vet. In addition, the Save The Pitties program provides free spay/neuter services for any Pit Bull or Bully Breed in Kern County.
This accessible program reduces the number of unplanned litters, which reduces the number of animals in shelters. Because Pit Bulls are the most common breed surrendered to the shelter and often take a much longer time to find a safe home for, this service is specifically offered to them for free.
Low-Cost Vaccination Clinics
Low-Cost Vaccination Clinics
The staff and volunteers of KCAS work hard to ensure the health of animals in the community, as well as public protection from diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans, with their Rabies Control Program. The state law defining the Rabies Control Program includes requirements for the licensing of dogs, rabies vaccination for dogs, animal bite reporting, animal quarantine, stray animal services, and a shelter system.
Vaccinations are offered frequently at a low cost to the community they serve, reducing the spread of preventable diseases.
Animal Fostering
Animal Fostering
While many community members will know KCAS is a shelter and animal control, they may not realize just how many pets need to be fostered until a permanent, safe home is found for them. With a flexible time commitment, this growing program has seen hundreds of families providing love and care to some of the most at-risk dogs and cats in Kern County. Foster families support animals who aren’t ready for adoption due to age, illness, and injury. Fostering animals fills an important gap in the life of an at-risk pet and reduces the volume of animals who need shelter space.
Your license fees at work
Millions of pets enter shelters each year. The critical care, compassion and love that shelter workers and volunteers show these animals is unlimited, but the same unfortunately can’t be said for their budgets. When you license your pet, it isn’t just a fee – but rather, a lifeline – for animals like Shashimi and Bella.
Shashimi
In December of last year, one of our animal control officers picked up a scruffy little white dog as a stray. As always, the dog was checked for a microchip. Thankfully she had one! The little dog's name was Shashimi.
When we called the number on her microchip, her story took an incredible turn. Shashimi had been missing for 3 years! Her owner's disbelief quickly turned to excitement! They rushed to the shelter immediately to bring their long-lost family member back home. The whole family showed up for the happy reunion! They shed so many happy tears, and so did we!
Bella
Bella spent over 30 days in the shelter before finding a temporary foster home. But a few weeks later, due to a change in her foster family's work schedule, the family made the very difficult choice to bring Bella back to the shelter.
2 days later, an animal control worker noticed a man lingering next to Bella's kennel. When the worker mentioned what a great dog Bella was, the man replied, "I know. We were fostering her for about a month. We really miss her." When the shelter worker returned to Bella's kennel the next day, she was gone. Her foster family missed her too much. They had come back and adopted her. She is now a permanent member of their family. Both of them have never been happier!
More about Kern County Animal Services
We sat down with the Director of Kern County Animal Services, Nick Cullen, to learn more about the important work being done for local animals in need. Here’s what he had to say:
What is most rewarding about being a part of your organization?
After being here for 18 years, I’m always amazed by our progress, resiliency, and our part in saving lives.
In your words, why is licensing important? What impact does it have on your organization?
If we lived in a community where everyone licenses their pets, there just wouldn’t be the volume of animals that there currently is in our shelters. Getting a license is a small part of what it means to be a responsible pet owner, and it’s contagious. The more people who license their pets, the more that becomes part of what’s generally expected of a pet owner. It shows that we care about our pets in a community when there is high licensing compliance.
What is something that makes your shelter unique?
We’re probably the only shelter in Kern County that consistently takes in livestock and places them for adoption. It’s not uncommon to find horses, pigs, and goats in our livestock area. Recently we helped a llama in need. We also help birds and reptiles from time to time.
One of our favorite success stories is Yertle The Turtle. He came to the shelter back in 2016. He wasn’t much bigger than a silver dollar back then. It didn’t take long for us to decide to adopt him ourselves! Yertle has been our official shelter turtle for over 7 years now, and these days he’s the size of a dinner plate!
What is the best piece of advice you have for pet owners?
Take advantage of all of the resources that are offered. Microchips, vaccines, licenses, spay and neuter, adoption, fostering. These all exist so that your life, and the lives of the animals all around us, can be made better.