Riverside County Department of Animal Services: Kia Pet Adoption Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

We used this $1,000 grant to sponsor free adoptions of large dogs (30+ lbs.). We got a great response from the community for our Go Big + Go Home Free Dog Adoption Days. The large dogs seem to stay longer at the shelter waiting for the right family to adopt them, so we did a targeted event and offered free adoptions of large dogs.

There were 16 large-breed dogs adopted in five days. We were so pleased with the results that we extended the promotion of free adoptions of dogs 30 lbs. and over for another week.

How many pets did this grant help?

The grant sponsored 10 adoptions of dogs who found new homes.

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Our shelter has many adolescent German shepherds and huskies who come in as stray, homeless pets. Because there are so many, it is hard for the dogs to stand out and get attention. If one is quiet in the kennels, it usually is one of the last to get adopted.

This red husky (first photo) caught the attention of its adopter as it was visiting our agility yard with a volunteer. The volunteers take videos when they get the dogs to interact. Then we post the videos to a web page accessed via a QR code on the kennel cards.

The adopter came in to meet him — it was perfect timing thanks to the Kia/Petfinder Foundation sponsorship days. All dogs leave here altered, vaccinated, and microchipped with a pet ID tag, so if this guy gets lost again, we’ll be able to get him home to his new family.