The news came unexpectedly like a summer Christmas present to staff and volunteers at the Kern County Animal Shelter on Fruitvale Avenue — and to the 51,000 animal lovers who follow the Facebook page for Kern County Animal Services.
“Hooray for Scooby!” the Facebook post cheered. “He has been adopted.”
Scooby, a handsome, rust-brown mixed breed that Animal Services Marketing and Promotions Assistant Danny Spanks called a “60-day dog,” had been living on borrowed time and was in extreme danger of being euthanized.
“You’ve seen us beg and plead for someone to give Scooby a chance,” Spanks wrote in a post. “Will this be the post that saves his life? Our fingers have never been more crossed.”
As the shelter continues to overflow with lost and abandoned pets, social media has become a powerful tool to spread awareness about the worsening situation, and to save the lives of individual animals that no one wants to see put down.
When the announcements were made Saturday that Scooby was headed for a forever home, the twin posts were shared 64 times, with nearly 150 comments received and close to 1,700 notifications.
“Outstanding news! Enjoy your new lives together,” commented Shawna Haddad Byers.
“Yay Scooby! Go have the best life ever, sweet boy,” said Rhonda Flores.
“Yes, my prayer has been answered,” added Lauran Coleen Boshears.
There was laughter. There were tears.
Somehow, Scooby had become something of a celebrity.
A number of people were involved in this success story and others, said Animal Services Director Nick Cullen.
“A lot of advocates played a role in saving him, and a lot of advocates continue to play a role in saving a lot of these animals,” Cullen said. “Our social media guy Danny (Spanks) manages all of it, and he’s mostly taking content that advocates create and combining it with ours to put together an approach to long-stay animals.”
These small victories are morale lifters and help the community recognize that lost and abandoned pets can be saved when everyone is working toward the same ends.
But Cullen and Spanks are also realists, and they’re not about to suggest that saving Scooby and many other animals can make up for the gross overcrowding at the shelters and the increased need to euthanize animals that are not adopted or fostered.
Lost and abandoned animals continue to come in every day, Cullen said. And the conversations about possible euthanasia, “they start a lot sooner than 60 days.
“It’s not the norm to keep a dog 60 days,” he said.
And doing so isn’t always met with agreement.
“There’s always an internal struggle to keep a dog longer,” he said.
Until Kern County residents do better by spaying and neutering their pets, and providing them with an ID chip or a collar identification, the future remains troubled.
Of pets that are lost, only about 6% ever go back to their owners. That means they’re not coming to the shelter to look for their dogs when they’re lost, Cullen said.
Or they’re “losing” their dog on purpose.
Spanks, a longtime radio DJ, has been advocating for animals and trying to save abandoned pets since 2015.
Now he’s doing it from within the county’s animal services structure — and he recognizes that social media has the power to bring people together in an effort to cut the euthanasia rate and save more pets like Scooby.
“If everyone in Kern County did two things, ID’d and spayed and neutered their pets,” he said, “the population explosion in the shelter would be stalled immediately.”
