By Greg Archer | Contributing Columnist
Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center ended 2024 with one of its highest number of pet adoptions. The milestone sets the tone for 2025, which finds the center broadening its reach through its services and events.
“We’re happy that 2024 gave us highest number of pets adopted ever after a few years of a decline,” said Molly Shannon, marketing and communications manager for Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center in Riverside. “It was around 2,200 adoptions, so we’re excited to keep the momentum going into 2025.”
While an uptick in adoptions is a positive thing, Shannon said, other challenges remain.
“The reverse side of that is that there’s still so many pets and owners of pets that need assistance,” she said. “In many ways, 2024 has been a year of applications for owner surrenders upwards of like 30 a day. And while it’s great to have the 2,000-plus pets adopted, the pet overpopulation crisis is one that’s facing the entire nation.”
The Center hopes to thwart that in 2025, especially after recently receiving a grant from Inland Empire Community Foundation through the Riverside County ARPA Fund, which will aid in its ongoing efforts.
“One way that people can help is, obviously, adopt, but I get that not everybody is ready to adopt or can,” Shannon said. “We also encourage our supporters to foster because even if they foster for one or two nights or a week, it doesn’t have to be a super long-term commitment.
“Even that makes a difference,” she said. “It opens up kennel space at our organization, which means we can take in another pet. We’ve really amped up our foster program in 2024.”
The foster process stands out. The Foster to Adopt program allows individuals who are unsure or not fully able to commit to adoption time to learn more about a potential pet.
All dogs and cats more than a year old are spayed/neutered. Pets in the FTA program are eligible for a three-day or a two-week trial.
“In 2025, we will really put an emphasis on growing the foster team,” Shannon said. “When you foster for the adoption center, we provide all the materials and supplies. It’s not a big commitment for a person. They just provide love and attention and a safe space, and we give them all the supplies and vaccines that are required.”
It’s one of many unique components of the nonprofit, beginning with its history.
The Riverside Humane Society was formed more than 120 years ago, in 1897, in an effort to prevent cruelty to children and animals. The first shelter, which was dedicated in 1917, housed dogs, cats, horses, cows, birds, chickens, and other animals. In the 1950s, RHS offered full animal control services, including licensing, impounding stray animals, owner turn-ins, and investigating animal cruelty and aggressive-animal reports.
The County of Riverside Department of Animal Services took over animal control responsibilities in the mid-1990s, and after some time known as the Riverside Humane Society Pet Adoption Center, by 2010, with a newly constructed building in place, the organization’s name changed to the Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center.
Its services now include everything from pet loss support groups and a pet assistance food program to spaying/neutering procedures, vaccinations and behavior training.
Mark your calendars for April 26, 2025. That’s when the nonprofit’s “Walk with the Animals” event takes place. It’s the Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center’s largest fundraiser each year and assists with making life-changing impacts on pets.
And their people.
Learn more at petsadoption.org.
The Inland Empire Community Foundation works to strengthen Inland Southern California through philanthropy. Visit iegives.org.
