Fairmont Shelter Closed Up: Will Dusty Paws in Castro Valley See New Funding?

This is not a good time to be a lost dog in southern Alameda County.

On March 1, county officials closed up the night drop box at the Fairmont animal shelter in the hills of eastern San Leandro.

That leaves no place in the southern and eastern part of the county for people to drop off animals they find after 5 p.m.

The future of the buildings on Fairmont Drive is uncertain. Calls made to Anthony Owens of county animal control and Debbie Bender of the county General Services Administration were not returned.

Anne Ellis, a former member of the now defunct Friends of the Fairmont Shelter, said the night box closure is a serious problem.

She said animals can be dropped off at shelters in Dublin, Hayward and Fremont during the day. In addition, animals taken into Hayward and Fremont must have been found in those cities. And none of those places has a night drop box.

"It's devastating. Now anybody who finds an animal in the evening has no place to take them," said Ellis. "Not all animals are found between 11 and 3."

Ellis said she fears people who aren't aware of the closure will drive up to the facility and then release the animals into the wild rather than take them back home.

"People will go the shelter and then not know what to do," she said.

The spring season is particulary critical. Ellis said volunteers used to handle one or two litters of kittens almost every night at the Fairmont facility during that time of  year.

"Now there will be a litter of kittens without a home every day," she said.

Ellis and others are forming a non-profit group, Community Pet Rescue, to help deal with the problem.

They are asking the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to let them use the offices at the Fairmont facility. However, the group has not received an answer yet to their request.

The Fairmont shelter was closed by county officials last fall after board members of the Friends of the Fairmont Animal Shelter decided to dissolve the organization.

The board said there weren't enough volunteers to staff the facility.

However, some angry members said the board dissolved the organization, so money and resources could be diverted to other groups they supported.

The opponents named Dusty Paws in Castro Valley and Tri-Valley Animal Rescue in Pleasanton as the likely recipients.

However, Barbara Vester, one of the board members who voted for dissolution, said no decision has been made on where the organization's leftover money will be donated.

She said the group is still "tying up loose ends" by paying bills and finalizing records.

She said there will be less than $100,000 left in their coffers by the time they are finished.