Adoptable animals in San Benito County will soon have a lot to wag about. A new pet adoption trailer will be out and about at Hollister parks and events, offering cats and dogs in need of a forever home a chance to meet and greet the public.
Hollister Police Chief David Westrick is spearheading the purchase of the new trailer with $45,000 in grant funding approved by the city council last year.
“I always keep a priority list and at the top of the list was getting an adoption trailer,” he said, adding the idea was spurred on by the animal shelter’s limited hours. “I researched how much it would probably cost and looked at the need. And it was instantaneous to me: that’s what we had to go after.”
Westrick said bids are in and he’s confident it will be awarded to a company in Texas. The trailer will cost between $32,000 and $35,000 once it’s registered.
“There are only a couple of places in the United States that actually build these things and the idea is we’ll get the trailer and it will have kennels that open up for the public to view,” Westrick said. “We can actually adopt animals on site, right then and there.”
According to Westrick, the trailer will have about 18 large kennels, which can be split into two to double the space. In addition to an adoption center, he envisions the trailer being used for other services as well.
“Earlier this year, we did a spay and neuter coupon event, which went over awesome. We’ll do that again,” he said. “I want to use volunteers to help run the trailer, and we have a ton of volunteers. I’m trying to reduce our pet population and we’ll do some education on spay and neuter and vaccinations as well.”
Though area pet agencies won’t be affiliated with the pet adoption trailer, Westrick said there is collaboration and that they all have the same goal: to save as many lives as possible.
“We have some great relationships with Pets In Need in Redwood City, which helps us with spay and neuter, and Pet Friends pulls animals from our shelter as well,” he said. “Pet Friends is awesome.”
Once the board accepts the recommended bid, “which I’m sure they will” Westrick said, they’ll order the trailer and he anticipates it being out in the public in about 30 days. He added they already have a truck to transport the trailer around the community.
“There are only a few things we have to do to it,” he said. “We’ll have to put on a couple of stickers for Hollister Police Department Animal Shelter, and then we’ll put it in service immediately.”
Westrick is excited to get the new pet adoption trailer out into the public, and said he plans to continue monthly or bi-monthly special promotions such as Barktoberfest, where dogs are available for about $15.
“We can do these things because we have really generous folks who donate on our PayPal and our website,” he said. “We turn it around and put it right back into promotions for the shelter to get animals adopted. We’ve also had people who’ve stepped forward and donated pet ID tags, the microchips. We had one woman who donated like 100 of them. That stuff all helps.”
Westrick said he’s been in charge of animal control for many years, and it’s all about saving lives. It’s been a long journey and he’s excited to see this come to fruition.
“As chief of police there are a lot of things I do, and this is something I’ve been working on and talking about for a long time,” Westrick said. “I’m really happy the animal control services division finally has a piece of equipment we’ve wanted for a long time. I couldn’t be happier.”