The System Is Failing Animals.
Rescues Are Carrying the Burden.
Every day, people at rescues answer desperate calls about animals abandoned, injured, terrified, and suffering because the government will not.
If the county will not help these animals, it should at least help pay for their care by permanently funding local rescues.
Please donate to a rescue or hit “Email County Supervisors” and ask the county to do its part.
Animal Coalition Group
More than 95¢ of every dollar goes directly toward helping animals.
Contra Costa
Animal Services
Less than 13¢ of every dollar goes directly toward animal care due to overhead expenses.
Source: Contra Costa County Animal Services FY2024–25 Actual Expenditures; Contra Costa County Annual Comprehensive Financial Report FY2024–25.
Joybound People & Pets
About 4.2¢ of every dollar goes directly toward animal care due to overhead expenses.
Source: Joybound People & Pets Audited Financial Statements, fiscal year ended June 30, 2025.
THE REALITY
Of the dogs entering the county shelter:
11%
are killed.
Abandoned cats and kittens are also found throughout our communities. Residents looking for help often discover that volunteer rescues are their only option.
Those rescues are already stretched beyond capacity.
24%
nearly 1 in 4
leave the shelter through a rescue.
Source: Contra Costa Animal Services, December 2025 Year-End Statistics. CCAS categorizes the 11% as “EUTH.”
THEY ARE NOT INSTITUTIONS
They are your neighbors.
People are often shocked to learn that when an abandoned animal needs help, it is not the County that comes. It is a rescue.
These rescues are people in our own community — neighbors, parents, retirees, and volunteers — using their evenings, weekends, homes, and often their own money to do work our County relies on.
They take calls. They find the fosters. They pull animals from the shelter. They spay/neuter cats. They transport them to veterinarians. They are the safety net.
Animal Coalition Group is asking Contra Costa County for $600,000 a year — less than 0.01% of the County budget — to help fund the rescues already doing this work.
These volunteers stepped up for our animals. It is time for the County to step up for them.
PERMANENT ANNUAL FUNDING REQUESTED
$600K
Less than 0.01% of the County budget — to help fund the rescues already doing this work.
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
Why are rescues receiving so many calls?
Too many animals are being born, abandoned, or surrendered.
Puppies and kittens are sold on Craigslist, Facebook, and through informal breeders, often without being spayed or neutered. Abandoned cats continue reproducing, creating litter after litter.
The shelter and large nonprofits generally do not take healthy cats and kittens. Residents are often told to leave them where they were found, even when they are not spayed or neutered.
Every new litter means more animals needing food, veterinary care, foster homes, and permanent homes.
When those animals need help, the calls often go to the same volunteer rescues already overwhelmed and without permanent County funding.
WHAT ANIMAL COALITION GROUP DOES
Raise money for rescues.
Advocate for permanent funding.
Keep saving animals.
Animal Coalition Group was created because we recognized that local rescue volunteers are the true unsung heroes in our community.
When someone finds kittens in a dumpster, an abandoned dog, or an injured animal and wants to help, a rescue is often the one that makes the difference.
We fight to raise money for their work, and ask our County Supervisors to permanently fund the rescues doing so much of the County's animal welfare work.
What are we fighting for?
We are asking Contra Costa County to provide $600,000 in permanent annual funding for local rescues — less than 0.01% of the County budget.
The money would not be paid directly to rescues. Animal Coalition Group would pay approved veterinary hospitals and boarding facilities directly for documented rescue expenses.
Every payment would be supported by invoices, strict bookkeeping, and annual CPA review.
Give the volunteer rescues already responding to animals in our communities dependable funding so they can save more lives.
This is not about building another large institution. It is about putting resources where the work is already happening.
TWO WAYS YOU CAN HELP
Help rescues save more lives.
DONATE
Your donation helps local volunteer rescues pay for veterinary care, boarding, and other essential services for animals they are trying to save.
Rescues can only save animals when they have funding. Your support gives them a better chance to say yes when you, a friend, or a neighbor calls about an abandoned cat, a litter of kittens in a dumpster, or a dog running scared in a busy road.
SPEAK UP
County leaders need to hear from residents who want permanent funding for the volunteer rescues our communities already depend on.
It takes only a few minutes.
Ask the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to support $600,000 in permanent annual funding for local rescue veterinary care.
BREAK THE CYCLE
Funding rescues helps more than one animal at a time.
It gets abandoned animals off the streets, into veterinary care, and spayed or neutered before they reproduce again.
That means fewer unwanted litters, less overcrowding, and fewer animals euthanized at shelters — breaking the cycle instead of simply reacting to it.
GET IN TOUCH
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Have a question, want to volunteer, or want to help advocate for local animals? Send us a message.
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