Our Goal.

Stop Managing the Crisis. Start Preventing It.

Every day, volunteer rescues are trying to save animals after the system has already failed them.

Dogs overcrowd shelters. Cats and kittens are abandoned outside. Unaltered animals keep reproducing. Rescues are asked to take the next dog, the next litter, and the next emergency — often without public funding, paid staff, or enough foster homes.

Saving individual animals matters enormously. But our larger goal is to stop creating so many animals who need saving in the first place.

1. PERMANENT COUNTY FUNDING FOR FRONTLINE RESCUES

$600,000 every year — protected against inflation.

Contra Costa County increasingly relies on volunteer rescues to perform work many residents assume is handled by the County animal-welfare system.

Rescues take abandoned cats and kittens, pull dogs from the shelter, find foster homes, transport animals, arrange veterinary treatment, spay and neuter animals, and respond to residents who previously called the shelter for these services.

Yet these organizations receive no permanent public funding.

Animal Coalition Group is asking the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to establish $600,000 in permanent annual rescue funding, adjusted over time so inflation does not erode its value as veterinary and boarding costs rise.

Animal Coalition Group would serve as the fiscal administrator. Rescues would remain responsible for their animals and case decisions. Approved veterinary, boarding, spay/neuter, and other rescue-related expenses would be paid directly to service providers, creating a documented and traceable system.

This is not about building another bureaucracy. It is about funding the people already doing the work.

Permanent funding means more animals treated, more animals spayed or neutered, more dogs pulled from shelters, and more rescues able to help when someone calls.

2. STOP THE CYCLE OF CASUAL BREEDING AND ONLINE SALES

We cannot rescue our way out of unlimited breeding.

Much of the suffering begins long before an animal reaches a shelter or rescue. Puppies and kittens are bred for money and advertised through Craigslist, Facebook, social media, online marketplaces, parking lots, and informal community networks.

A puppy may be easy to sell. An adult dog may not be. When animals remain unaltered, the cycle continues: some are bred repeatedly, passed from owner to owner, abandoned when they become inconvenient, or eventually enter overcrowded shelters where healthy dogs can lose their lives because there are more animals than available homes.

Cats face the same cycle. One unfixed cat abandoned outdoors can reproduce, and those kittens can reproduce again. One unwanted animal can become generations of suffering.

We want the law to change.

Our long-term goal is to end the casual sale of dogs and cats through Craigslist, Facebook, social media, parking lots, informal online listings, and similar channels. Companion animals should not be treated as easy cash.

We believe adoption and placement should occur through legitimate rescue and animal-welfare organizations operating under appropriate standards and protections.

Reducing uncontrolled breeding is one of the most important ways to reduce shelter overcrowding, abandonment, and preventable suffering.

The best rescue is preventing the next animal from needing one.

3. CHANGE HOW OUR COMMUNITY SEES RESCUES

A rescue that cannot take your animal has not failed you.

When someone finds an abandoned kitten or desperately needs help with a dog, they may call a rescue expecting immediate assistance. Sometimes the answer is no. That can be frustrating, but it is important to understand what a rescue actually is.

It may be a woman answering messages after working all day. A family fostering kittens in a spare bedroom. Volunteers spending Saturday transporting dogs to veterinary appointments. Someone using their own car, home, evenings, and sometimes their own money to keep an animal alive.

They do not have unlimited kennels, foster homes, or veterinary funds. And they are not being paid to help.

More than 95% of every dollar through Animal Coalition Group goes toward helping rescue animals.

These organizations are not businesses that owe the public a service. They are members of our community who saw suffering and chose to do something about it.

When a rescue cannot return every call immediately, take another litter, or find another foster, the question should not be, “Why will they not help?”

It should be: How can we help them help the next animal?

THE FUTURE WE ARE WORKING TOWARD

A community where volunteer rescues have reliable funding.
A community where breeding animals for quick cash is no longer easy.
A community where fewer unwanted puppies and kittens are born.
A community where healthy dogs are not losing their lives because shelters are overcrowded.
A community where cats are not abandoned outdoors unfixed to create another generation of suffering.
A community that recognizes rescue volunteers for what they are: ordinary people doing extraordinary work for animals with very little behind them.