Lilly Yap, the new executive director of the Stanislaus Animal Services Agency (SASA), made a presentation to the City Council about the ongoing efforts to control animals in Ceres.

Unlike other cities which may have its own animal control officers, Ceres is a member of SASA, which is governed by a joint powers authority. SASA covers the unincorporated county areas and four other cities including Waterford, Hughson, Patterson and Modesto.

Yap said SASA provides field services and the public may call the dispatch center 24/7 by phoning 1-209-558-7387. The agency also has a lost and found hotline.

While the dispatch line is available around the clock, if a dispatcher does not immediately answer, ”it rolls over to our answering line and emergent calls, including things like aggressive animals, by cases of bite incidences, a sick or injured animal, are responded to even after hours,” said Yap.

The priority of answering calls depends on the nature of the call.

Our call priority that the six animal control officers go out on is based on the nature of the calls with aggressive and biting dogs handled first.

“We have mechanisms in place to ensure the follow-up for each of those calls,” said Yap.

SASA has a new program called the finder to foster program designed to keep a dog or cat out of the shelter and closer to its home.

“Most dogs are found within a mile of their homes and are actually much more likely to be reunited when remaining in the area,” said Yap. “As much as we work to create an inviting atmosphere for pet owners, it can be intimidating to come to the shelter. Pet owners are often afraid that they will be penalized. There are some fees involved. And so being able to reclaim a pet from your neighbor that you might have a more trusting innate relationship can be more readily accessible to people than coming to the shelter to reclaim an animal.”

Cats problems are also a big problem.

She noted that unwanted community cats present a different problem and set of solutions.

“Community cats are actually not required by law to be confined in the same way that dogs are, and cat ownership can be much more of a gray area,” noted Yap.

Most of the problem centers on unowned stray or feral cats which have never interacted with people.

The agency now offers stray cat intake, which can lead to what is called trap neuter return for cats.

“Very often we get the question as to why we would bring back a fixed vaccinated cat to the area it came from. So traditionally, shelters used a catch-and-kill approach, meaning that feral cats would basically be removed from the area and humanely euthanized. The problem with that is the ‘vacuum effect’ where the resources – generally shelter, food and water –are still present in the area. And so new, unaltered cats that could have additional babies would just move into to capitalize on those resources and continue procreating, continuing the problem.”

Returned fixed cats are not only unable to reproduce but are less likely to fight other cats and mark territory.

“But of course, we recognize that not everyone in our community wants cats on their property so we also encourage humane deterrence for those who do not intend to be feeding cats. So this can vary between some audio deterrence to things like motion activated spray detectors, which cannot harm the animals but give them a very good spook because cats are prey animals and so by encountering those uncomfortable situations. It really helps deter them from the properties that do not want them there while also humanely decreasing the population over time.”

The shelter at 3647 Cornucopia Way in west Ceres has doubled appointment slots for spay/neuter and trap/neuter/return.

SASA officers also assists in wrangling up loose livestock, conducting vaccination clinics, investigating reports of neglect, community outreach and education, and hosting adoption events.

The shelter is closing out its “One in 1,000” initiative to place 1,000 animals, between the months of July and August. The final count is in the works but to boost numbers the shelter waved all of adoption fees in August.

“This is really about more than decreasing our population on site. It’s really giving us the bandwidth to change operations and be more proactive than ever before, because what is happening on site at our shelter deeply impacts the capacity we have to extend services to our community. And that is very important to us.”

Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez believed the presentation was going to address the exorbitant costs charged to the city by SASA. When he asked Yap how many calls for service came from Ceres in fiscal year 2023-24, she was unable to provide the answer but said she would circle back.

Martinez has publicly suggested Ceres leave SASA and start its own animal control services because of costs. When the council crafted the 2025-26 fiscal year budget last June, Martinez said “We are definitely not getting $800,000 worth of services.”

“Our cost structure is solely based on the number of animals brought in from each jurisdiction,” said Yap. “So we’re looking at the last complete fiscal year on a percentage basis. So what is challenging about that is that year to year, they can be major fluctuations, which is something that city of Ceres and other partners have experienced. And if there is one partner that is essentially benefiting budget-wise, it usually means another partner is bearing the brunt of that kind of fluctuation.”

Year to year, SASA receives approximately 7,000 animals that it is responsible for dispositioning.