Pet Store to Display Animals From Shelter

The City Council has approved a new partnership between the city’s Department of Animal Regulation and a PetSmart store in Reseda.

In a deal that has been in the works for nearly a year, the Valley animal shelters will take over a viewing room at the store to display animals available for adoption.

Officials hope to average three dog and three cat adoptions per day at the site and annually generate about $67,000 in animal sales and $10,500 in dog license revenue from the program.

“It’s a built-in market,” said Linda Gordon, senior management analyst for the animal regulation department. “It’s like saying that we’re selling cereal and we now have an opportunity to be on the grocery store shelves.”

The goal of the program, she said, is twofold: to get more animals adopted and to raise awareness of the shelter’s services.

The program will cost the department an estimated $29,000 a year in staff salaries, money that Gordon said the department has in its budget.

The money will pay for two staff people, a clerical worker and an animal handler, to be on hand to show the animals and process the paperwork for adoptions.

The department, working with the PetSmart staff and with Councilwoman Laura Chick’s support, hopes to begin operations at the store by mid-March, officials said.

PetSmart representatives and city officials said they hope to expand the program to other stores and other city shelters.

The shelter plans to house adoptable cats in the store at all times, but transport dogs to and from the shelter to the store every day, officials said.