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Sacramento SPCA Helping Spay And Neuter Pets Adopted From City's Shelter

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Changes are now being made following a CBS13 investigation into illegal adoptions at the City of Sacramento's Animal Shelter.

Sacramento's shelter has been able to dramatically lower its euthanasia rate by adopting out more animals, but that led to unexpected problems that hadn't been solved until our story aired this week.

On Wednesday, the director of Sacramento's animal shelter admitted to us that some dogs and cats are adopted out before they are spayed and neutered, which is against state law.

"We've taken some calculated risks, I guess," said Gina Knepp, the shelter's director.

The number of adoptions at the shelter has gone up 60 percent in the last three years. And even though they have a new surgical unit, the shelter's vet could take several weeks to perform all the operations.

Knepp admits that some pet owners were able to take unaltered animals home as long as they promised to bring them back later for surgery, but that had some people concerned the practice could worsen Sacramento's pet overpopulation problem by increasing unwanted breeding.

"We certainly don't need more animals. The shelter is struggling to keep up with the intake that it has," said Moira Monahan, a concerned citizen.

"We have gotten a number of calls," said Rick Johnson , a spokesperson for the Sacramento SPCA.

In response to complaints from our viewers, Sacramento's SPCA has now come up with a solution: pets will now be brought to their facility for surgery immediately after being adopted if the city shelter cannot perform the procedure right away.

"We have the ability with the volume we can do to provide assistance so that they can continue their high numbers of placement in animals finding homes, and we can get them all spayed and neutered.

Johnson says they will begin helping out immediately by spaying and neutering pets that have already been released to new homes.

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