1973 — Grass roots organization, Golden Empire Humane Society, is founded to help abandoned cats and dogs and to promote spay and neuter and humane treatment of all animals.

1998 — AnimalSave is created as a special project of the Golden Empire Humane Society to end the needless killing of companion animals in Nevada County.

1999 — Foster/Adoption Program is established. “Last chance” dogs and cats from local shelters are placed in foster homes, spayed/neutered, and adopted into permanent homes. Many of these animals had behavior or health issues that prevented them from being adopted from the shelter or, because of over-crowding, they were scheduled to be euthanized.

This same year, our low-cost Spay & Neuter Program begins. While our Foster/Adoption Program helps reduce the number of homeless animals in shelters, we understood that the problems of overpopulation and abandonment cannot be solved through adoption efforts alone. That led to us taking on the huge task of providing spay & neuter education and assistance through the low-cost Spay & Neuter Program, which grows quickly in response to overwhelming demand. We also provide vouchers to low-income owners to have their pets spayed at local veterinarians, or transported by our volunteers to Auburn’s spay/neuter clinic.

Another major addition to our services this year is the opening of our Thrift and Treasures benefit store, which helps to raise money in support of our programs. Proceeds from the thrift store provide for about 20 percent of our program costs.

Thanks to efforts by AnimalSave and other local animal welfare groups, over the years the euthanasia rate at the local shelter has dropped from 70 percent to 2 percent. Our Foster/Adoption Program shifted from taking “last chance” animals from the shelter to taking them directly from the community before they reached the shelter. We also began placing litters of puppies and kittens in foster homes where they could be properly socialized as good family animals. Before these animals are adopted, we provide vaccinations, worming, testing and medical attention, and spaying or neutering. Because we have a strenuous adoption interview process to ensure the animals we've been caring for are adopted into forever homes, the rate of return is quite low.

2003 — The Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) Program begins in response to another growing community need: the proliferation of feral cats. We provide both traps and an experienced trapper to trap feral cats in order to get them altered. As a result of these efforts, the feral cat population has been reduced. We do significant work with feral cats, especially as the economy has worsened and more people are abandoning their cats to the wilds. We frequently take young kittens from feral mothers, put them in foster homes where they are hand-tamed and eventually adopted as domestic cats.

This same year, we launch a capital campaign to build an Adoption and Education Center on donated land. Ultimately, we were forced to make the difficult decision to redirect our efforts from building the center to a more pressing need to provide efficient, effective, and affordable spay and neuter services in Nevada County by opening a local low-cost spay/neuter clinic.

2006 — Cat Adoption Room opens in response to the closure of Friends of Nevada County Animals, which had been sheltering many cats and kittens. The Cat Adoption Room houses up to 25 cats and kittens while they await adoption.

2008 — After several years of planning and fundraising—and the donation of $80,000 from a generous donor—AnimalSave takes delivery of a $170,000 33-foot state-of-the-art surgical vehicle which operates as our low-cost Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinic. The clinic begins operations in March of this year, contracting with veterinarians who have experience in high volume spay/neuter, a Registered Vet Tech, a Spay/Neuter Clinic Manager, a Vet Assistant, and other volunteers. 

With the closure of another sister organization, Pet Adoption League, we take on the challenge of funding and operating the Supplemental Low-Income Pet Food Assistance Program, which provides 5,000 pounds of supplemental pet food each year to help people keep their pets. Unfortunately, due to rising costs of pet food, we had to discontinue this program in future years,

2013 — After many years of renting small, inadequate space for our program and thrift store operations, AnimalSave purchases the property at 520 East Main Street and begins renovating space to move the Cat Adoption Room and Administration to separate units and expand the thrift store. We also open a separate book store—the Book Nook—in another unit. A large warehouse provides greater security and protection for the Spay/Neuter Clinic and space for a comfortable reception room for clients and their pets. We are finally able to create space for a Humane Education conference room that provides a location for meetings, animal-related training classes, and an area we can make available to other local non-profit organizations for meetings.  

Programs and Numbers

Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinic Program
As of 2015:  over 15,000 cats and dogs spayed/neutered.

Foster/Adoption Program
As of 2015:  over 4,370 cats and dogs fostered adopted.

Humane Education Program
Staff speaks at clubs and, schools, and other organizations to enhance the culture around animal welfare and responsible pet guardianship.

Re-Homing Assistance Program
Provided guidance, assistance and a venue to help pet owners re-home their animals in a responsible way.

AnimalSave receives no government funding and operates solely on private donations. Those donations—small and large—are critical to the many services we provide; in addition to individual donations, we also receive foundation grants, legacy gifts, proceeds from our fundraising events, as well as from donated vehicles, thrift store and book nook sales, and even pennies dropped in dog and cat donation jars at local businesses. Every bit moves us closer to a time when all animals are valued and all animals are treated with kindness and compassion.