By Jorge Casuso
August 13, 2025 -- Despite offering free adoptions to help alleviate overcrowding, the Santa Monica Animal Shelter is taking in more pets than are being adopted, police officials said Tuesday.
Last week, 16 cats and 8 dogs were adopted, with "a steady stream of people coming to the shelter" after adoption fees were waived during a highly publicized campaign, officials said.
But "anecdotally, for every dog or cat adopted, two or three more are taken in," said Lt. Lewis Gilmour the Police Department spokesman.
The adoption program was first announced by the Police Department in a Facebook post on July 24.
"The Santa Monica Animal Shelter is over capacity!!!" the post read. "To help, right now we are sponsoring the adoptions. In the many years we have supported the shelter we have never seen so many animals."
The campaign -- which received widespread media coverage in the LA area -- boosted the number of visitors to the shelter, police said.
"A few weeks ago, they had over 60 people visit, many of them adopting animals," Gilmour said.
The Santa Monica Animal Shelter had hoped the campaign would help dwindle the shelter's population, which had exceeded capacity, as kennels were doubled up.
Shelter officials attribute the surge in animal surrenders to "post-pandemic lifestyle changes, including people returning to work, moving, or traveling more frequently," according to an August 3 report on KTLA.
The adoption program was launched after the City's shelter saw a 39 percent increase in the intake of both dogs and cats between 2021 to 2024, with a 52 percent jump in the intake of cats alone.
Last year the number of cats euthanized in 2024 increased from 11 in 2019 to a total of 20 cats last year. A total of 776 animals were impounded in 2024.
In May, the City Council took action to rein in the problem by approving an ordinance that prohibits "keeping more than four dogs over four months of age, and more than five cats over four months of age in a dwelling unit."
The ordinance exempts any dogs that qualify as service animals and owners who own more than four licensed dogs when the ordinance kicks in 30 days after being adopted ("Santa Monica Amends Animal Code," May 27, 2025).
