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| HISTORY |
| How CARE Began |
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Local San Juan Capistrano resident Ted Stroscher remembers seeing cats on Spring Street when he visited his grandfather as a child. His grandfather told him that the cats also lived there when he was a little boy.
For approximately 20 years a local resident Lillian LaChance fed the Spring Street cats. When she got too old and sick to care for them, her caretaker Judy Toone fed them for another 10 years. Over time many attempts were made by the County of Orange to eradicate these cats in response to complaints by San Juan Elementary School personnel and others. In 1999 one such effort was underway when local resident Marsha Schwartze decided to get involved and do something to stop this cruel and senseless cycle. Over that Summer and for months afterward, she rescued a total of 33 homeless kittens from Spring Street. The 6 remaining/surviving adult cats were spayed and neutered by local San Juan Capistrano Veterinarian Dr. Joe Cortese and returned back to the wild, with their ears tipped to easily identify them. At the same time Marsha asked the City to consider humane animal services for San Juan Capistrano, since the City contracts for animal control services with the County of Orange who has a 65% euthanasia rate, compared to a 4% rate at local humane shelters like Mission Viejo/Laguna Niguel/Aliso Viejo and San Clemente/Dana Point. A year later she presented the City Council with a petition containing over 1,000 signatures and was joined by a group of citizens who were equally committed to saving the lives of San Juan Capistrano’s homeless animal population. In August 2000, CARE became a non-profit corporation. In 2001 the City of San Juan Capistrano donated the use of a piece of city-owned land on Camino Capistrano, north of Junipero Serra Road for a humane rescue and adoption center facility. In 2002 CARE started fund raising. Simultaneously, CARE began rescuing the homeless animals picked up in San Juan Capistrano by the County of Orange. Today the Capistrano Animal Rescue Effort has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, has rescued and placed over 1,200 homeless local animals, has a data base containing hundreds of member and volunteer names, and is still working toward humane rescue and adoption of San Juan Capistrano animals even without the benefit of a local facility And today, 4 of the original 6 adult feral cats that were spayed and neutered and released are still alive and being fed by caretakers |
| Click to see CARE 10 Year Milestones |
| Chronology |
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