Thursday, October 1, 2026
It was a busy year for Joint Animal Services in Olympia, as animal intake and field calls jumped in 2025.
The regional shelter, which serves Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and unincorporated Thurston County, took in 4,212 animals, up 27.5% from 2024.
Personnel also responded to 3,392 calls, up 12% from 2024, and handled a cockfighting case involving more than 500 chickens. The regional shelter referred 18 cases for prosecution and seized 268 animals through warrants.
Executive Director Sarah Hock presented the year-end data at the Joint Animal Services Commission meeting at Lacey City Hall on Monday, Feb. 9.
Cat intake rose 26%, while dog intake increased by 9%. Animals from Thurston County accounted for 57% of the total, followed by Olympia at 21%, Lacey at 15% and Tumwater at 7%.
Hock noted the percentages closely align with the cost-sharing formula in the shelter's interlocal agreement.
Despite increased demand, the shelter completed 1,682 adoptions and transferred 541 animals to rescue organizations, the highest transfer total since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Return-to-owner cases rose slightly to 390.
The volunteer corps grew to 248 in 2025 from about 125 people in 2024. Volunteers contributed 13,747 service hours, the equivalent of 6.6 full-time employees, according to Hock.
"They are the heart of everything that we do," she said. "We could not do what we do without them."
Hock noted the shelter has only four animal care technicians for more than 4,000 animals annually. Volunteers assist with cleaning, laundry, dog walking, data entry and community outreach events.
Clinical workload also increased. The shelter's three-person veterinary team performed 3,823 exams, a 35.5% increase from the prior year, and completed 1,860 procedures, up nearly 46%.
The shelter also secured $1 million in state capital funding for design of a new facility, with support from the 22nd Legislative District Team.
Staff members earned state and national board appointments in 2025. Positive Outcomes Coordinator Bekka Kraai was elected Secretary of the Washington Animal Control Association, while Field Manager Sierra Teas was elected Vice President. Both were appointed to the state Animal Fighting Task Force.
Hock was elected Secretary of the Executive Committee of the National Animal Care & Control Association for the 2025-26 term.
The largest case involved a February cockfighting operation in Yelm, which Hock described as one of the largest in state history.
Joint Animal Services coordinated a multi-agency response with the Thurston County Sheriff's Office and the Washington Animal Fighting Task Force.
More than 500 chickens were documented during a 15-hour operation. The defendant faces roughly 300 felony animal fighting counts, and the case remains pending in court.
A second investigation in August resulted in the seizure of 16 dogs and eight cats from a property where livestock was being kept inside a residence.
In response to the cases, staff developed an Animal Cruelty Response Volunteer Team and trained volunteers who can be activated for major investigations without shutting down regular shelter operations.
Kraai and Teas will talk about the program at the Texas Unites for Animals Conference in April and the Best Friends National Conference in May.
12 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
Tanker1982
Great work by these folks. I will have to donate
Tuesday, February 10 Report this
KatAshe
As truly wonderful as our animal services is, what is desperately needed is the availability of low cost spay and neuter clinics. The current costs for private service appears to be between $500-1,000, which is way out of reach for many elderly and those loving their cats and dogs with no way to raise the money required to prevent their pets from reproducing.
Tuesday, February 10 Report this
chezeve
A big shoutout to those individuals who work the animal cruelty response team . Work I could never do. Unfortunately, this is a topic both veterinarian practices & animal services have to deal with. …… incredibly difficult & I thank you a thousand times over for your work. Animals & children are our greatest gifts.
Tuesday, February 10 Report this
griffithga
Amazing report about the huge amount of work this agency does. My gratitude to Hock and her staff and all the volunteers for the valued and important work they do each day.
Tuesday, February 10 Report this
kayenne26
JOLT reporters and readers need to look beyond Thurston County boundaries and self-reported agency numbers for an accurate picture of Joint Animal Services. While the need for affordable spay and neuter services for cats jumped throughout Western Washington, Joint Animal Services chose to curtail theirs. Please take a look and then compare Auburn Humane Society, which recently purchased Northwest Spay & Neuter in Tacoma (https://auburnvalleyhs.org/pet-care/) and operates it as a coordinated part of their system, including for hoarding incident response like recently in Buckley WA. How is this relevant to Thurston County? Because "our" people are driving cats over to Pierce County and NWS&N when affordable and timely spay, neuter and vaccination services are impossible to access here.
Wednesday, February 11 Report this
JS122471
@kayenne26 I agree that Thurston County needs low-cost S/N and I have heard there is a couple of groups looking into bringing that to Thurston County. You do have an inaccurate statement in your comment. "Joint Animal Services chose to curtail theirs" this is not correct. Joint Animal Services never had low-cost S/N. What you may be referring to is the S/N vouchers, and how there are less of them available. The point I want to make is these are not Joint Animal Service vouchers or a program run by Joint Animal Services. Joint Animal Services handed them out on behalf of other organizations, and in this case Thurston County Humane Society who asked Joint Animal Services to hand our vouchers for them, has decided to pause their voucher program. Also, it can be hard to compare Auburn Valley to Joint Animal Services. Auburn Valley has a larger budget, just over 5 million dollars and take in less animals 1,800 per year.
Wednesday, February 11 Report this
Teriramsauer
Appreciate this in-depth report- thanks so much!
Wednesday, February 11 Report this
kayenne26
AT122471, I appreciate your comments and the opportunities they provide for further exploration. I'm aware of the voucher program in Thurston County, including how the vouchers ran out well before end of year. People trying to be responsible with their pets and stray community animals were told the same thing by one agency after another, "We are not accepting any more, but call [name of another agency], I heard they will take them" which turned out not to be true. As KatAshe correctly mentioned here, calling a veterinarian's office produced an estimate of $400 and up for basic spay/neuter along with advice to call [name of agency] for a voucher if you were "low income" and found that unaffordable. Regarding your comment about differences in funding... Comparisons can be done if they also include the sizes of population of areas being served as well as value produced per dollar of funding. Personally, I would love to see how much value I gained, as a Thurston County resident, from the dollars our agencies spent telling people "no" and referring them to other places that had nothing to offer either.
Wednesday, February 11 Report this
JS122471
kayenne26 again I want to point out that Joint Animal Services only connection to the vouchers was handing them out. What vet offices took them and what those vouchers paid for was all coordinated by who sponsored the vouchers. So if Joint Animal Services was told by voucher sponsor that a vet office took them, that is the information they passed on. In terms of the low income question, those are stipulations given by the voucher sponsor and in some cases state law does require a person to be low income to qualify for specific programs. And yes we can compare based on population and value added. Auburn Valley Humane services mostly the city of Auburn with a population of just over 85,000 people on a budget of just over 5 million dollars a year, with an animal intake of 1800 per year. Their shelter open their doors in 2013. Joint Animal Services, services about 95% of Thurston County who has a population of just over 300,000 people on a budget of just over 3 million I believe, with an animal intake of 4200 with a building built in the 70s and converted to a shelter in the 90s . Point being is, Auburn Valley is a better funded shelter servicing a smaller population of people and animals, which allows them to offer services like S/N. In order for Joint Animal Services to offer the same services to a larger population of people and animals it would require an increase in funding (tax dollars) and a vet clinic to be built. In such a difference between budget dollars and population it is a bit of an apples to oranges difference between the two organizations, Auburn's budget is about $59 per person who lives there (5 mil/85,000), Joint Animal Services is about $10 per person who lives there.
Wednesday, February 11 Report this
HappyOlympian
Unlimited love for Animal Services!
Friday, February 13 Report this
kellykelly
JAS took in approximately 4,200 animals and approximately 2,200 of these animals were either adopted, returned to owners, or given to rescue organizations. I wonder what it did it do with the other 2,000 animals and also wonder why these approximately 2,000 animals were not included in the report?
Friday, February 13 Report this
kellykelly
Sorry, I should have written "with" and not "do". I can't find a way to edit my previous comment.
I wonder what JAS did with the remaining 2,000 animals that were not rehomed?
Friday, February 13 Report this