The Santa Maria Valley Humane Society has increased hours and expanded services at its facilities in the Edwin and Jeanne Woods Family Animal Care Complex, 1687 W. Stowell Road. Phone, 349-3435.

» Animal Adoption Center is now open to the public 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday for pet adoptions.

» Spay & Neuter Clinic is open 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

» Animal Wellness Clinic is open 2-5 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday with new services added to keep pets healthy and in their homes.

“Expanding our animal adoption hours to include time after work during the week and being open on Saturday and Sunday is a strategic move to accommodate more families who want to adopt pets but might not be able to visit the shelter because of job and school schedules,” said Sean Hawkins, executive director for the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society.

“We have set a goal to adopt 1,000 homeless animals into new homes this year and to do that we have to be open for adoptions when people are off work or when they have free time on weekends,” he said.

The Spay & Neuter Clinic is now performing affordable spaying or neutering surgery for animals belonging to the general public by appointment only on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, Hawkins said.

Patients will be dropped off for surgery from 7:30-8:30 a.m. and picked up 4-6 p.m. the same day as surgery. Wellness and vaccination services are available 2-5 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday on a walk-in basis through the Animal Wellness Clinic.

“We have greatly expanded health care services offered through our wellness clinic for pets to now include an optional limited examination by the veterinarian, healthy pet lab work, as well as treatments and preventions for fleas and intestinal parasites,” Hawkins said.

“We want to work with families who already have pets to keep those pets healthy and in their homes,” he said.

“We know that when a pet becomes unexpectedly ill and a family cannot afford treatment for services at a private practice veterinarian, those pets often end up as a stray on the streets or relinquished to an animal shelter,” Hawkins said.

“Our Communities that Care initiative works with families to provide needed services to keep pets safe and in their homes” he said.

Further enhancing the Communities that Care initiative includes hiring an animal behavior specialist. who will be joining the staff in August, and moving the owned animal intake process to a managed admission model, Hawkins said.

“Santa Maria Valley Humane Society is a community resource for families when they can no longer care for their pets,” he said.

“We are creating a managed admission process at the shelter so we can assess and accept the most adoptable animals possible and help those pets find new homes quickly,” he said.

Animal intakes for owned pets are 1-5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday by appointment only.

“Team members from our Animal Behavior and Veterinary Medical departments will be available during those hours to assess animals at intake and make sure that we have the resources available to help those pets find homes,” Hawkins said.

“If we are able to provide needed medical treatment and implement any needed behavior modification plan, we will accept animals in need of re-homing,” he said.

“Our responsibility to the community is to place safe and healthy pets as anyone’s potential animal neighbor,” Hawkins said.

Stray animals in our community are received by Santa Barbara Animal Services, not by the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society.

To schedule an owned animal intake appointment at the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society, call the shelter at 349-3435.

For information about Santa Maria Valley Humane Society, visit www.smvhs.org.

All animals available for adoption at the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society can be viewed at http://smvhs.org/adopt-pet.

— Sean Hawkins for Santa Maria Valley Humane Society.