Kern County Animal Services is making great progress towards its goal of becoming a No Kill shelter by 2020, a campaign known as MKNK for ‘Make Kern No Kill.’Director Nick Cullen says they’ve really turned the tide from where we were five years ago. “Fast forward five years to today and that’s reversed. We’re now saving over seven out of every 10 dogs and cats that come to the shelter, almost 80-percent of the animals that come to county shelters make it out alive.” Kern County shelters take in about 16-thousand animals a year, Cullen credits public education and creative adoption and spay-neuter programs for their progress but admits they still have a ways to go. He was at the agency’s annual Make Kern No Kill Fun Run and Fall Festival Saturday at Hart Park to get the word out.

Suzanne Grant