On a recent episode of the Z107.7 Up Close Show, host Gary Daigneault spoke with Yucca Valley Mayor Merl Abel and Town Manager Curtis Yakimow about the Town’s animal shelter. Run in coordination with the County of San Bernardino, the Yucca Valley Animal Shelter faced intense scrutiny over 2025. Former animal shelter Manager Doug Smith retired, and a new Manager Shianne May took over toward the end of the year. Abel and Yakimow discussed the controversy, and delivered a positive statistic about the facility.
Yakimow said, “Obviously certain members of the community were very vocal in coming to the town and asking for the Town to look at certain things. Our live release rate, identify areas of weaknesses that we had in the shelter in being able to provide high levels of live release. In two words, they said ‘do better.’ That’s the message was to the town council to begin to look at it.
Abel added, “It really encouraged me because we oftentimes feel like there’s a lot of apathy out there. That people don’t care they’re not involved and so forth. The scrutiny on the shelter was a challenge but it was also enlightening to see that we are not apathetic. If there is an issue the community lets us know. I think everyone would agree that the facility is going to be better. It’s already better and will be better in the future because of the input from the community It also demonstrated the willingness for the council to make the policy changes that were necessary.
Yakimow concluded, “We just finished our statistics for 2025. We hit a live release rate of 70 percent and that is the highest that we’ve ever had since the shelter was constructed over 10 years ago. That’s an accomplishment that is reflective of the passion and the care for our entire shelter team the day the work that they do day in and day out taking care of the animals. Also to the public for their encouragement and desire to see improvements at the shelter.”You can hear their full conversation by listening to the Z107.7 Up Close Show as a podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.
