Dollars and Sense – Operation Safety Net
by Lori Weise, founder of Downtown Dog Rescue
Doesn’t it make sense that we should put more effort and resources into helping dog owners in underserved communities keep their dogs instead of taking them to the shelter? Shouldn’t we take every possible step to help them get their dogs out when they land in the shelter? Downtown Dog Rescue’s program Operation Safety Net does just that. We assist dog owners in a variety of ways so that they can keep their dog in his first home forever home.
BUDDHA
Margaret, a senior citizen living in the Jefferson Park area knew that her German Shepherd had an ear infection, he would hold his head to the side and shake his head constantly. She tried her best for weeks to clean his ears, even flush them with over the counter ear wash but it wasn’t working. When she left her first message on our hotline, her closing line was, “I don’t want to see him suffer and I don’t want to have to take him to the pound.” Living on a fixed income, dog owners like Margaret often feel that their only option is taking the dog to the shelter rather than watch their dog suffer. If one doesn’t have the money until the first of the month and that’s budgeted for other essentials, what’s the dog owner left to do, especially when they call various hospitals and the quotes range anywhere from $350 to $800! We paid $159 for the dog to be put under, the ear thoroughly cleaned out, antibiotic shot and meds to go home along with a medicated ear wash. Wow, was Margaret ever grateful to see her dog out of his suffering.
Sometimes, we get someone who just found a sick dog on the street and they want to keep the dog but they really can’t afford to treat the dog so there is no other option but the shelter. Alvaro was persistent, he must have called us five times in less than 24 hours. He found a dog that basically had an eyeball popping out. This is not a dog that probably would have been adopted had he taken her to the South LA shelter so we offered to pay to have the eyeball removed if he agreed to spay her. What a deal, $400 for the whole package including shots. He raised $100 and we paid $300, keeping another dog out of the South LA Shelter.
RODA IS MISSING AND WE NEED YOUR HELP
EMERGENCY!!! RODA HAS BEEN STOLEN
AND HER OWNER AND DDR NEED YOUR HELP TO FIND HER!
Downtown Dog Rescue needs your help in spreading the word about Roda AKA Roja who was stolen in a home invasion type situation. She was stolen and we suspect the person who did this had dumped her once he found out that she has been spayed. Roda has a sweet submissive personality and would be easy to pick up and rescued if you find her. Her owner Fran is desperate to get her back. We have offered a $500 reward, no questions asked for her safe return. She was stolen in the Lincoln Heights area of Los Angeles. Please call me any time at 213-448-9961 if you think that you found Roda
Original post on Roda’s adoption
published on January 3, 2011
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published on January 3, 2011
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Pictures are worth a thousand words
THEN – ROJA
Roja was adopted by a wonderful family, about 8 months ago, who adore her. Roja lived in filth, had no hair and was basically tortured in a crate for months by Mark de Luna who was never convicted for what he did to these 60+ dogs in his care.
NOW – RODA
From the Chalin family:
Thank you again!
For giving us such a beautiful soul.
For giving us such a beautiful soul.
THEN – SHERRY
From a park in Compton, living with “Chilly Willy” to her new life!
NOW – MIA
From Chris:
Thank you again for everything she is full-on
part of the family now.
These stories make
rescue work
worth it…..
Watts Up? Another dog clinic in Watts
by: Lori Weise – Founder and Director of Downtown Dog Rescue
It’s Saturday evening around 7:00 and I’m just sitting down to read the LA times after a long day at the dog clinic in Watts. I’m really interested in the article written by Sandy Banks entitled “A Turnaround Experiment” which breaks down the challenges of Jordan High in Watts. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Watts, definitely enough to see the poverty and the need for more resources of every type, including more free services for dog owners. According to Sandy’s article, only 3% of all students are proficient in math and 11% in English. Taking this information in and thinking about the text that I received from a community volunteer who was a no show at the clinic, “I’m with the family of a homie that was killed last nite trying to stop a war. Sorry for my absence.”, getting approximately 175 people to bring about 300 dogs to a parking lot on 103rd Street seems pretty good.
Our clinic, organized by both the City and County Animal Control Departments was a lot busier than the previous month. We had done a considerable amount of outreach this time, had a banner up on the fence the week of the event and had volunteers walking the streets. We also had a groomer named Sage Gallegos who worked for a solid six hours with her team, with a line of people 6 to 7 people deep, wanting their tangled poodles and matted cockers’ hair cut. She gave each client a bottle of shampoo and a bandana, all donated. Taking the time to groom the dogs and explain about fleas and ticks meant a lot to the dog owners who learned more about basic dog care. As with every clinic, there were so many touching stories of how the family dog was truly a family member. One in particular, a young mom who had a son with learning disabilities that only seemed to improve when their little pekenese “Pequena” was with him. She tried her best to explain in English and Spanish that she was being asked by her landlord to get rid of the dog but she just couldn’t. They also couldn’t move since they lived in Section 8 and to find another apartment would be like finding a needle in a haystack. She would be homeless with two kids and Pequena. We spoke about the possibility […]
Watts Family Dog Clinic / We need your support!
by: Lori Weise, founder of Downtown Dog Rescue
BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME!
On Saturday April 21st the County and City of Los Angeles Animal Service came together to host a free vaccination clinic for dog owners living in Watts. This was the first of four monthly clinics planned for this high intake area. Downtown Dog Rescue was one of the nonprofit organizations involved in the project. The original plan was for the dog owner to purchase a $20 dog license and get their dog vaccinated and microchipped free of charge. Sounds like a great deal right? I thoughts so and we expected hundreds of dogs. I envisioned a line stretching down the sidewalk of 103rd street, maybe as far as Ted Watkins Memorial Park. Instead, we had two families holding their tiny Chihuahuas, waiting to be the first customers. At first, there were no big dogs, the types of dogs that I see roaming the streets every time I’m in the neighborhood.
WAKE THEM UP FIRST!
If the dogs didn’t show up, we had to go and get them, wake them up is what Dog Man said. He did just that. Volunteer Mike Parker and Dog Man took one of the banners that read, Rabies Clinic today 9-2:00, strapped it to Mike’s car and drove through Jordan Downs and Nickerson Gardens. Dog Man got out of the car and started knocking on doors, basically waking people up to get dog owners to come out with their dogs to the clinic. Back at the clinic, volunteers Keith and Olivia stood in the street, with the second banner stretched out, shouting out DOG CLINIC! to the passing cars.
AND THEY CAME FROM NEAR AND FAR!
30 minutes later, we had the pit bull owners […]
AKASHA – A Senior Beauty gets her Second Chance
A couple of weeks ago, I read a Facebook posting by Kim Wolf the community engagement specialist for Animal Farm Foundation that focused on the fact that not every rescued dog comes from a horrible situation. Especially when it comes to pit bull type dogs, this is almost always the assumption, but why? Is it that we, the ones that rescued the dogs feel better when we think that we have taken the dog out of a dramatically poor situation, even life threatening? I know I catch myself talking about a dog’s past more so when it was a bad one and this can become the dog’s identity and delay adoption. Labeling a dog a “bait dog” or assuming, as Kim pointed out in her blog posting that just because a dog has cropped ears, we often assume a bad owner. This is just not true.
I want to illustrate this point with Akasha, who was recently adopted by a wonderful man who loves her but most of all, he is prepared to handle her in a firm, disciplined manner, just what “Grandma” needs. He understands the balance between love and affection and structure and rules needed to create a calm balanced dog. Akasha came to me wildly anxious, barking, lunging, generally over the top and out of control around other dogs. Should I have assumed that she had a bad owner who dumped her at the shelter as an old dog and never cared about her? I didn’t because her temperament and manners didn’t support that. She also had no scars on her body, she had two eyes, all of her legs, a complete tail, ears were not shredded, no indication that she had spent time laying on concrete for years, in general she looked good for a senior dog. Once we started our walks and doing some agility, we bonded and I saw that she was very comfortable riding in a car, being in an office, going home with me, as if she had always done these types of activities. I play detective with each new dog and when she was adopted, I let Ron know that she probably had a decent owner who cared about her but for whatever reason, she could not keep her and brought her to the shelter at 9 to 10 years of age.
DOWNTOWN DOG RESCUE’S SENIOR DOGS NEED YOUR HELP!
Make a donation in the name of Cookie and Radish!!! Click here to donate!
They are Downtown Dog Rescue’s seniors! The vet bill for Radish came up to $1300 due to her advanced pneumonia but she made it! Cookie’s vet bill went up because of the emergency operation she needed for Pyometra (bad serious and ugly condition). ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE!
It’s a win win — please help senior dogs!
THANK YOU!!!!
Downtown Dog Rescue Compton Community Dog Clinic 2012
by Lori Weise
Last Saturday was our first free spay/neuter clinic in Compton in 2012. It was very successful, which we could have predicted since we had 75 people on our waiting list left over from last month and many more on hold for our next clinic this month, scheduled for January 28th. Back in 2006, when we hosted our first clinic in the parking lot of Tower of Faith church on Rosecrans, we were lucky to fill the clinic. Thousands of flyers had blanketed the schools and neighborhood to net about 30 appointments but we didn’t give up, despite what a lot of haters warned us about. Thousands of dogs living within the ten square miles of Compton later, we see a the social change that has occurred. People want to spay/neuter their dogs, well most people do. It would be too much of a fairy tale to report that every dog owner is going to spay/neuter.
The highlight of every clinic for me are the children that come almost every month to hang out, say hi, get some treats to take home to their dogs that have already visited our clinic but most of all, say hi to my big man, Clancy. From listening to me tell them about the Downey shelter and just seeing all the homeless dogs in their neighborhood, they know, there are not enough homes for all the dogs even the puppies that live in Compton. I have explained that there is no way our kennel could ever take in all the dogs living in Compton that have been “thrown away” The children get it. The relationships that we have built by being in the park the second Saturday of every month has resulted in our clinics being full every month and hopefully, a further decline in the euthanasia rate for stray pit bulls and Chihuahuas entering the Downey shelter (Compton’s shelter).
1500 of these two breeds entered the shelter and were euthanized in 2010. Our grant from Petsmart will help cover the cost of […]
PITStop Community Assist: TAFFY needs a home!
I’m not a dog rescuer, and I have this foster dogger, Taffy, that I took in as a stray from the streets of South LA. She’s living in my tiny, sad, cold laundry room all alone with no access to a yard because I have no where to keep her(my house is filled with cats, bunnies and hamsters, all terrified of dogs). I need help networking her with potential adopters and adoption events where I can show her. She has passed her temp test with all types of dogs, big, small, alpha, submissive, young and old, she wooes every single person she meets, including rescuers who specialize in her breed mix, vets and strangers. She’s young, healthy, spayed, UTD on shots, dewormed and microchipped already.
I don’t care if you adopt her under your contract or mine, and you’re welcome to any adoption fee if she’s adopted at your event. I’m just desperate to get her a spot somewhere. If you can take her into your rescue or foster, I’d also be happy to trade her for a cat, feral cat, hamster, rat, chinchilla, mouse, guinea pig or bunny that you need help placing(or my promise that I’ll take the next one you need to place).
I will happily be responsible for all of her bills, if you take her in. I’m just way outside of my realm and I’m not set up for dogs. If anyone wants references for me or Taffy, I can give you a slew, and home visits are welcomed. Plus I have a bunch more pictures and videos, including videos of her meeting other dogs and being generally adorable.
Here’s a link to her first youTube video.
More will follow.
Heeeeeeeeeelpp!!!!!!!!! I am begging you to crosspost far and wide and help me to help this darling, kissy, snuggly lovebug!!
Thanks,
Cari Daly
ecaridaly@yahoo.com
323 578-4373
Please call, text or email any time of day or night.