DDR IN THE COMMUNITY: DDR AT BEST FRIEND’S NO MORE HOMELESS PETS CONFERENCE 2010, Las Vegas

Pictures courtesy of Josie Gavieres

Lori presented in this year’s No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas sponsored by the Best Friends Animal Society. She was part of the Rescue Essentials TRACK and the Keys to Building Lifesaving Relationships TRACK. Both sessions were full and people had to be turned away for the Sunday session. Buzz from participants after each session were positive and a lot of attendees came up to Lori to find out more information about Downtown Dog Rescue’s life-saving programs. Here was Lori’s schedule for the weekend!

Saturday, October 16
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Workshop Session I
• Only a Phone Call Away: How Community Help Lines Can Keep Animals in Their Homes – Liz Finch, Lori Weise

Sunday, October 17
8:00 AM – 9:30 AM Workshop Session I
• Pits Are Pets: What You Need to Know to Save America’s Dogs – Lori Weise, Ledy VanKavage

Congratulations Lori for another awesome set of presentations and a big thank you to Best Friends for inviting Lori to once again share information to the rescue and pit bull advocating community!

LORI’S CORNER: WORKING WITH PRECIOUS

Working with a dog like Precious, reminds me that every new dog needs time to adjust, get healthy and settle into our rescue before I make a judgment call about what each dog will be or not be. It’s been almost a year, coming up next month, that I rescued Precious from her chain in a back yard in South Central Los Angeles. We had received a call from her owner, asking for help getting his dog spayed. I went over to pick her up and what I found was poor Precious, with a huge pad lock chain around her neck, about 3 feet of heavy duty chain, attached to a tree trunk, no shelter, no water and apparently no food. She weighed about twenty pounds the day we walked into Dr. Shipps Animal Hospital run by the Amanda Foundation. Covered in fleas and ticks, she cowered in the corner of the vet’s office as we waited for Dr. Stein to come in and give her an exam. He was really mad, telling me that if I planned on taking the dog back he would definitely report the owner. I was supposed to take her back but of course, we did not.

Precious went to live with Dog Man for about a month. He treated all of her open sores, fed her well and won her trust until she was strong enough to come and live at our kennel. She had no connection to me or any of the dogs. Billy and I were extremely cautious about introducing her to dogs because she had a lot of scars, was missing one of her toes and had tears on her ears that sure looked like the result of a lot of fighting. We took things really slow with her and I estimated that she might be the type of dog that would do best in a home with no other dogs. She never showed any aggressions but also didn’t show any interest in playing. This went on until one day we put her in the yard with Clancy. It was love at first sight! If there ever were two dogs that loved each other in our rescue, this was the pair. Several months later, she is out with most all of our dogs every morning and every evening. There are some dogs that we do not put her out with, Freeway is the number one “bad match” but I get that. In fact, those two ladies hate each other so we just keep them separate.


Precious goes to work and home with me every day and loves to ride in the car. […]

LORI’S CORNER: Pucks for Pitbulls Fundraiser

Please support our latest fundraising efforts: PUCK FOR PITBULLS!!!

Get discounted tickets to the LA KINGS vs. Dallas Stars
STAPLES CENTER on THURSDAY, November 11, 2010 at 7:30 PM

A portion of the proceeds will directly benefit Downtown Dog Rescue!!!!!

-CLICK here TO ORDER TICKETS-

Here are some additional photos of Mr. Clancy 
showing off his LA KINGS Spirit!!!!!!




PHOTOGRAPHED BY:

LORI’S CORNER: 500 spay/neuter surgeries to date in 2010

On Saturday, we hit our 500 dog spayed/neutered in our Compton Dog Program for 2010. “Solara” a beautiful Red Nose pit bull who had thirty-three puppies before she came to our free spay/neuter clinic in the park in Compton last Saturday. Her owner walked her to the park with his wife pushing their baby in a stroller. Solara, as I was told, loved the baby and all children who came to the house. She had several litters because they could not afford to get her spayed. I went silent as I heard her owner tell me, “All of the puppies went to really good homes”. I have stopped citing shelter impound information and the true facts about how many pit bull puppies actually do go to “good homes”.

I was more concerned with the chain around her neck. I didn’t get a chance to inquire about the chain, when someone else in line, holding her very well groomed poodle began to tell Solara’s owner how bad it was to chain her. She had all the correct facts. I remained silent as the poodle lady became more vocal. When she was done, I asked him about how long she spent on the chain everyday and he replied, “Only when I go to work”. He told me that she slept in the bed with him and was more of a house dog than a yard dog but they had no fence and for now, the chain was his only option. As we waited for Solara’s turn to go aboard the mobile clinic, I watched the interaction between the two, Solara was very connected to him and he was very gentle with her. Unlike some of the other dogs, Solara was the model dog, walking up the stairs, wagging her tail. When the couple came back to pick her up, they brought one of her puppies, a wonderful 12 week old female. I offered to take her into our rescue and they told me that they would think about it and I believe that they will. Regardless, puppy will be spayed at our next clinic on October 9th.

There are so many dogs like Solara, producing endless litters of unwanted puppies in the Compton area, not because the dog owners want to make money or just believe their dogs should have puppies (we get these people too), more often, it’s a lack of money. Everyone in Compton has been hit hard by the recession, lots of people out of work, losing their homes, some even homeless with their dogs, staying outside in the park during the day. 

LORI’S CORNER: Puppys from Compton

This past weekend, we were back in the park in Compton, spaying/neutering 61 dogs! When we go into the community for a full weekend of service, it’s great because there are so many people who come out to the park on Saturday, see the mobile clinic and want to get their dogs done. If we tell them, “Come back next month”, we have probably lost them, regardless of the fact that we take the person’s name and phone number. On Sunday morning, we had a 40% “no show” on our appointment list but the good news was that I had 15 dogs waiting on standby from the day before. Many had been cited by animal control and needed the free spay/neuter service to comply with Compton’s mandatory spay/neuter policy.


To my great surprise, Erica came back again on Sunday with more puppies. Three months ago, she and her daughter brought their papa and mama dogs to be fixed. At the time, the pups were too young. Like most of the Compton dog owners, they did not want their dogs to have a litter of puppies but could not afford to get them fixed. Unlike most Compton dog owners, Erica did not want the puppies to go to just anyone and was prepared to “do the right thing”, spay/neuter, vaccinate and microchip before adopting the dogs out, not selling but adopting. The pups are now 5 months old and need homes. “Jolly and Molly” are two of the four puppies that we hope to find homes for by this weekend. The photos of the pups were taken just after surgery. Downtown Dog Rescue paid to have all 6 dogs spayed/neutered, vaccinated and micro chipped. Even though Erica has agreed to work with us, the longer that it takes us to find small breed rescues, foster homes or adopters for these puppies, the more likely the dogs will go to a home that may not be prepared to own a dog for the next 15 years! Downtown Dog Rescue does not have a foster network and does not take in small dog or puppies because our kennel would not be a safe place for these pups.

Working with the community is part of mission statement. Keeping dogs out of the shelter is our ultimate goal. Encouraging people to think adoption instead of selling or “getting rid of dogs” is a process, which happens over the course of months, even years in a community like Compton, one dog at a time. […]

LORI’S CORNER: DOWNTOWN DOG RESCUE S.O.S. TO THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE



Last week, writer and friend of Downtown Dog Rescue, Ryan Vaillancourt, wrote and posted and article on the Downtown New blog about Downtown Dog Rescue losing our home after 14 years. LA DOWNTOWN NEWS LINK TO ARTICLE This is a true but sad fact. My company, Modernica, which has generously donated the land where our kennel is located, in back of our wood shop, will no longer be available because Modernica is moving to Vernon. I’ve known about this move for several months and applied for a kennel permit with the City of Vernon. I was denied, no kennels of any type are allowed, despite several letters of recommendation and an outline of the services and programs that we provide the communities that we serve.

While we are not in a panic about where to move 20 rescue dogs, we do need to consider the long term future of DDR and we ask for your help. My dream has always been to create a true rehabilitation center where the DDR rescue dogs could live and play, getting ready to be adopted, not very different than what we have now, but place where we could expand our existing programs. What would be different is that we would be located in the community that we primarily serve, South Central Los Angeles. Dog owners could rely on us for more, including a puppy boot camp, puppy vaccination clinic, more mobile spay/neuter clinics and dog training to mention a few of the services that would reduce unwanted litters of puppies, put adoption and re-homing into the hearts and minds of dog owners who might otherwise “throw their dogs away” while promoting owner retention, all aspects of our Operation Safety. We would be taking it up a notch. Part of the reason for wanting this rehabilitation center is to provide job training and jobs for the youth and the unemployed and underemployed in SLA, Watts and Compton. Many young men who love […]

LORI’S CORNER: Spay/Neuter program works – A community responds

Last week was another very busy week for Downtown Dog Rescue.

On Friday, I met Alex at his spot and we drove over to the North Central Animal Shelter to get his third dog, “Fire” out of the shelter. Both Sunshine and Magic are doing very well since leaving the shelter last week and being spayed/neutered. They really missed Fire. Unfortunately, Fire bit an ACT while in the shelter so she had to be quarantined. She is a fearful little Pit bull -Chihuahua mix. She only loves her Daddy Alex although she is now OK with me since she seems to understand, I was there to help her. I took this photo of her just before we started our drive back to the spot where Alex lives with his dogs. All of the dogs were strays, starving, in very poor condition when he rescued them off the street. These are not the first set of dogs that he has rescued and it won’t be the last. Alex is a dog lover, a very kind person, who can’t see an animal suffer. Since he has been part of our DDR family since 2007, he has helped many dogs live a better life, including our Rex, a dog that he rescued but turned over to us because he knew we could find him a “better home”.

FIRE

On Saturday, we were back in Compton, in the park, offering free spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations and microchips for dogs living in the City of Compton. This was our second consecutive Saturday this month. Two week total, 58 surgeries, which comprised of a lot of large breed dogs including some beautiful pit bulls! BARK dogs came out again and read to the children in the park, which is a highlight for a lot of children who are terrified of dogs but through this program are learning that not every dog wants to chase and bite them.

Pogo

Abbie

Pogo

LORI’S CORNER: PITBULL family galore: Why Spay/Neuter is essential in our communities


On Saturday, Downtown Dog Rescue was back at East Rancho Dominguez Park in Compton, offering free spay/neuter, vaccinations and microchips to dog owners living in Compton. Our day was booked solid, people on the waiting list had to be turned away there were so many dogs. We will be in Compton again next Saturday. Being in the clinic every month, we develop relationships with people in the community, as does any good business and our mobile clinic program is a business. We are in the business of getting every Compton dog spayed/neuter, a monumental task but one we are slowly chipping away at.


Sometimes, spaying/neutering is just not enough. I had a dog owner talk to me about “getting rid of her dog” last month. She was adamant about not taking the dog to the shelter or just giving the dog away to someone who might want to fight him. Her son bought “Max” a 90 pound Bandog, as a puppy and then he dumped the dog on mom, who is a senior and can’t handle Max, a very loving but out of control “youngster”. I had told her that the true test of a good home in Compton is going to be someone taking him although he is fixed. I offered to neuter the dog and help her find Max a home. To my surprise, she showed up with this big boy in a really small car, with her neighbor’s son Chris, who instantly became another DDR youth volunteer. Joel, who rides his bike over to the park every time we do a clinic also helped get Max in control, while we all waited for his name to be called by the vet tech. With these two boys and of course Edgar, my key volunteer and terrific dog handler, we were in good shape.
Max needs a forever home. He is eight months old, very social with all people, even young children. He seemed fine around all of the dogs, no growling, not even at the small dogs. This is a dog that just needs to learn some manners!
On Sunday, I was back at class, where I met our new volunteer handler, Barry, owner of Blue Collar Dog Supply, a terrific dog supply store in Echo Park. He worked “Pearl” in the class and I was handling “He Man”. When class was coming to a close, a […]

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