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 […]

LORI’S CORNER: Operation Safety Net Weekend

It was a really busy weekend for Operation Safety Net. We rescued four dogs that belong to homeless men that are their constant companions.

In the case of Felix’s pit bull, she had been in the shelter because she bit someone, a provoked attack, where they live in Sycamore Park. A long time breeder, he didn’t want to spay her. When we told him “no deal” he made the right choice, had her spayed, we paid all the fees, had her microchipped and they will be reunited today when he picks her up from the vet where she was spayed.

On Saturday morning, I went over to the South LA shelter with Wolf, who lives on 60th Street with three dogs. Three dogs is a little too much to handle for one man living on the street, so we agreed to take the two long time dogs, Dude and Princess out and return them to Wolf’s spot. Marla, his recent street rescue would be coming into our kennel after she is spayed and heals up. Tears of joy, from a man who has been living on the street for ten long hard years. The dogs are all that he has in the world for companionship and protection. He felt very vulnerable without his dogs and wow, they were so happy to see him when he got them out of the shelter! Everyone is now licensed, microchipped, has dog houses, fully compliant.

Without the suport of donors for Operation Safety Net, none of this would be possible. Total paid out for these two rescues was over $850. None of the dogs that we bailed out would have been adopted, all are large breed dogs and of the four dogs, three were pit bulls.

LORI’S CORNER: Rescuing dogs that take up “space”?

I recently had a good friend ask me why do we keep dogs like “Freeway”, since they are not adoptable and are “taking up space”. I guess what she meant is space in the kennel where we could rescue more dogs that are adoptable. I see her point, but I made a commitment to all of the dogs and this includes Freeway.


At our kennel, most all of the dogs are adoptable and are up for adoption. They might not all be what we call “Petco Dogs” , dogs that can go to Petco adoptions on Saturdays, but they do go out to adoptions and / or are shown by appointment at the kennel. However, I do have a handful of dogs that are off the table for adoption consideration and one of those dogs is Freeway. She is a special dog, one that lived with her homeless guardian almost all of her life. He went into a board and care situation, then Freeway was passed around for a bit and abused pretty badly during that time. I took her, biting, attacking other dogs, all of her! She wears a leash 24/7, which we don’t hold on to until we need to bring her in for a landing, into her run. She now trusts Billy and Richard and of course me. It’s all about keeping Freeway safe so that she can relax and enjoy herself. She “works” for Downtown Dog Rescue, helping us rehabilitate dogs that are adoptable. Same with Ms. Bertha, Simon and Chasui. They have a routine and they enjoy the dog pack life.


BERNADETTE


Our newest long shot adoption is Bernadette. She is extremely shy with new people, tentative with new dogs, just a ball of nerves. On top of all that, she is a black pit bull. What are her odds of being adopted? Pretty long, I’m guessing. I expect to have Bernadette live with us for years, not months. She will go up on Petfinder, where we might get an application this year for her but probably not. Should we not have taken her into the rescue and taken on more adoptable dogs, easier dogs?


LORI’S CORNER: “Get Your Pet Bull Spayed” Compton Spay/Neuter Clinic


“Lori, I want to get my Pet Bull fixed,” yells out Shortie, riding his bike across the parking lot towards me at 6:30 in the morning at East Rancho Dominguez Park in Compton. One of the cast of characters who call the park home, Shortie is a long time friend of DDR. When I write Pet Bull, no, that’s not a typo, he really did have a Pet Bull named Sherry, a 5 month old brindle sweetheart who we did spay + vaccinate + microchip but did not go back “home” with Shortie on his bike, since home is wherever he happens to land that night.

Chances are pretty good that he will never pick up Sherry because he will find another stray puppy who got too big for someone living in an apartment or maybe got too “hyper” and the former owner threw her away. People like Shortie are no different in many ways than people like us, who rescue dogs. For Sherry, Shortie was an important part of her chance for a stable home where she would never be sentenced to life in a back yard on a chain, being bred until she wasn’t worth anything. This way of life for many pit bulls in Compton is common but not for a Pet Bull like Sherry. I had to learn the difference between a Pet and a Pit and I guess you could say, I’m still learning. It’s sort of like yard dogs and house dogs, another theory about dogs that is something that leads to high numbers of dogs being euthanized at the shelters every day.


I originally met Shortie through David and Swanee, two men who drink too much for their own good and live in the park. All of the men are dog lovers and have helped me rescue countless dogs that have tried to live the street life and failed. Our feelings are all the same for dogs, we can agree that we don’t want to see a dogs fought, tortured, or man handled and disrespected, as these men call what we in the humane community might call animal cruelty. They, feel the same way that we do when it comes to dogs, we want to save them from the unspeakable harm that often awaits them in places like Compton as a street dog, dodging cars on Rosecrans Blvd, staying clear of the men who fight dogs on the weekends socially, or the gang members that spray paint and torture the street dogs just for fun. Taking a street dog to the shelter is sometimes the most humane option, compared to what the dog may face on the street.

After Sherry’s surgery, a young man […]

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