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.
KRUSH
Sometimes, it’s too late and the dog is already in the shelter. Krush got out of the yard while his owner Ms. Bell was at work. Grandpa came outside to see LAPD, guns drawn, yellow tape around his yard. They actually tried to shoot Krush, a friendly one year old pit bull who committed the crime of escaping the yard to go and probably investigate a female in heat. Not neutered, his owner later admitted that he was difficult to keep in the yard. He landed in the SLA shelter and he was not eligible to go back until he was fixed and the fence was fixed, which was nearly an impossible request for this dog owner who had a very limited budget. She called and wrote to us, explaining her situation. Krush had done nothing wrong. A neighbor had made a false complaint that Krush tried to attack him. Everyone agreed, the man who made the complaint was wrong and put the community at risk by calling 911. First question I asked is how does one dial 911 when they are being attacked by a dog? His story didn’t make sense. Thanks to the Rothman family who donated towards the fence repair and to Carolos the Handyman who dropped everything to get the work done, the fence was repaired in 48 hours, Krush was neutered and licensed and back home 72 hours later. Ms. Bell raised enough to pay his impound fees and we paid $350 for the fence repair, case closed, one more pit bull makes it out of the South LA shelter alive, YAY!
The last case was a tougher one, Spark and Sweetie Pie had been running loose in the neighborhood. A jealous neighbor had purposely opened the gate and let them out. This brother and sister team were a wild pair who were captured by an officer and brought into the South LA shelter. Tessa the owner admitted that she did not license them and had not gotten around to getting them fixed but like Ms. Bell she was more than willing to if this would save her dogs. She had $100 and very little hope of getting them back, since the minimum fee per dog was $157 . When I arrived at the shelter, I checked out the dogs, not what I would considered two highly adoptable pit bulls, one red and barking at me and the other more friendly but all black. Both dogs were under socialized and had zero training. The plan was get them out, get them fixed and get them to Dog Man’s class when they were healed from surgery. Done, two more pit bulls out of the South LA shelter. The bonus to this story is while I was there, I met Buddha a 7 month old black pit bull mix who was super friendly and out of time so I pulled him. A total of three pit bull type dogs out of the South LA shelter last Saturday, a great day any day this happens!
Operation Safety Net is not a big program and it’s staffed by a few dedicated volunteers who listen to the messages seven days a week and call all of the dog owners back, even when we can’t help. Sometimes, it’s easy, a little coaching and the dog owner is willing to give their dog one more try and come out to a Sunday Dog Man class but other times, such as when the dog has been hit by a car or has parvo all that we can do is offer to pledge some money and give them all the resources we possibly can. We try to keep a $300 budget for each dog owner so we can help as many as we can.
If you would like to help us keep more dogs out of the shelter, consider making a donation that will be used to prevent someone needing to rescue a dog later on. Times are tough, dog owners with a limited source of income have a limited number of options when an emergency happens with their dog. Operation Safety Net has been called Medical for Dogs, I call it a second chance which is what Downtown Dog Rescue is all about.
Please donate: http://www.downtowndogrescue.org/donate.htm
