During the months of July, August and September, Downtown Dog Rescue provided assistance, services, and support for 1,811 family pets ( 1199 dogs and 612 cats) Like most months, the majority of the requests for assistance involve DDR paying for a percentage to paying for 100% of veterinary care. A total of 1052 pets received care ranging from vaccinations to chronic medical conditions, to life saving care. Spay and Neuter appointments are difficult to almost impossible to get for most of our families with pets.
In the third quarter, we provided 443 spay and neuter surgeries for cats and dogs. Each month, we have at least two, and sometimes three mobile clinic days, where the cost to spay/neuter + vaccinate + microchip ranges from a cost of free to a copay of $20-$40. For most of the surgeries, DDR is paying the majority of the cost to get more pets spayed and neutered. In August, we began offering s/n services to the community of Huntington Park, and we are committed to go back every other month with a mobile clinic, in partnership with the Huntington Park Police Department.
DDR paying for City of Los Angeles pet redemptions is way down, we only paid for a total of 9 pet redemptions to send pets back home, and out of the shelter. LAAS is now covering the cost of pet redemptions when someone is low income/homeless and can not afford to redeem their dog or cat from the shelter.
17 humane euthanasia services were provided for dogs that were brought to the South LA Shelter to be surrendered because their families could not afford to humanely euthanize their senior/terminally ill pet. Rather than surrendering to the shelter where they would likely sit in a cage suffering, DDR paid for the services so that the families could stay with their pet until the end of their life, surrounded by love and compassion. Families can call or text us for immediate support.
288 families with pets received a monthly supply of cat or dog food. These are all clients who have registered in our program, have spayed/neutered their pets, and rely on DDR to feed their pets. This does not include the hundreds of pounds of food that we pass out on a weekly basis to people with pets who are living on the street, in their vehicles, in trailers. Often, when we meet them, they have no resources for their pet, and have lost connection to resources for themselves as well.
We had three cases of a notice to comply, the reason for being cited was lack of shelter or lack of containment. In these cases, we provide a dog house, repair a simple fence or gate fix, while making sure that the pets in the household get spayed and neutered. If the families want to join our maintenance program, and receive ongoing assistance, we offer that as well.
Counselors Amanda and Yesenia are back at the South LA Shelter every Tuesday and Thursday, meeting people with pets where they are at, discussing how we can help them keep their pet out of the shelter by offering services. Mondays and Fridays they are in the Pet Support Space office, on the phone and meeting with clients in person. Wednesdays are days of outreach service in the community where we provide resources and pet food to those in need. Sundays are reserved for our community vaccination clinic, and spay and neuter clinics.
In addition to all these cases, we continue to sign up low income families with AlignCare which is like a pet MediCal. This is an exciting and rewarding new movement to get more families with pets access to quality veterinary care on an ongoing basis. Dogs like Catherine, 11 years old, who frequently requires veterinary care due to her chronic ear and skin conditions. Because her “dad” is disabled, DDR covers his copay of 20% per visit, AlignCare pays the 80% and the participating veterinarian discounts their rate by 20%
You can make a difference by donating to DDR so that we can continue supporting families with pets, keeping them in their first home forever home.
