Compton

DDR SPAY NEUTER PROGRAM – PETSMART Charities Quarterly Article

Media Alert: DDR is being featured in PETSMART Charities Quarterly Newsletter for Winter 2010. Here is your first hand peek at the newsletter!

How One Agency is Putting a New “Targeted” Spay/Neuter Grant to Use

⇨Agency: Downtown Dog Rescue
⇨Location: Compton, Calif.
⇨Targets: Pit bull terriers; low-income
and homeless dog owners

PetSmart Charities® last fall announced its newest grant guidelines and, within weeks, received more than 450 applications from animal-welfare groups across the country. As this application-review process begins to wrap up, a handful of agencies have already received funding and are putting their grant dollars to work.

One such agency is Downtown Dog Rescue in Compton, Calif. The agency received one of the first grants from PetSmart Charities under the new grant guidelines announced in September. The group plans to increase mobile spay/neuter clinics in Compton, Calif. from four per year to 16, providing about 700 sterilizations for the pets of low-income residents.

PetSmart Charities invited animal-welfare organizations to apply for targeted spay/neuter programs, which include efforts to sterilize owned pets by concentrating on an identified local need or problem. Downtown Dog Rescue will use the grant funds to spay/neuter dogs, primarily pit bull terriers, owned by low-income residents in Compton. Dog owners will be able to receive free spay/neuter surgery at the 16 mobile clinics. “Our goal is not to turn anyone away,” said

Lori Weise, founder. “We work closely with Los Angeles County Animal Control to identify and persuade people to bring their pets in. No one had ever done anything in Compton before, and now there’s a definite improvement. People are getting the idea that if they have a dog, they go to the clinics.”

Downtown Dog Rescue will collaborate with three mobile clinics to provide the spay/neuter services, and also will receive matching funds from the County of Los Angeles Animal Services spay/neuter fund. The use of this targeted spay/neuter grant funding is expected to reduce unaltered and stray dogs – notably pit bull terriers which, in the target area, are disproportionately surrendered to or impounded by local shelters and animal-control agencies.

Downtown Dog Rescue was selected as a grant recipient because of its well-developed collaboration with other key members in the community and its ability to provide baseline data on intakes from the targeted area and updated progress reports.

“We know we can’t be all things to everyone,” continued Weise. “But choosing a targeted area is a good way to see results. The park where we hold the mobile clinics lets us know that they see the benefits – there are no longer packs of dogs scaring kids. We are so appreciative of PetSmart Charities for helping […]

LORI’S CORNER: Monthly Spay/Neuter Clinic – The Community Responds

Last Saturday was our monthly free dog clinic in Compton at East Rancho Dominguez Park. There are always too many dogs needing service and not enough cage space and time to do all the dogs that come out. We ended our day spaying/neutering 33 dogs.

Each dog is also vaccinated and micro chipped all at no charge. Ivania and I signed up an additional 50 people, some with two, three and four dogs at home that need the free service at a future clinic. There is always a waiting list and we always end up turning people away which proves my theory, MOST dog owners want to do the “right thing”. They want to spay/neuter and vaccinate their dogs. They don’t always know what the surgery is called but they know, they don’t want any litters of puppies.

Too many people in power, the same people who make the financial decisions for city, county, state budgets believe that “poor dog owners” in areas like Compton don’t care about getting their dogs fixed and that they want puppies to make money. When in reality, most dog owners don’t want puppies, even if their dog has an accidental litter. They either don’t know where to get an affordable surgery or have poor information on spay/neuter. I can’t tell you how many people think that their dog is too young to have puppies at a year, or they are worried that their dog’s personality will change overnight after the surgery, or that their dog might die while being sterilized. Some dog owners are so nervous that they wait with us in the park while their pet is being sterilized.

Ivania and Rosalie are my two dedicated Compton Clinic volunteers who help me process paperwork, sign clients up for future clinics, and trouble answer health and behavioral problems that come up. In some cases, we are the only resource for accurate information on dog care for Compton Dog Owners who may not be able to afford to go to a vet or sign up for an obedience training class. Debbie came out to help answer training questions and Edgar and Gerardo, both Sunday Pit bull school classmates came out to help make our day very successful. Edgar took the photo above of Laurie’s little dog and his sister created the Adopt Me graphics. We passed out dog treats, dog toys, collars and leashes, as well as information on low cost vaccinations and other […]