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 […]
FRIDAY SHOUT OUTS – Giving Thanks!
Helping Robin give thanks is our OPERATION SAFETY NET pittie mascot, SIMON!
DDR YOUTH MATTER: Nishi Girl Scout Troop 12135 “OPERATION SAVE THE HOMELESS PETS”
by Irene Soriano Brightman
Lori and I were very excited to host the donation presentation from the NISHI GIRL SCOUTS TROOP 12135 – Junior Bronze Project 2009-2010 members this past Saturday at the kennels! Coordinating fundraising projects for DDR is extremely fun and gratifying and the visit from Troop 12135 has been a wonderful highlight! 14 amazing young ladies and their leaders presented Lori with big bags of dog food, dog care items purchased from PETCO, dog beds and used blankets among other many things. I was amazed at what the girls had accomplished at the culmination of their project “OPERATION SAVE THE HOMELESS PETS.”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.
LORI’S CORNER: Downtown Dog Rescue Kennels
One of the big assets that Downtown Dog Rescue has is our licensed kennel. We are also very fortunate to have a great kennel helper, Billy who works with the dogs six days a week. Running a kennel is a full time job in addition to my “real” full-time job as General Manager of Modernica. I work seven days a week with our rescue dogs and have a lot of great volunteers, like Richard,our Modernica Plant Manager who helps walk dogs during the week, twice a day. We typically have 20 dogs at our place that need forever homes. Some like “Coco Puff” or “Freeway” are real long shots and will live with us for years not months. Others are here a week or a month until they are placed.
Our day begins at 6:30AM, we feed the dogs and they are released to play in our yard with agility equipment and lots of room to chase, tackle and just be dogs. Most of the dogs are out together in our large pack, whereas others who may not be good with same-sex dogs, play in smaller packs with dogs that they enjoy. All of our dogs get out of their runs to exercise off leash twice a day. The entire kennel area is cleaned up before the dogs go back into their runs. At 4:00, we begin to feed dinner, release the dogs to play and clean all the runs again. This is the same schedule for the dogs seven days a week, 365 days a year, even on holidays, in the rain, no matter what. It’s this routine that promotes a sense of stability so that the dogs can relax and enjoy being dogs. In addition to playing in a pack twice a day, I take dogs out during the week to the park to walk, Billy takes dogs out running on his bike and our volunteer Debbie comes by to do one on one leash work so that when our dogs are adopted, each one can walk on a leash and have some basic house manners. On Saturdays, Sandy picks up dogs to go out to adoption, an event some of dogs like Cookie, wait for all week. On Sundays, other dogs go to our Pit bull School at the Coliseum. My dog Clancy loves this class! Right now, Roja, is going to school every Sunday. Leroy, a new volunteer who can’t own a dog right now because he lives in an apartment, meets us at class, and is teaching her basic obedience. Many […]
FRIDAY SHOUT OUTS – Giving Thanks!
So, our newly adopted pup CHOCOLATE!!!!!! will do the honors this week!

Special message from Lori Weise
Thank You to the Amanda Foundation, Retriever Rescue, Best Friends Animal Society, Heigl Foundation and Janet Cook from Angel’s Heart Dog Rescue and all of the foster people and adopters who came out last week to help us rescue 41 dogs out of the 61st Street kennel in a little over two weeks.



A monumental challenge for a small organization like Downtown Dog Rescue but we did it, with a lot of support from our volunteers and friends who came out to support us, transport, bathe, and take lots of dogs out to adoption.
We would like to extend a special thank you to Cornelius, “Dog Man” Austin who helped me assess over 30 dogs last Saturday at the 61st Street kennel.
Thanks to Cheryl Seaberg Elliott for bringing donuts!
A special thanks to the transport/bathing crew:
Robin, Billy, Debbie, Giovanni, Christina, Linda & Cheryl
A special thanks to our Volunteer SHOW Team at PETCO:
Sandy Dragotis: Volunteer and Adoption Coordinator
Show Team: Lezle, Leyla, Teresa, Effie, Linda, Christina, Jill, Jill’s Friend, Cindy, Rachel! (Jill – please send us her name!!!)
Photographer: Kathryn Hall and baby Hall!



















