LORI’S CORNER: 500 spay/neuter surgeries to date in 2010
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.
LORI’S CORNER: Puppys from Compton
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
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. After Sherry’s surgery, a young man […]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.
LORI’S CORNER: Operation Safety Net Weekend
LORI’S CORNER: Rescuing dogs that take up “space”?
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.
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.