Four months into our South LA Shelter Intervention Program, we have surpassed 1000 pets intercepted from entering the shelter. Remember, our goal was 400 for the year Because of a team effort, we have far surpassed that modest goal in just four months.

Considering that the area that the South LA shelter serves, consists of zip codes of poverty, we know that surrendering a pet is more often a symptom of a greater challenge the family is facing, where 1 in 4 households earn less than $25,000 a year. On average families living in South LA need an income of roughly twice the official poverty level to meet their basic needs. Only 8.2% of residents 25 and older have a four-year degree. The majority of families rent, 63.1% of households are renters. Add all of this up and one can see a lack of employment, secure affordable housing and community action based neighborhoods result in more pets being surrendered at the shelter.

Despite a decrease in crime, in some of the more violent areas, it’s still common for children to have a “live for today attitude”. The idea of planning for the future and living in one place for an extended period of time, where the family can have a pet is often unlikely. The majority of people, over 70%, who bring a pet to the shelter to surrender, do not want to surrender their pet. It’s a lack of resources that drives them to surrender not a lack of caring about that pet.

The sole purpose of this blog post is to get the message out about the negative impact poverty has on all aspects of a family’s life, including the family pet. If you don’t know how you are going to pay rent on the first of the month, every month or how you are going to feed your child, buy him back to school clothes, provide for a secure future, the family dog or cat ranks pretty far down on the list, despite how much one loves their pet.

For this reason, we provide free spay/neuter and vaccinations, free dog training, reduced fee or free medical care for treatable illnesses like mange, an ear infection. We work with the family to promote a safe environment for their dog, installing a gate, building a dog run or repairing a fence. We also give families options about how to say goodbye to a senior pet, offering an alternative to dropping a sick/injured dying dog or cat at the shelter. Our vet reduces his fees for us to pay for humane euthanasia so that humane euthanasia is free to the pet owner, creating a more peaceful transition […]

In less than a month, the Downtown Dog Rescue kennel will be relocating to our new home in South Gate, California. Thus starting a new chapter in saving animals lives.  We’ve come a long way from our early days of rescuing mostly former guard dogs and countless pets belonging to the homeless community of Skid Row. Some of whom are still DDR residents.

Not exactly what I would call “highly adoptable” dogs. But, almost two decades ago when we started DDR, our focus wasn’t about increasing adoptions. It was simply about  reducing the number of stray dogs on our block. One dog at a time, with no real plan for the future. While we still concentrate on one dog at a time, the 3000 plus dogs that have once called DDR their temporary home, have all gone on to find forever homes with their new packs/families or become a permanent part of the DDR family.

How have we been able to operate on a small budget and grow organically each year while addressing more community challenges? It’s been the relationships formed with people in animal welfare, including the support of larger organizations, all working together in collaborative ways that have had a profound positive impact. These relationships allow DDR to do so much more than would otherwise be possible. One of the relationships that has been important to our progress over the past decade has been with Best Friends Animal Society.

When co-founder Francis Battista and his team first came to Los Angeles to visit Dog Man’s Training class and the DDR kennel, I wondered why would an organization like Best Friends be interested in someone like me, who had a small kennel in a parking lot in the back of a woodshop?  That’s all our kennel was and still is, a series of dog runs, in the back of Modernica’s old wood shop, where the dogs run around in what was once a parking lot.  However, they saw my vision and encouraged me to do more and to not give up. Eventually, I was invited to speak at one of the first No More Homeless PetsConferences, then, another one and another one. But perhaps the greatest honor was when I was asked to be one of the founding members of the NKLA steering committee.

While on the NKLA committee, one of my biggest accomplishments was taking what is now known as the South LA Shelter Intervention Program from an idea on paper and turning it into a discussion with the other members of the NKLA steering committee, as to how to get the program funded and functioning properly.

With the modest goal of keeping a few hundred pets out of the South LA shelter, it was the Best Friends team, who listened to what I needed and worked quietly behind the scenes to make this program happen. A program that is a collaborative effort […]

We are thrilled to have the support of the Doris Day Animal Foundation by way of a $10,000 donation to help support our senior dog humane services.

Along with the donation we received a very kind note from Doris Day herself, “Downtown Dog Rescue has been a valuable resource in the under-served communities of Los Angeles with their rescue and education programs.  I was thrilled to hear that DDR and their rescue partners have intercepted over 1,000 dogs so far this year from entering the South L.A. Shelter through their Shelter Intervention Program.  I hope this pledge from the Doris Day Animal Foundation will help DDR get their new quarters so they can do even more great work for the animals of Los Angeles and the people who love them,” said Doris Day from her home in Carmel, CA.

We need your help to purchase a permanent home for DDR by August 26th, 2013. You can make a difference in a dogs life by clicking the link to donate/sharing on Facebook: http://bit.ly/16kmjno

We’re getting closer! Thanks to your generosity, we met the $60,000 goal set by the ASPCA and they are matching it! Now we only have $86,000 remaining to buy the new building.

The sooner we raise the funds, the sooner we can start giving more dogs their second chance at a new life.

Would you consider making one more gift to provide them with the shelter they so desperately need? Because of you, we know we can make this dream a reality for the dogs of Downtown Dog Rescue.

Thank you for supporting this project and encouraging others to give. Thank you for caring.

With gratitude,

Lori

P.S. We need your help to purchase a permanent home for DDR by August 26th, 2013. You can make a difference in a dogs life by clicking the link to donate/sharing on Facebook: http://bit.ly/16kmjno

Downtown Dog Rescue is extremely grateful for the tremendous support we have received from Animal Farm Foundation’s $10,000 donation for our kennel project.  This donation will be used specifically to constructed two play yards for our rescued dogs to enjoy for years to come.  Support from Animal Farm Foundation has allowed DDR to build these much needed play yards immediately, completely finished before the dogs move over to our new kennel.  AFF and DDR both strongly agree that play yards are the best way to go for rescue/ shelter dogs to experience enrichments and socialize.  Socialization for rescue/ shelter dogs is essential for the dogs’ physical and mental well being ad will result in sending more dogs home faster!  To learn more about AFF visit animalfarmfoundation.org

We need your help to purchase a permanent home for DDR by August 26th, 2013. You can make a difference in a dogs life by clicking the link to donate/sharing on Facebook: http://bit.ly/16kmjno

The building currently housing our rescue dogs is being sold and we need to raise $120,000 to purchase a new building by August 26th, 2013. The ASPCA has generously pledged $60,000 to Downtown Dog Rescue contingent upon us raising an additional $60,000. Please help us to reach our goal. Time is of the essence!

PLEASE HELP BY DONATING AT OUR “GOFUNDME” CAMPAIGN LOCATED HERE: http://bit.ly/16kmjno

The building currently housing our rescue dogs is being sold and we need to raise $120,000 to purchase a new building by August 26th, 2013.

We need to outright own a building, so these dogs are guaranteed a place to stay while we prepare them for adoption as family pets.

We’ve found a property for sale in South Gate, with an existing structure that can be easily modified to suit our needs. It’s not a brand new, modern building, but with the right amount of work, it is the answer to our prayers.

I’ve put my own personal home up as collateral, which is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done in my life, but I believe with all of my heart and soul it’s the right thing to do.

We’ve raised the majority of the purchase price, but we are $120,000 short and escrow closes on August 26th, 2013. Our goal is to pay cash for the property so that we can continue to run our program in under served communities with resources and services to prevent pets from entering the shelter system.

If we can pay cash and outright own this larger building, not only will we be able to rescue additional dogs, but it will also allow us to give back through our Shelter Intervention Program, covering needs that current grants may not meet.

We see a lot of families going through financial challenges. Loss of a job, home or other uncontrollable life event often leading to the family feeling as if they have no alternative but to surrender their pet to a shelter. Sometimes if a pet’s need can be solved by vet care, training, food, etc., it’s the difference between the animal entering the shelter or being able to stay with their family. L.A. Times was kind enough to recognize our program, and wrote a great article about it, which you can read here.

We need your help. No donation is too small. If you can’t participate financially, please post/share our Go Fund Me Fundraising Page with your friends, family and any organization/Facebook page you can think of.

Your donation or social media share helps us rescue shelter dogs in Los Angeles and continue our shelter intervention program.

With many thanks,

Lori Weise
Founder, Downtown Dog Rescue

In the first quarter of the South LA Shelter Intervention Program, our team which includes Amanda the full time interventionist, Downtown Dog Rescue and Angel City Pit bull Volunteers, intercepted 650 pets from entering the shelter. A really impressive number for a program that was supposed to intercept 400 pets total in 2013. However, the number only tells part of the story of what’s going on at the South LA shelter, more importantly, the South LA community as a whole.

South LA has one of the highest rates of poverty and people living without health insurance in the nation:

• Over 40% of people live below the poverty line.
• There is only 1 job for every 7 people.
• Over 400,000 residents live more than 3 miles from a hospital emergency room.
• Blacks and Latinos are twice as likely to be exposed to hazardous waste.
• Voter turnout is consistently 10-15 percentage points lower than in more affluent communities

The daily challenges of running this program can be daunting. As we aim to engage the community, we often deal with an overall mistrust of the shelter system, “all they do is catch and kill animals.” We deal with the influences that gangs have on the overall community. I recall more than one pet owner surrendering their pet to the shelter because a neighbor in a gang had threatened to do harm against their pet and or the entire family, thus they felt that the shelter was the only option for the pet to possibly find a better life, away from violence.

Failure to comply with the spay/neuter ordinance, failure to obtain a dog license, failure to secure the pet on the property due to a wobbly fence, a broken gate and failure to provide medical care are all reasons that pet owners come to us for assistance. It’s not that they don’t want to comply, they can’t afford to pay for the services. The “problem” is that simple. We can keep more pets in their homes just by offering free /low cost services, averaging our cost spent on each pet owner at $50.

Because we recognize that pet owners in South LA often have difficult lives with complex problems, a service that costs as little as $10, like a rabies vaccination, is too expensive for someone living on disability, social security or general relief. To further illustrate the level of poverty, even though the service is free, one might lack the money necessary to access the free service and feel too ashamed to admit this fact. Another challenge we face is connecting and building the trust of pet owners who are undocumented, who often won’t access services out of fear.

Our team has created a level of trust by listening to people who need help, asking them how we can serve them and then do the work. People who benefit and use the program […]