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 […]

Check out adoptable dog Allie photographed with the multi-talented Jesse Golden. Special thanks to Jesse for choosing Downtown Dog Rescue as the Models-N-Mutts charity of the month. Read more about Jesse, and Models-and-Mutts here, and if you’re interested in adopting Allie, you can find more information or submit an adoption application by clicking here.

 
Support Downtown Dog Rescue and meet some of our adoptable dogs on Sunday June 30^th at the Downtown Los Angeles Modernism Show: Vintage 20th Century Design hosted by comedian Andy Dick and Modernica. There will be over 75 Mid-Century modern dealers, food trucks, music and our adoptable rescue dogs, including Mr. B who will be getting up extra early that morning to meet you.
 

Come out for great shopping, admission is only $3 and the proceeds benefit DDR’s South LA Shelter Intervention Program. For more information visit www.downtownmodernism.com See you there!

DOWNTOWN MODERNISM
2901 Saco St. LA, CA 90058


8 AM – 2 PM

We’re just two months into our South LA shelter intervention project and we’ve already hit our year end goal of preventing over 400 pets from entering the shelter. Yes, you read it right, 400 pets prevented from entering the shelter in just 2 months! While I knew the program would be successful, I never imagined it would be this successful. The program runs every day the shelter is open for a total of 6 days a week. We track the data every day and found that 91% of the people who accepted our services kept their pets and only 9% had to be rescued. The great need was free spay/neuter services, not low cost, free!  This accounted for 33% of the service that we provide. Some qualify for a free City voucher but many do not. Why? Some pet owners are undocumented, some are homeless and have no ID, some just can’t qualify because they either live in the “wrong zip code” or because they can’t show that they are poor because they are paid under the table/in cash.  Downtown Dog Rescue, has always believed in making spay/neuter services free and easy to use. We want to thank Spay4LA, Sam Simon Foundation, the Amanda Foundation for providing additional free spay/neuter services. We also want to thank ARC Animal Hospital and North Figueroa Animal Hospital for offering very good pricing to us for spay/neuter surgeries so that we can say YES to every pet owner who wants to spay/neuter their pets.

HOUSING & RESOURCES

Opening up conversation has been one of the secrets to our program’s success. We found that 29% of pet owners we helped had housing problems, however the term “housing problems” is a bit more complicated than it sounds. As rescuers we often hear(and say), “if I couldn’t move with my dog or cat I would sleep in my car.” That’s exactly what some of the people who come to the shelter have done, in hopes that friends and family will help. We’ve experienced people begging us, crying for help, so desperate that we can’t say no, it’s not an option as long as we have the resources. We’ve gone as far as convincing landlords to agree to allowing the dog in the home on the condition that the owner completes a training course with our community trainer Larry Hill, We’ve paid pet deposits, donated food, fixed fences, created dog runs, licensed, vaccinated and of course spay/neutered. We’ve even uncovered and treated medical issues. Last resort is coordinating with our rescue or another rescue to rehome the dog. Thankfully, only 9% of the animals needed to go to a rescue group.



A really big problem is the ability to find pet friendly section 8 housing. The lack of secure housing that families experience directly affects the pet.  If someone is living in section 8 housing, they might have two rental options, both of […]

In partnership with Found Animals and with the support of several rescue and
community partners, we wanted to celebrate our Shelter Intervention
Program’s first months statistics. To go along with our data are some of the
front line stories we’ve come across. It’s our goal to be as transparent as
possible with our findings in hopes that we all as a rescue community can
better understand what’s truly happening at the shelters and in the
communities that their located in.

In April 2013, our Shelter Intervention Program was able to prevent 150 pets
from entering the South LA Animal Shelter. 132 were dogs, 17 cats, and 1
rabbit made up the count.

Just under 50% of the people who surrendered their pets to our program
listed housing problems as their reason for parting ways. Community problems
are a chain reaction, and we’re happy that our program is bringing these
issues to the surface.

Let’s not forget the services, In April, we fascilitated 39 Spay/Neuter
surgeries, and 14 humane euthanasia services for pets that were very old,
very sick and in most cases, could no longer walk.

Humane euthanasia services are something we’re really proud of. Many of the families were in tears as they said their final farewell to their beloved family members. Not having the resources to take them to a hospital, they’d bring them to the shelter to be euthanized due to old age or terminal illness. When given the option to take their pets to a veterinary hospital, the families were extremely grateful that they’d be able to send their family pet off with dignity and be with them during their final breath.

After just one month, it’s plain to see the need. Our Shelter Intervention Program takes a huge strain off of the city of Los Angeles by providing some breathing room for LA Animal Services. Undoubtedly our program prevents animals from being euthanized in the shelters, but our program’s community activism is the long term tool that will truly make a difference.

It’s been 12 days since the launch of our Shelter Intervention Program at the South LA Animal Shelter. Although we knew we’d see positive results, we’re taken back by the enormous success we’ve seen since the April 6th launch date. This past weekend – our 12th day in operation – we successfully prevented the 100th South LA pet from entering the shelter. That’s 100 pets prevented from entering the South LA Shelter IN JUST 12 DAYS!

Included in this weekend’s milestone was our first client with two dogs who needed training. Instead of surrendering his dogs, he came out to learn new techniques on how to handle his challenges. With special thanks to Puppy Imprinter’s Larry Hill, 2 more large breed dogs will not be seeing the inside of the South LA Shelter.

More good news, this is Connor who would’ve been surrendered to the shelter, but thankfully our intervention team was able to coordinate a local rescue group, Wags and Walks, to treat him to a pampered life in a foster home. Because of our partnership with local private rescue groups, many of the pets we encounter never have to step one paw into the shelter.

Also never stepping foot into the shelter were Chubs and Goofy. Both senior dogs from low income households, their owners had no other choice than to bring them to the shelter. Chubs unable to walk due to a massive tumor and Goofy who had a stroke the night before were brought to the shelter by their distraught families. The family’s only hope was that the shelter staff would make them as comfortable as possible before their final departure from this world. Instead, our shelter intervention program offered humane euthanasia, free of charge to the families at a veterinary hospital in Inglewood. Both families ecstatically agreed to take their dogs to the hospital where they could have a dignified goodbye, and in the arms of a loved one. Senior dogs at the end of their life was one of the motivating factors for our Shelter Intervention program.

In total, what we’re seeing is a community willing to work with whomever is willing to provide the resources. Our Shelter Intervention Program is that resource, and although we’ve had tremendous support, we’re still in need of funding for spay/neuter surgeries, vaccines, dog food/supplies, boarding/veterinary fees as well as several other miscellaneous expenses that come along with running our Shelter Intervention Program.  Please consider donating to Downtown Dog Rescue. All donations go straight to the program. If you haven’t already, please follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter. You […]

“Buddy, is a really good dog,” says his owner as she sobbed while she said her last good bye to her 6 years old “beloved boy.” Her life’s circumstances make it impossible for her to keep Buddy, and today was the day she had to confront those circumstances by saying good-bye to him. She continued to explain, “he is great with kids, and has lived with other dogs,” and while at the shelter we observed Buddy having no reaction to any of the little fearless dogs around him at the South LA Shelter.

Buddy is the latest K9 customer in our Shelter Intervention Program at the South LA Shelter. If the program didn’t exist, Buddy’s would have been surrendered to the shelter and he would’ve been just another adult dog, waiting to be adopted in the pool of 200+ dogs up for adoption six days a week at the South LA Shelter. Our Shelter Intervention Program will try to  locate a rescue or adopter for Buddy and keep yet one more South LA Pet out of the shelter.

If you can adopt, foster or know a rescue that can take Buddy, we’d love to hear from you. 

Plenty more to come, please help spread the word, and if you haven’t already, please follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter. You can also donate to Downtown Dog Rescue. All donations goes straight to our community programs and our dogs.

SHELTER INTERVENTION PROGRAM

April 6th marked the launch of our Shelter Intervention Program. Thanks to the generous funding from Found Animals, we’re able to have a DDR representative on site at the South L.A. Shelter seven days a week.

Being on the front lines will enable us to provide resources and information to the South L.A. community which will provide immediate alternative solutions to surrendering  their pets to the shelter. We’re proud to announce that our Shelter Intervention Program’s first week prevented 67 pets  from entering the shelter.

FREE COMMUNITY DOG TRAINING

As our program continues to grow, we began cleaning up a vacant lot at 60th and Western, which will be home to free community dog training classes throughout the year for dog owners who would otherwise surrender their dogs to the South LA Shelter.

FREE SPAY/NEUTER CLINICS

In addition to providing community resources, our long term commitment to the community will continue to focus on free spay/neuter and vaccine services. In fact, Saturday we provided 41 spay/neuter surgeries for dogs living in the Compton community, thanks to the generosity of the Heigl Foundation.

Plenty more to come, please help spread the word, and if you haven’t already, please follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter. You can also donate to Downtown Dog Rescue. All donations goes straight to our community programs and our dogs. Photos from this past weekend can be seen below.

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