Through grants and private donations, Downtown Dog Rescue provides this free service for all Compton Dog owners each month. We do not receive financial assistance from the City of Compton, in fact, they have never acknowledged our work in the community. Since 2006, we are the only non profit to provide free spay/neuter services on a regular basis in Compton. The key to our success, the mobile clinic and trained and dedicated volunteers.
Without a mobile clinic program, we would have never met Elizabeth and her family who just moved in across the street from the park where we park the mobile clinic each month. Someone in her neighborhood has abandoned two dogs, and then a third. All females, all large breeds. She had no money to get them spayed, and no car to take them to a hospital. On Saturday, I’m happy to report, we got them all spayed, including “Beauty” a very nervous dog who loves only her family. AngelDog’s staff was terrific and knew just how to handle these dogs. We also provided services for Mr. Randall’s puppy “Thriller” Without the mobile clinic, I seriously doubt this pup would ever have received any vet care since Mr. Randall is homeless. His girlfriend had visited us late in the day at our Dec. clinic but we had no way of contacting her. I was so happy to see Mr. Randall, push his shopping cart up to the mobile clinic, with Thriller in his back pack. Although he had no appointment, we were able to take him aboard the clinic, with a little coaching on why getting Thriller neutered was so important from Rosalie who also offered her yard as a safe haven for the pup whenever Mr. Randall could not care for his dog. He stayed most of the day, had lunch with us and waited patiently for Thriller to be done so he could go back home.
I was also very touched by Felita who had rescued a little female Chihuahua named Cookie. She helped talk two more people into getting their dogs spayed who were “on the fence” about getting it done. We were able to take all the dogs who did not have appointments including Cindy’s big black beautiful male pit bull and lots of small dogs who just showed up. This is Compton and when we do the clinics there about 30% of the clients don’t show up.
We call, remind, cajole each and every person who books an appointment to make sure that they keep their appointment. Both Sandy and Ivania spend hours each month making those calls. It’s a lot of work but SO WORTH IT! Just because it’s free, they won’t come out. There needs to be gifts and an urgency to make the dog the priority. We get it, love doing these clinics, and rely on your generous donations to continue the work. Our goal in 2010 is to spay + neuter 700 Compton dogs.
Why no one else wants to go to Compton? Maybe it has something to do with the guns, the police and the bad rap that Compton gets, all of which went down at our clinic on Saturday. While we were operating our clinic, two basketball players who I’m guessing were gang members, pulled guns on each other. 6 police cars and a helicopter later, it was over. Really crazy and a very good reminder that none of us live in Compton, except for Rosalie who took this all in stride. It’s not everyday that I have a police officer asking me where I thought the man stashed his gun. The crazy part of this is that the man that was arrested had been at our clinic last month with his Rottweiler and he came up to the park to talk to me about his dog.
We will be back in the park on Saturday February 13th, offering more free spay/neuter services. A typical clinic costs us $2500 which for me is the best investment we can make, spaying + neutering dogs at what I would call “ground zero” for dog over population! For all of those who support our work, thank you!
