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 dogs want to work with dogs. At our current location, it’s very limited, since we operate another business, Modernica furniture factory out of the same location as the DDR kennel.


Last year, the Annenberg Foundation granted us funding to create Jobs with Dogs, a program that allowed me to hire people that could not find work and /or needed job training. These jobs all had something to do with dogs. Whether it was passing our anti-dog fightingmaterials, spay/neuter clinic schedules, fixing fences, bathing, walking or training dogs, we paid people to do something positive for the dogs in the community of South LA as well as with our rescue dogs. I would like to grow this program and hire and train more people.



Finally, a new facility would allow us to help other rescues, something that we do already but would like to do more next year. We take in dogs, mostly pit bulls from a rescuethat would otherwise spend a lot of money in boarding. We board and care for the dog, socializing the dog with other dogs, all at no charge until the dog is adopted. We have hosted seminars on dog rehabilitation and dog rescue for the humane community and would like to expand our education programs too.


This move, to our next facility will be a good one. We don’t need much, a secure parking lot with a small office, running water and electricity, that’s it! We have the electrician, the plumber, the volunteers to move all of the existing kennels to the new location where we will build an agility course and play yard for the dogs. When you check out these photos of our current facility, you may not see much more than an asphalt parking lot with some plastic pools and wooden tables, what I see is a dream come true, something that changed my life forever and the lives of over 3000 dogs.


Please help us find a new location and spread the word!
Thanks so much!

2017-05-24T08:44:17+00:00
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