July 3, 2023 • 17 mins
It’s the 4th of July Holiday week! The big night on Tuesday of course, but as we know often those fireworks will be firing off ALL WEEK! A VERY SCARY time for animals and our pets. A time where LA Animal Services and shelters ALL over Southern California see a dramatic INCREASE in the # of animals that will suddenly be FILLING the shelters up! On today's iHeart SoCal Show, we'll be talking about all the ways to AVOID your pet RUNNING SCARED. Let's help keep our furry besties feeling SAFE at home. My guest is Anette Ramirez, with LA Animal Services for 23+ years! She's the Interim General Manager and you can find out more at www.laanimalservices.com
The City of Los Angeles Animal Services Department was established 153 years ago. LA Animal Services is one of the largest municipal shelter systems in the U.S., serving approximately 60,000 animals annually and responding to 20,000 emergency calls each year involving animals or people in danger. Their field staff include animal control officers, license canvassers, and a world class Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team (SMART) – one of only two in the country. Our Animal Control Officers are recognized experts in handling animal cruelty cases, they also handle permits and all code enforcement including licensing, spay/neuter, leash laws and more whether they are helping dogs, cats, hawks, alligators, horses, turtles, etc. or the people who love them or fear them. They have 6 shelters locally and can always be reached at (888) 452-7381
The City of Los Angeles Animal Services Department was established 153 years ago. LA Animal Services is one of the largest municipal shelter systems in the U.S., serving approximately 60,000 animals annually and responding to 20,000 emergency calls each year involving animals or people in danger. Their field staff include animal control officers, license canvassers, and a world class Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team (SMART) – one of only two in the country. Our Animal Control Officers are recognized experts in handling animal cruelty cases, they also handle permits and all code enforcement including licensing, spay/neuter, leash laws and more whether they are helping dogs, cats, hawks, alligators, horses, turtles, etc. or the people who love them or fear them. They have 6 shelters locally and can always be reached at (888) 452-7381
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Lisa Fox here, thanks so muchfor having us on. This is the
iHeart so Cal's show. All right, So, as we know, it's
fourth of July holiday week with theBig Night officially on Tuesday, but as
we often know that the well,those fireworks will be firing off every day
and night all this week. Soit's an especially scary time for animals and
especially for our pets at time whereLA Animals Services and shelters all over something
(00:23):
California see a dramatic increase in thenumber I have scared animals that'll be filling
up the shelters. So we wantto chat about all the ways that we
can help avoid that, you know, keep the numbers down, and all
the ways that we can help keepour furry best. He's feeling safe and
cozy at home and so happy tohave on a net. Ramirez of LA
(00:43):
Animals Services, High in Net Hi, Lisa, Hello you, I'm doing
all right. Thank you so andthat you're the interim general manager for LA
Animal Services and WOW with them forover twenty three years, but I see
that the organization has been around forone hundred and fifty three years. Wow.
Yeah, we are the original animalwelfare organization for the city of Los
(01:07):
Angeles. Look at that, andsix locations serving all of La County.
So we have one in San Pedro, one in South Los Angeles, one
in West Los Angeles, another onewhich we call Nurse Central, which is
just north of Dodger Stadium, andthen we have our East Valley and Van
Nives and our West Valley in Chatsworth. Yeah, and you guys are pretty
(01:30):
busy, not just especially around Fourthof July time, but Ella Animal Services
one of the largest municipal shelter systemsin the entire country, serving about sixty
thousand animals every year and responding toabout twenty thousand emergency calls involving animals or
people in danger. Oh, touchon that. Yeah, So we are
the animal welfare organization. If someonecalls or someone has an issue with an
(01:53):
animal getting out and you know,behaving aggressively, or an animal that's been
hit by a car or sick orinjured, we're the ones that respond and
go rescue that animal, bring itinto the shelter, we try to fix
them up, or we try toget them with rehabbers or rescue partners.
Do you have an eight hundred number, because I feel like this is a
(02:13):
number that we should all have incase some type of animal related issue or
emergency arises. We should just haveyour number to reach out for help.
Yeah. Yeah, we have aneighty to eight number to eight eight eight
four five two seven three eight one. Yeah. I feel like sometimes when
situations happen, we never know whoto call first. It's like, oh,
am I googling the sheltered nearest me, or you know what I mean?
(02:36):
Sometimes should I post on next doorand ask people's advice us to what
to do? Sometimes I feel likewe don't know the authority on that or
you know, who do we goto first? So this number, I
would just implore people to just programit into your phone for any animal related
emergency. Yeah, and another optionfor Alie City residents is three one one,
so they can definitely if they can'tanswer your question, they can connect
(03:00):
you with your local shelter. Ohthere you go. Of course, three
one one, much like the oldfour one one, but three one one
is kind of like, yeah,all your I usually sadly call three one
one one. I'd like, um, did my car get towed? Because
I don't see it outside, sadly, and they always there. Hey,
they're able to find out. They'relike, yeah, it was to you're
parking your neighbor's driveway. I didwhat So there's that. Okay, But
(03:21):
the phone, I'm gonna call eightyeight four or five two seventy three eighty
one just to plug that into yourphone, to have it in case,
God forbid, something's going on withan animal, or you witness something,
or you need help, or yousee an animal that was hit. God
forbid. But these would be anincredible resource. These folks, you know,
the first person to call and findout how to handle the situation as
best you can. I know we'regoing to talk about Fourth of July safety,
(03:42):
but again going over all the thingsthat you all do, says your
field staff. Your field staff includesanimal control officers, license canvassers, and
a world class specialized mobile animal rescueteam, one of only two in the
whole country. Talk about that.Yeah, so we have a specialized mobile
animal rescue team, which are animalcontrol officers that are trained in doing all
(04:08):
the crazy rescue techniques. If ifyou're hiking in Griffith Park and your dog
goes over like a cliff side,they're the ones who would go out there
and set up the rope systems torescue the dog and bring it back to
you. We know how important petsare to their families, so we don't
want anyone to resk themselves trying torescue their animal. That's why we have,
(04:30):
you know, animal control officers.They're specifically trained to go into the
most difficult situations to safely rescue animals. They also do large animal rescues.
I think you know the news everyonce in a while we have a horse
being airlifted by a helicopter with LAFD. Yeah, those are our animal control
officers that are out there connecting allthe equipment to the horse and you know,
(04:51):
making sure that it's safe to beflown. So we do all kinds
of stuff from the cat up inthe tree to the horse that needs to
be rescued by helicopter. And wealways see those bears on TV. If
you live in the mountain communities,you often get visits from the bears.
You help with wild animals as well. Yeah, we do what we primarily
do with wild animals who just keepthe public safe. We work very closely
(05:14):
with state Fish and Wildlife Services tomake a determination when a wild animal actually
needs to be trank life captured andrelocated. But we work very closely with
our state partners. Okay, andagain l Animal Services doing a little bit
of everything. In terms of mygosh, it looks like you, you
know, you handle animal cruelty cases. You handle all permit issues, all
(05:35):
code enforcement including licensing, spay andneuter, leash laws and more. You
know, whether you're helping with dogs, cats, hawks, alligators, horses,
turtles, and any other kind ofcrazy creature. It sounds like you
guys do it all, and exactlyYou're right. We are a city of
over four million people. We havepeople who love and fear all the different
(05:59):
animals out there. So we're theones that you call, you know,
for help. We're the ones thatyou also call to healthy animals. So
we're always there to assist the publicwith any animal related issues and make sure
that animals are being treated properly,humanely and safely. LA Animal Services here
to help us any and all ofour animal needs and situations and all the
(06:23):
basics right span neuter, microchipping,animal licenses. What do we need an
animal license for? So it isrequired in the city of Los Angeles to
license your dog that is over fourmonths of age, and this is basically
a requirement for the rabies vaccination.So it's how we make sure that dogs
(06:44):
out there are getting vaccinated against rabieson it so that they're not spreading a
disease that could potentially impact humans aswell. God God, because we have
a rescue kitty that just kind ofshowed up as a feral cat in our
backyard a little over a year ago, little Georgie Kitty, so we kept
him. It was meant to be. He's a sweet this little rescue ever.
I'm like, oh, shoot,Georgia does not have a license,
but it's just for dogs, notfor cats, correct, Yeah, the
(07:05):
license just for dogs. We offera five dollars like ID tag for cats
for sure, it's not required forcats. All right, Well, I
see here at all Animal Services dotCom that you also help with vaccinations,
although I think our veterinarians kind ofdo that part though, right right,
Yeah, that would be your veterinarianthat would handle the vaccine. We do
have at five of our shelters ofveterinary clinics that operate out of the side
(07:30):
of the shelters. So there aresome vaccination services that are provided not necessarily
through the shelter, but through theveterinary clinics that are at the shelters,
and you can help us find wayswhere it's super affordable, right, because
sometimes caring for your pet can beexpensive. As much as we love them
in our hearts, it can bepricey. And another way that you help
with that, I love that youdo the pet food pantry. That's that's
(07:54):
been going on for a couple ofyears now, right, help you help
people feed their animals who might bestruggling financially to do so. Yeah,
we actually started the pet food pantryduring the pandemic and it was you know,
we recognize the need that people neededa little bit of help with their
pets. You know, a lotof people were struggling financially because of the
state of the economy. So everyweek on Sunday from one to four at
(08:18):
our our Central, our Chesterfield Square, and our East Valley shelters, we
do give out food at our petfood pantries, and we do ask people
to sign up ahead of time justso we know how much food to prepare.
We do take people who have lockedup and didn't sign up ahead of
time. We'll just have to fillout some real quick people work. It's
no barrier. You don't have togive us any financial proof. You don't
(08:41):
have to be a citizen. Youjust have to have a pet and have
a need. And I love that. Do you also take donations? If
we have picky cats who don't likecertain types of foods, that's we have
unopened cans of a brand that weknow they don't like. Now you'll take
the donations the donated foods dog andcat food, so you guys can regift
it to somebody else in need.Right, Yes, we absolutely is.
(09:05):
The pet Food Pantry is actually alldonation based. Oh great, So we
rely heavily on people whom you knowpurchase food and for whatever reason didn't need
it. Field bags and any cantfood as well. We're always in need
and it goes to a great cause. Wonderful. So again, Pet Food
Pantry, if you are in needof free pet food for your pets.
(09:26):
They have offered this at three oftheir locations. El Animal Services three of
their locations and if you have foodyou want to donate to help keep that
program flourishing every Sunday they do this. You can find out more at La
Animal Services dot Com. It's LaAnimal Services dot Com. So you've got
the pet food pantry and so manyother ways. You're offering your resources to
help people with any and every kindof animal situation, whether it's someone finds
(09:50):
a deceased animal on the side ofthe road or in their neighborhood, deceased
animals, dangerous animals, animal crueltycases, nuisance barking also help people who
sadly have to surrender or rehome theirpets. Talk about that, Oh,
that's got to be hard, yes, So the shelters are really full right
now, so we're struggling with housingall of the animals coming in. If
(10:13):
someone has to surrender their pet,we really ask that they take advantage of
our program called Home to Home,where it allows them to post their animal
on our website as available for adoptionand they could screen potential adopters to hopefully
make that connection and move the petfrom one home to another home, completely
avoiding the shelter altogether. So that'sone thing we'd love for people to take
(10:37):
advantage of. And then if there'sany other issues that people are struggling with,
obviously, like if they need assistancewith pet food, where we have
the pet food pantry to help out, or if there are issues with maybe
medical care for their pet, wehave partners that we work with that will
help with medical costs as well fortaking their pet to a veteranaria. Just
(10:58):
so many ways that you want tohelp people keep pets in their in their
current happy homes, keep them inhealthy situations, right, I mean,
just ways to offer and yeah,and then always in need. I'm sure
of anyone who's listening who might wantto foster any kind of animal. You've
got a lot on the websites.You've got hundred there's a lot of bunnies
on their dogs, cats, anda lot of bunnies that need fostering and
(11:20):
adopting. Where do the bunnies comefrom? Yeah, it's actually it's one
of our best kept secrets is thatwe actually have all kinds of animals.
It's not just dogs or cats.We've actually we typically house around a hundred
rabbits on a regular basis that we'refinding homes for. And then we have
other animals too. We typically havehamsters and guinea pigs and sometimes mice or
(11:45):
reptiles or birds and turtles. Soyou could kind of find like we said
earlier, you know, people lovetheir animals and they love all kinds of
different things. So we end upseeing all kinds of different things with shelter
and you can peruse their cut littlepictures and their names and their story and
see maybe this pet could be foryou. I get at LA Animal Services
dot com. Okay, and nowlet's talk Fourth of July safety. It's
(12:07):
a very loud week, and soit's scary for people, by the way,
with because we know there's a lotof illegal fireworks that tend to kind
of pop up in our neighborhoods atall hours of the night. I mean
the fourth Tuesday is that the biggiewith just multiple just boom ba boom,
boom, boom boom all night long. But oh my gosh, I can't
imagine if it's scary for us,I can only imagine what it means for
(12:28):
our furry besties at home. Whatcan we do about that? Because it
sounds like every Fourth of July aweek the shelters just get overrun with animals
who are running scared because of thefireworks. Yeah, you know, this
is a time to celebrate, butat the same time, it could be
a very scary time for our pets, so pet owners need to make sure
that they're taking steps to safeguardner petsduring this holiday. Ahead of the holiday,
(12:54):
make sure that your microchip information isup to date on your pet,
you need a microchip. We areproviding free microchips at all six of our
shelters, so come on in,no appointment needed, bring your pet in
will microchip them from for free tomake sure that all of their information is
current enough to date. This isalso a great time to make sure that
(13:16):
your pets license is on his collarand that your license is current enough to
date as well. You may wantto keep your pet in a quiet room
in the house, you know,maybe a bathroom or a bedroom, play
some music in there, or havethe TV plane for them to kind of
drone out some of the outside noises. Another thing is people tend to have
(13:41):
barbecues during the Fourth of July andsome of these foods can be really bad
for our pets. You know,they get a little excited, they might
take stuff off the table or foodthat's fallen on the floor, and we
need to be a little careful aboutthat as well, because they can get
sick from overeating. Or eating reallyrich fatty foods as well, so we
need to make sure that we keepthem off of our plates fourth of July.
(14:03):
Okay, And you're also encouraging peopleto foster animals this week. If
you're a big animal lover and you'restaying home through the Fourth of July festivities
and you'd like to kind of,you know, foster an animal away from
the chaos of the shelters and incomingscared animals from the booms, the firework
booms. If you are down tofoster somebody and give them a break from
(14:26):
the shelter this week, you're highlyencouraging that. Yeah, exactly. We
like I said earlier, our sheltersare full, and then this is the
busiest time of the year on topof it, so we expect a lot
of dogs to be coming into theshelter. So any help we can get
from people who have, you know, a space in their bathroom that they
can keep a pet in for afew days. It's a difference from being
(14:48):
in a kennel, you know,outdoors here at the shelter, and it
makes space for the dogs that weknow are going to be coming in from
the fireworks that are lost from theirfamilies, and it gives us an opportunity
to find those owners, reunite thepets with their owners, and then make
space open back up for the fosterpet to come back to the shelter.
(15:11):
Who knows you might fall in love. I have a friend or a family
member that falls in love with yourfoster pet, or at leasas feel good
for like a week or so duringthe busiest week for all the shelters,
Fourth of July week that you havehelped keep a little cutie safe, you
know, under your roof and outof harm's way while the professionals deal with
the incoming incoming number of dogs,mostly dogs, not so much cats.
(15:33):
They're right as it. Mostly dogs. They just go running when they hear
these booming sounds. And especially ifyou have a dog that's in the backyard.
I mean, people, please knowthat. Uh you gotta know better
than that by now. But youcan't keep your dogs outside on Fourth of
July. They're just going to gonuts with that noise and run to get
away from it. It's so scary. And their little ears, you know,
just must sound like it's just bombsgoing off in their head. Can't
(15:54):
imagine. Yeah, their ears areso much more sensitive than ours, so
all of noise those are really terrifyingto them. So yeah, people that
do have their pets in their yards, you need to make sure that your
yards were securing. Like I said, if you could bring them in that
night, keep them in a quietspace in a bedroom where where you could
play some music or television for themat least for the night, that that
(16:17):
will really help keep a lot ofpets from getting lost during this holiday.
That's right. Yeah, don't beso selfish. People Just watch the fireworks
on TV. Darn it, andwatch him on TV. Now, we're
gonna, yeah, we're gonna doparade stuff during the day, my honey
and I and then we're gonna comehome because we haven't this first time we've
had Georgie Kitty on the fourth ofJuly, so we don't want him to
be home by himself. So it'slike, you know, we've we've done
(16:40):
Fourth July million times. We've gotto Dodgers on the fourth of July,
We've done all the big cool atthe beach with friends. This time,
we want to make sure George isgonna be okay. So we'll be home
and we'll watch whatever specials on TV. So see, you gotta show that
love people watch the fireworks on TV. Now that's what I'm way to do
it, making sure our pets arefilling that love, keeping them extra cozy
and at home. If you're ableto take it and foster a dog,
(17:03):
especially this week, you can doso today. They are closed tomorrow,
so today would be the day toget out there and foster, you know,
for the next handful of days orjust this whole week if you can.
They implore you to look into it. You can pop on the website
La Animals Services dot Com and seethose adorable faces and names, or just
pick up the phone, or ifyou look on the website, you can
find the location nearest you have theirsix locations, find the one nearest you.
(17:25):
The website is LA Animal Services dotcom and that phone number either three
one one or are their number eighteight eight four to five two seven three
eight one, eight to eight fourto five two seven three eight one.
Wishing you and Net and your familyand all the animals out there a safe
and happy Fourth of July week.Yes, thank you you too. Enjoy
it with your tdcat
Lisa Fox here, thanks so muchfor having us on. This is the
iHeart so Cal's show. All right, So, as we know, it's
fourth of July holiday week with theBig Night officially on Tuesday, but as
we often know that the well,those fireworks will be firing off every day
and night all this week. Soit's an especially scary time for animals and
especially for our pets at time whereLA Animals Services and shelters all over something
(00:23):
California see a dramatic increase in thenumber I have scared animals that'll be filling
up the shelters. So we wantto chat about all the ways that we
can help avoid that, you know, keep the numbers down, and all
the ways that we can help keepour furry best. He's feeling safe and
cozy at home and so happy tohave on a net. Ramirez of LA
(00:43):
Animals Services, High in Net Hi, Lisa, Hello you, I'm doing
all right. Thank you so andthat you're the interim general manager for LA
Animal Services and WOW with them forover twenty three years, but I see
that the organization has been around forone hundred and fifty three years. Wow.
Yeah, we are the original animalwelfare organization for the city of Los
(01:07):
Angeles. Look at that, andsix locations serving all of La County.
So we have one in San Pedro, one in South Los Angeles, one
in West Los Angeles, another onewhich we call Nurse Central, which is
just north of Dodger Stadium, andthen we have our East Valley and Van
Nives and our West Valley in Chatsworth. Yeah, and you guys are pretty
(01:30):
busy, not just especially around Fourthof July time, but Ella Animal Services
one of the largest municipal shelter systemsin the entire country, serving about sixty
thousand animals every year and responding toabout twenty thousand emergency calls involving animals or
people in danger. Oh, touchon that. Yeah, So we are
the animal welfare organization. If someonecalls or someone has an issue with an
(01:53):
animal getting out and you know,behaving aggressively, or an animal that's been
hit by a car or sick orinjured, we're the ones that respond and
go rescue that animal, bring itinto the shelter, we try to fix
them up, or we try toget them with rehabbers or rescue partners.
Do you have an eight hundred number, because I feel like this is a
(02:13):
number that we should all have incase some type of animal related issue or
emergency arises. We should just haveyour number to reach out for help.
Yeah. Yeah, we have aneighty to eight number to eight eight eight
four five two seven three eight one. Yeah. I feel like sometimes when
situations happen, we never know whoto call first. It's like, oh,
am I googling the sheltered nearest me, or you know what I mean?
(02:36):
Sometimes should I post on next doorand ask people's advice us to what
to do? Sometimes I feel likewe don't know the authority on that or
you know, who do we goto first? So this number, I
would just implore people to just programit into your phone for any animal related
emergency. Yeah, and another optionfor Alie City residents is three one one,
so they can definitely if they can'tanswer your question, they can connect
(03:00):
you with your local shelter. Ohthere you go. Of course, three
one one, much like the oldfour one one, but three one one
is kind of like, yeah,all your I usually sadly call three one
one one. I'd like, um, did my car get towed? Because
I don't see it outside, sadly, and they always there. Hey,
they're able to find out. They'relike, yeah, it was to you're
parking your neighbor's driveway. I didwhat So there's that. Okay, But
(03:21):
the phone, I'm gonna call eightyeight four or five two seventy three eighty
one just to plug that into yourphone, to have it in case,
God forbid, something's going on withan animal, or you witness something,
or you need help, or yousee an animal that was hit. God
forbid. But these would be anincredible resource. These folks, you know,
the first person to call and findout how to handle the situation as
best you can. I know we'regoing to talk about Fourth of July safety,
(03:42):
but again going over all the thingsthat you all do, says your
field staff. Your field staff includesanimal control officers, license canvassers, and
a world class specialized mobile animal rescueteam, one of only two in the
whole country. Talk about that.Yeah, so we have a specialized mobile
animal rescue team, which are animalcontrol officers that are trained in doing all
(04:08):
the crazy rescue techniques. If ifyou're hiking in Griffith Park and your dog
goes over like a cliff side,they're the ones who would go out there
and set up the rope systems torescue the dog and bring it back to
you. We know how important petsare to their families, so we don't
want anyone to resk themselves trying torescue their animal. That's why we have,
(04:30):
you know, animal control officers.They're specifically trained to go into the
most difficult situations to safely rescue animals. They also do large animal rescues.
I think you know the news everyonce in a while we have a horse
being airlifted by a helicopter with LAFD. Yeah, those are our animal control
officers that are out there connecting allthe equipment to the horse and you know,
(04:51):
making sure that it's safe to beflown. So we do all kinds
of stuff from the cat up inthe tree to the horse that needs to
be rescued by helicopter. And wealways see those bears on TV. If
you live in the mountain communities,you often get visits from the bears.
You help with wild animals as well. Yeah, we do what we primarily
do with wild animals who just keepthe public safe. We work very closely
(05:14):
with state Fish and Wildlife Services tomake a determination when a wild animal actually
needs to be trank life captured andrelocated. But we work very closely with
our state partners. Okay, andagain l Animal Services doing a little bit
of everything. In terms of mygosh, it looks like you, you
know, you handle animal cruelty cases. You handle all permit issues, all
(05:35):
code enforcement including licensing, spay andneuter, leash laws and more. You
know, whether you're helping with dogs, cats, hawks, alligators, horses,
turtles, and any other kind ofcrazy creature. It sounds like you
guys do it all, and exactlyYou're right. We are a city of
over four million people. We havepeople who love and fear all the different
(05:59):
animals out there. So we're theones that you call, you know,
for help. We're the ones thatyou also call to healthy animals. So
we're always there to assist the publicwith any animal related issues and make sure
that animals are being treated properly,humanely and safely. LA Animal Services here
to help us any and all ofour animal needs and situations and all the
(06:23):
basics right span neuter, microchipping,animal licenses. What do we need an
animal license for? So it isrequired in the city of Los Angeles to
license your dog that is over fourmonths of age, and this is basically
a requirement for the rabies vaccination.So it's how we make sure that dogs
(06:44):
out there are getting vaccinated against rabieson it so that they're not spreading a
disease that could potentially impact humans aswell. God God, because we have
a rescue kitty that just kind ofshowed up as a feral cat in our
backyard a little over a year ago, little Georgie Kitty, so we kept
him. It was meant to be. He's a sweet this little rescue ever.
I'm like, oh, shoot,Georgia does not have a license,
but it's just for dogs, notfor cats, correct, Yeah, the
(07:05):
license just for dogs. We offera five dollars like ID tag for cats
for sure, it's not required forcats. All right, Well, I
see here at all Animal Services dotCom that you also help with vaccinations,
although I think our veterinarians kind ofdo that part though, right right,
Yeah, that would be your veterinarianthat would handle the vaccine. We do
have at five of our shelters ofveterinary clinics that operate out of the side
(07:30):
of the shelters. So there aresome vaccination services that are provided not necessarily
through the shelter, but through theveterinary clinics that are at the shelters,
and you can help us find wayswhere it's super affordable, right, because
sometimes caring for your pet can beexpensive. As much as we love them
in our hearts, it can bepricey. And another way that you help
with that, I love that youdo the pet food pantry. That's that's
(07:54):
been going on for a couple ofyears now, right, help you help
people feed their animals who might bestruggling financially to do so. Yeah,
we actually started the pet food pantryduring the pandemic and it was you know,
we recognize the need that people neededa little bit of help with their
pets. You know, a lotof people were struggling financially because of the
state of the economy. So everyweek on Sunday from one to four at
(08:18):
our our Central, our Chesterfield Square, and our East Valley shelters, we
do give out food at our petfood pantries, and we do ask people
to sign up ahead of time justso we know how much food to prepare.
We do take people who have lockedup and didn't sign up ahead of
time. We'll just have to fillout some real quick people work. It's
no barrier. You don't have togive us any financial proof. You don't
(08:41):
have to be a citizen. Youjust have to have a pet and have
a need. And I love that. Do you also take donations? If
we have picky cats who don't likecertain types of foods, that's we have
unopened cans of a brand that weknow they don't like. Now you'll take
the donations the donated foods dog andcat food, so you guys can regift
it to somebody else in need.Right, Yes, we absolutely is.
(09:05):
The pet Food Pantry is actually alldonation based. Oh great, So we
rely heavily on people whom you knowpurchase food and for whatever reason didn't need
it. Field bags and any cantfood as well. We're always in need
and it goes to a great cause. Wonderful. So again, Pet Food
Pantry, if you are in needof free pet food for your pets.
(09:26):
They have offered this at three oftheir locations. El Animal Services three of
their locations and if you have foodyou want to donate to help keep that
program flourishing every Sunday they do this. You can find out more at La
Animal Services dot Com. It's LaAnimal Services dot Com. So you've got
the pet food pantry and so manyother ways. You're offering your resources to
help people with any and every kindof animal situation, whether it's someone finds
(09:50):
a deceased animal on the side ofthe road or in their neighborhood, deceased
animals, dangerous animals, animal crueltycases, nuisance barking also help people who
sadly have to surrender or rehome theirpets. Talk about that, Oh,
that's got to be hard, yes, So the shelters are really full right
now, so we're struggling with housingall of the animals coming in. If
(10:13):
someone has to surrender their pet,we really ask that they take advantage of
our program called Home to Home,where it allows them to post their animal
on our website as available for adoptionand they could screen potential adopters to hopefully
make that connection and move the petfrom one home to another home, completely
avoiding the shelter altogether. So that'sone thing we'd love for people to take
(10:37):
advantage of. And then if there'sany other issues that people are struggling with,
obviously, like if they need assistancewith pet food, where we have
the pet food pantry to help out, or if there are issues with maybe
medical care for their pet, wehave partners that we work with that will
help with medical costs as well fortaking their pet to a veteranaria. Just
(10:58):
so many ways that you want tohelp people keep pets in their in their
current happy homes, keep them inhealthy situations, right, I mean,
just ways to offer and yeah,and then always in need. I'm sure
of anyone who's listening who might wantto foster any kind of animal. You've
got a lot on the websites.You've got hundred there's a lot of bunnies
on their dogs, cats, anda lot of bunnies that need fostering and
(11:20):
adopting. Where do the bunnies comefrom? Yeah, it's actually it's one
of our best kept secrets is thatwe actually have all kinds of animals.
It's not just dogs or cats.We've actually we typically house around a hundred
rabbits on a regular basis that we'refinding homes for. And then we have
other animals too. We typically havehamsters and guinea pigs and sometimes mice or
(11:45):
reptiles or birds and turtles. Soyou could kind of find like we said
earlier, you know, people lovetheir animals and they love all kinds of
different things. So we end upseeing all kinds of different things with shelter
and you can peruse their cut littlepictures and their names and their story and
see maybe this pet could be foryou. I get at LA Animal Services
dot com. Okay, and nowlet's talk Fourth of July safety. It's
(12:07):
a very loud week, and soit's scary for people, by the way,
with because we know there's a lotof illegal fireworks that tend to kind
of pop up in our neighborhoods atall hours of the night. I mean
the fourth Tuesday is that the biggiewith just multiple just boom ba boom,
boom, boom boom all night long. But oh my gosh, I can't
imagine if it's scary for us,I can only imagine what it means for
(12:28):
our furry besties at home. Whatcan we do about that? Because it
sounds like every Fourth of July aweek the shelters just get overrun with animals
who are running scared because of thefireworks. Yeah, you know, this
is a time to celebrate, butat the same time, it could be
a very scary time for our pets, so pet owners need to make sure
that they're taking steps to safeguardner petsduring this holiday. Ahead of the holiday,
(12:54):
make sure that your microchip information isup to date on your pet,
you need a microchip. We areproviding free microchips at all six of our
shelters, so come on in,no appointment needed, bring your pet in
will microchip them from for free tomake sure that all of their information is
current enough to date. This isalso a great time to make sure that
(13:16):
your pets license is on his collarand that your license is current enough to
date as well. You may wantto keep your pet in a quiet room
in the house, you know,maybe a bathroom or a bedroom, play
some music in there, or havethe TV plane for them to kind of
drone out some of the outside noises. Another thing is people tend to have
(13:41):
barbecues during the Fourth of July andsome of these foods can be really bad
for our pets. You know,they get a little excited, they might
take stuff off the table or foodthat's fallen on the floor, and we
need to be a little careful aboutthat as well, because they can get
sick from overeating. Or eating reallyrich fatty foods as well, so we
need to make sure that we keepthem off of our plates fourth of July.
(14:03):
Okay, And you're also encouraging peopleto foster animals this week. If
you're a big animal lover and you'restaying home through the Fourth of July festivities
and you'd like to kind of,you know, foster an animal away from
the chaos of the shelters and incomingscared animals from the booms, the firework
booms. If you are down tofoster somebody and give them a break from
(14:26):
the shelter this week, you're highlyencouraging that. Yeah, exactly. We
like I said earlier, our sheltersare full, and then this is the
busiest time of the year on topof it, so we expect a lot
of dogs to be coming into theshelter. So any help we can get
from people who have, you know, a space in their bathroom that they
can keep a pet in for afew days. It's a difference from being
(14:48):
in a kennel, you know,outdoors here at the shelter, and it
makes space for the dogs that weknow are going to be coming in from
the fireworks that are lost from theirfamilies, and it gives us an opportunity
to find those owners, reunite thepets with their owners, and then make
space open back up for the fosterpet to come back to the shelter.
(15:11):
Who knows you might fall in love. I have a friend or a family
member that falls in love with yourfoster pet, or at leasas feel good
for like a week or so duringthe busiest week for all the shelters,
Fourth of July week that you havehelped keep a little cutie safe, you
know, under your roof and outof harm's way while the professionals deal with
the incoming incoming number of dogs,mostly dogs, not so much cats.
(15:33):
They're right as it. Mostly dogs. They just go running when they hear
these booming sounds. And especially ifyou have a dog that's in the backyard.
I mean, people, please knowthat. Uh you gotta know better
than that by now. But youcan't keep your dogs outside on Fourth of
July. They're just going to gonuts with that noise and run to get
away from it. It's so scary. And their little ears, you know,
just must sound like it's just bombsgoing off in their head. Can't
(15:54):
imagine. Yeah, their ears areso much more sensitive than ours, so
all of noise those are really terrifyingto them. So yeah, people that
do have their pets in their yards, you need to make sure that your
yards were securing. Like I said, if you could bring them in that
night, keep them in a quietspace in a bedroom where where you could
play some music or television for themat least for the night, that that
(16:17):
will really help keep a lot ofpets from getting lost during this holiday.
That's right. Yeah, don't beso selfish. People Just watch the fireworks
on TV. Darn it, andwatch him on TV. Now, we're
gonna, yeah, we're gonna doparade stuff during the day, my honey
and I and then we're gonna comehome because we haven't this first time we've
had Georgie Kitty on the fourth ofJuly, so we don't want him to
be home by himself. So it'slike, you know, we've we've done
(16:40):
Fourth July million times. We've gotto Dodgers on the fourth of July,
We've done all the big cool atthe beach with friends. This time,
we want to make sure George isgonna be okay. So we'll be home
and we'll watch whatever specials on TV. So see, you gotta show that
love people watch the fireworks on TV. Now that's what I'm way to do
it, making sure our pets arefilling that love, keeping them extra cozy
and at home. If you're ableto take it and foster a dog,
(17:03):
especially this week, you can doso today. They are closed tomorrow,
so today would be the day toget out there and foster, you know,
for the next handful of days orjust this whole week if you can.
They implore you to look into it. You can pop on the website
La Animals Services dot Com and seethose adorable faces and names, or just
pick up the phone, or ifyou look on the website, you can
find the location nearest you have theirsix locations, find the one nearest you.
(17:25):
The website is LA Animal Services dotcom and that phone number either three
one one or are their number eighteight eight four to five two seven three
eight one, eight to eight fourto five two seven three eight one.
Wishing you and Net and your familyand all the animals out there a safe
and happy Fourth of July week.Yes, thank you you too. Enjoy
it with your tdcat
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