4:00pm | The 4th of July can be a frightening time for animals, with the loud sounds of firecrackers and fireworks sending pets scurrying out of the house or yard in search of security or shelter. Pets have been known to leap through glass windows and break their chains in their panic. Some animals are reunited with their humans, others retain injuries like bloody paws or lost eyes, and still others never get back home at all. Please save your pets (and yourself) a tremendous amount of heartache and anxiety by following a few simple suggestions:

  • Keep pets confined to a secure area (never tether an animal because it can lead to more harm or an accidental death) or, preferably, indoors. Keep windows closed and blinds drawn. Stay with them, if possible, or keep the TV or radio on, tuned to calming music. No Metallica this evening.
  • Double-check yard gates to make sure that pets cannot escape Make certain pets are wearing identification, including the name and current telephone number of owner.
  • Do not bring your pet to a fireworks display.
  • Anyone who loses an animal in the City of Long Beach, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Signal Hill or Cerritos should visit Pet Harbor or the city’s pet lost-and-found online at ACS http://www.longbeach.gov/acs. If you don’t see their pet online, please visit the local shelter in person on Wednesday, July 7, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. The shelter is located at 7700 E. Spring St., between Studebaker Road and the 605 Freeway.
  • Taking special care of your pets during the 4th of July is part of responsible pet ownership, just like licensing, microchipping, ID tags, and spay/neuter.

The shelter will be closed July 4–6, but animal control officers will be responding 24 hours a day to emergency calls.

Thanks to Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for their contributions to this announcement.

Virtually Pets

Tabitha is a feline foster mom! Here she is, with kittens she met in foster care and adopted! Tabitha was brought into a shelter near death and weighing just over four Her milk had dried up and the shelter had no room, so they contacted CatPAWS. She’s being fostered now, and her kittens have been bottle-fed. She’s regained her strength, and is mothering these two rescued kittens, Blanco and Lionel, found in a trash bin outside a store (Blanco is deaf).


Spike (above, in snood) and Sting (below, Creamsicle) were also found in a trash can (the mind boggles). Some men working nearby heard them screaming and rescued them. They were only two weeks old, not yet weaned, with eyes barely open. Now look at them.


Handsome young Vincent is a year and a half. He was a neighborhood stray who was hauled off to a shelter. CatPAWS rescued him and is fostering him until a loving home is found.

All these kitties are fostered through Helen Sanders CatPAWS. The organization was named for a wonderful hero to feral cats who devoted her life to ferals. It is to her beautiful memory that this work is continuing. Visit the website or contact [email protected].

Pet Projects

Get out your hankies: Friends of Long Beach Animals fund-raiser to take place at the Art Theatre
Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, will play at the Art Theatre, 2025 E. 4th St., at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday,  July 18. The screening will be a fund-raiser for Friends of Long Beach Animals (FOLBA). Hachi stars Richard Gere and is a heartwarming and inspiring true story of an Akita who accompanied his master to the train station every day as he left for work and met him there each evening when he returned. The film embodies the strong loyalty, love and respect bonds that form between human and canine.

The suggested donation is $10. Tickets will be available at the Art Theatre, online at arttheatre.com or at the locations below. All proceeds will go toward FOLBA’s Spay/Neuter Incentive Program (SNIP) and all the organizations other efforts toward humane education and treatment of animals.

Belmont Pets and LaunderPet, 3429 E. Broadway    (562) 433-3605
Bixby Animal Clinic, 3938 Atlantic Avenue        (562) 426-4066
Bixby Knolls LaunderPet, 4102 Orange Avenue    (562) 427-2551`
Chewsy Dog, 4107 N. Viking Way            (562) 354-6040
Chuck & Toby, 191 Park Avenue            (562) 434-8085
Go Dogs Go, 3440 N. Los Coyotes Diagonal        (562) 421-9797
Or call Friends of Long Beach Animals        (562) 988-7647

Egg The Guv On

The State Legislature has sent Governor Schwarzenegger AB 1437, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to require that all eggs sold in California come from hens that were not confined in cages. While Prop 2, which passed in 2008, forbids producing eggs in the state using particularly inhumane methods, this bill would extend the same requirements to all producers who want to sell eggs in the state. The governor has a few days to sign this bill into law, and if you support the proposition, you’re not going to shell out a lot of time to do it. Call (916) 445-2841 and say, “Hello, my name is [your name] and I am calling from [your town] to urge Governor Schwarzenegger to sign A.B. 1437 to protect California consumers and improve animal welfare. Thank you.” Forty million Californians eat a lot of eggs—and that’s no yolking matter. For a text of the bill, click here.