Photos by Kate Karp.
In a recent social media announcement titled “Good News for Animal Lovers,” Mayor Robert Garcia praised the work of Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS) for its efforts to reduce euthanasia and impounds and increase adoption and owner return. Mayor Garcia, who adopted his cat Tommy from the shelter and occasionally fosters kittens, described the “record low numbers” of pets euthanized at ACS and the increase of live release and adoptions (Note: These numbers have gone in the right direction for years; they registered a huge difference through May, and the June numbers provided by the shelter have shown no sign of heading in the opposite direction).
Those numbers—and how we love reading stats, but in this case, what they represent is staggeringly great—included euthanasia reduction of 21 percent for cats and 33 percent for dogs; an increase in live release—adoption, owner return and transport—of 21 percent for cats and 33 percent for dogs; and the spaying and neutering of 1,500 pets, bringing the total to over 10,000 since the shelter’s voucher program began. Garcia also noted the hiring of adoptions coordinator Jill Prout.
“I’m confident we’ll continue to see fewer animals impounded or euthanized and more and more animals finding a loving home here in our city. One animal without a home is one too many,” Garcia said.
Significantly, the mayor credited several volunteer rescue and advocacy organizations that work in association with the shelter to achieve positive outcomes for animals. He stressed the importance of volunteers and fosters to keep the machinery running. On July 5, the day after what’s intended for the celebration of independence but what’s become a combat-zone soundtrack for some veterans and a lot of animals, yet another of these groups was present and visible in front of the shelter to help to reunite pets with their owners after the animals have fled and gotten lost because of individuals who mistakenly flaunt their freedom to set off fireworks while flouting the law that prohibits them.
Most days that I visit the shelter, there’s maybe one car ahead of me asking directions, fishing around for cash or their park pass—and they usually head into the park. On July 5, there were three cars ahead of me, and two of them drove toward the shelter. It’s the same scenario every Fourth of July weekend but on this particular aftermath, with mini-bombs still bursting in air, a table of volunteers had set up shop in front of the shelter with the purpose of facilitating owner and pet reunion and connecting with the community to give them resources for not only redemption but also directing traffic on busy shelter days, educating the public about spay/neuter, and informing people of alternatives for bringing in their pets to be euthanized.
“And comfort, if they need it,” said volunteer Faye Costigane. “We’re trying to create as positive an experience as possible with our shelter.”
The AMRT Shelter Table provides the human touch to reclaiming or turning in a pet and its alternatives. The Table will be at the ACS this Sunday from 11AM–4PM (approximately). Clockwise from left, in red shirt: Patty Williams, Jim Nista, Costigane, April Devane, Carina Cristiano, Darlene McInerney.
Costigane is one of the volunteers for Animal Match Rescue Team (AMRT) Table that reestablished itself after a hiatus for the Fourth of July weekend as an additional resource for reuniting pets with their owners and informing them as to how to keep the same scenario from happening again. The table is staffed by animal advocates, all of whom also volunteer in rescue groups, spay/neuter organizations and the shelter itself. ACS already has technology in place to help locate owners of lost pets: a hashtag for people who have lost their animals, #LBLostFoundPets, was recently added to the shelter’s arsenal of resources that also include a free mobile app and a lost-and-found page. Free microchipping is also available at various shelter-supported events, including the Fix Long Beach (FLB) spay/neuter clinics. But sometimes, you just need someone to hold your hand, and that’s what these people do.
“We’re trying to make connections with those who did lose their dogs,” said Patty Williams, who helps at the table and also übervolunteers for FLB and fosters countless kittens. Williams praised the new hashtag, saying that it’s working wonders and has brought more people to the shelter.
Patty Williams comforts Marshmallow, who’s on his way home. Also pictured are JIm Nista, who does glamour shots for the shelter, and volunteer Faye Costigane.
The shelter is closed to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays but was open on these days after the Fourth to retrieve and drop off lost pets, as it was last year, because of the increased intake volume and number of people coming in to look for their pets. And AMRT was there to help on all three days. During the single hour I was there, an individual came in with a neighbor’s dog who had escaped the yard during a fireworks explosion while his owners were on vacation and was found in the street. A teenage boy was led in by a large white dog whom the boy and his family found while driving in the area the night before. In the parking lot, a couple was waiting to claim a DOA pet, likely a cat. The woman was sobbing uncontrollably, and one of the volunteers approached her for a hug. There were about three or four black Labrador retrievers that had been brought in at different times, one for whom volunteers Darlene McInerny, also an ACS volunteer, and April Devane were busy planning a happy reunion with his family.
Young Good Samaritan and his charge.
“Ho-omeward bound…”
“Today of all days, if we can connect people the way they did that retriever, that’s the best thing we will have done for the animals,” said Devane, who is an active animal advocate in many volunteers efforts, including volunteering with FLB.
Shelter outreach coordinator Kelly Miott vouched the increased number of activity at the shelter during the fireworks-heavy days before and after Fourth of July and also cited the positive effect that the AMRT table and the technological resources had this year.
“This year, we had 50 strays and an additional 11 owner surrenders from July 3 to July 7,” she said, and 226 were returned to their owners,” she said. “The owner return may or may not have arrived during this time period, but 52 percent is stellar! To give you an idea, for all of 2014, we returned 26 percent to their owners.” Miott added that an arbitrarily selected Thursday in March had a comparative intake of 10 dogs and four cats.
Yes, stats can tell a story, but only its skeleton. Nothing tells it better than an example. Three years ago, Brutus, a Boston terrier, ran off from his yard through an open gate, and the family put up signs. Pretty soon, Jesse Villagran, Brutus’s owner, got a call from an individual who said he had Brutus. He also asked for Villagran’s personal information other than the phone number.
“Which I wasn’t about to give him,” Villagran said. “So he said, ‘Well, I guess you don’t want your dog anymore; and hung up on me.’”
It turns out that Villagran had had Brutus microchipped, which the individual who had the dog hadn’t troubled himself to check on. On July 4, Brutus turned up in El Dorado Park and was posted on the hashtag site.
“I can’t believe it! They found my dog after three years,” said Matthew Villagran, right.
“Through social media, the gentleman could come in and claim his dog,” McInerney said. “If he’d been left alone to his own devices—a little dog alone in the park—it wouldn’t have turned out to be such a beautiful situation. Networking is the huge component that made this possible.”
And what did the AMRT folks add to the technology factor?
“We got a fix for Brutus!” said one volunteer.
No matter what the laws are, there are always going to be people who don’t obey them, and there’s likely at least as great a number of people who would benefit from guidance and advice at any time of year. And there’s help—as often as the volunteers can make it, the AMRT plans to be a fixture at Long Beach Animal Care Services, located at the P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village, 7700 E. Spring St., Long Beach, at the El Dorado Park entrance gate (no fee required to enter). They’ll be there this weekend from 11:00AM until around 4:00PM. If you need help with a pet, come visit. Volunteers are also needed for the Table and the shelter.
“The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.”
— George Vest, U.S. Senator from Missouri (1830-1904)