By Kathleen Kirkwood. Bay City News.
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Shelters across the Bay Area are taking in cats and dogs previously housed in Los Angeles-area shelters in an effort to free up space for pets displaced or rescued from the wildfires.
An East Bay SPCA team traveled early Sunday morning to the Los Angeles County Animal Care Center in Lancaster and returned with 10 dogs — nine large and one small — to help overwhelmed shelters in Los Angeles County.
“In a crisis like this, every cage counts,” said Karalyn Aronow, vice president of operations for the East Bay SPCA. “We’re glad this transport was able to create space for more animals and relieve some of the pressure on neighboring shelters.”
The Los Angeles dogs will be ready for adoption starting Wednesday at the East Bay SPCA facility in Oakland. Officials said they are prepared to take in more pets from Southern California as needed.
In recent days, the Monterey County SPCA has also been relocating pets from the Los Angeles area. A team from the shelter headed to Southern California on Saturday and has so far taken in 11 pets, including a cat, a kitten, five dogs and four puppies.
“We know all too well how disasters can impact pet owners given our recent experiences here, and we are here to do everything we can to help the shelters that are working so hard to rescue and care for animals,” said Scott Delucchi, president of SPCA Monterey County.
Pets fostered by the Monterey County facility include Lyle, a 1-year-old terrier mix; Ben Jr., a 14-week-old tabby kitten; Winter, a 1-year-old pug; and Gemma, a 4-month-old pit bull mix puppy.
The pets are expected to be available for adoption starting Tuesday.
The Monterey County SPCA also has a trained animal rescue team ready to assist in fire areas when requested.
Another organization, Peace of Mind Dog Rescue of Pacific Grove, traveled to Los Angeles early Saturday morning after receiving a call from the Los Angeles County shelter coordinator.
The nonprofit's co-founder and advisory board member, Monica Rua, and adoption coordinator, Emily Termotto, visited four shelters and brought in four dogs.
Fortunately, many of the shelters they visited had already sent many dogs to foster homes or to other shelters or rescues.
“Several times they were willing to load dogs into the POMDR van and someone adopted them right out of their arms,” according to a statement from the organization.
“It was heartwarming to see so many organizations and individuals come together to help,” Rua said.
The group’s van arrived at the clinic on Saturday night at 11 p.m. “The puppies were walked, fed and tucked in overnight. They will all go to foster homes this week and be put up for adoption.”
More information about adoptable pets is available at https://eastbayspca.org/, https://www.spcamc.org/ and https://www.peaceofminddogrescue.org/.
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