Traditionally the arrival of Labor Day means fewer people dumping their pets at the Downey Animal Care Center and it goes without saying that all of us, staff and volunteers alike, cannot wait until the tidal wave of dumped pets recedes.
However Downey is incredibly overloaded right now and we are all saddened by the sheer number of pets being squeezed into the shelter’s kennels.
Sadly there are only two ways to alleviate this overcrowding. Our favorite way is by adoption and rescue. The other way is through euthanasia.
Downey Animal Care Center staff and volunteers are united in trying to bring down the euthanasia numbers by promoting adoption and rescue. It appears that Marcia Mayeda, the bureaucrat running the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Control, does not share this desire— and last week decreed that we could no longer send Chihuahuas to the no kill Connecticut SPCA.
In the last six weeks we sent 94 Chihuahuas from Downey and Baldwin Park to this no kill shelter.
Their arrival made the news on NBC’s local affiliate and it made the front page of the local newspaper.
Because of the shortage of Chihuahuas on the east coast and the favorable publicity “Operation Con Air” received, all but two of the 94 we sent have already been adopted into forever homes.
Connecticut SPCA has accounted for every dog we have sent them, providing us with names, addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of all adopters, and all of this information has been entered into the monthly reports that our volunteers provide to the DACC. Connecticut SPCA has signed a contract guaranteeing that none of the transported dogs will be euthanized, and no dogs will be euthanized to make room for them.
We have offered to cover all costs for any responsible DACC official to visit the Connecticut SPCA to personally inspect their shelter and their affiliated boarding kennel, but so far the DACC has been silent on this matter.
Connecticut SPCA has asked for an additional 40 Chihuahuas to be sent to them on Aug. 29, but unless the DACC permits the transports to continue we will be unable to send these dogs to Connecticut where they will find homes.
Kindest regards,
Ric Browde
