Have you ever wondered about what animal shelters go through and the problems animal shelters may have? Well I spoke to Stacy Danes at the South LA Animal Shelter to ask about the problems that go on at the animal shelter and what we can do to help as a community.
Jossy Dominguez: Okay so what’s your name and what’s your job here at the shelter?
Stacy Dane: My name is Stacy Danes, I am the general manager of animal services so I oversee all of the city shelters. We have six of them and all the operations at each of the shelters.
JD: So I was wondering what’s the main problem here at the shelter?
SD: Yeah, so one of the biggest issues we have is that oftentimes people get into animal ownership and they don’t really understand what that means, so it means a lot of time. It means a lot of effort to make sure animals are well cared for.
JD: What efforts for example?
SD: So if you have a dog for example, that dog needs to be safe at your house so like indoors, needs to be feed at least once a day and water available, cleaned up all the time so like when it comes to waste its not legal to leave dog waste so that needs to be picked up and removed. Also that dog needs to be exercised at least twice a day and training as well.
JD: Oh okay and what does this have to do with the problem at the shelter?
SD: Well this takes a lot of time and commitment, it’s a lifestyle change and not a lot of people are willing to do what’s necessary so when they find that they can’t do that they either abandon their animal, leave them behind when they move or dump them at the shelter.
JD: Oh so then that affects the shelters because more and more animals come since they get into owning an animal when they don’t understand what it takes huh. Do you have advice for people?
SD: Yea so do your research first make sure the dog you’re getting is really for you and fits your lifestyle for both of you to be happy. Also neuter your pets don’t allow them to have puppies or kittens. We don’t have enough homes in the community which here is evidence from the fact that each of our shelters are too overpopulated.
JD: And what can people do to help the shelter and its animals?
SD: So volunteering it’s really fun, to volunteer you get to come and get to walk dogs, especially if you really wanna have a dog but cant have one. Volunteering is a way to have like 500 dogs, all the dogs are desperate for friendship, they want to meet you and do many things.
JD: What’s your age for volunteering?
SD: So people can volunteer at almost all ages in different capacities so teens can volunteer with consent from their parents, if you’re 18 or older you can volunteer at any capacity.
JD: Also I was wondering if you have a range of numbers of how many pets come in and how many end up adopted?
SD: Yea so every single day 47 dogs on average come in, but we have high adoption rates but a lot of them stay at the shelter so some of the dogs have been here around 2-3 years so we do a great job saving them but what we see most of the time is people by online, or someone gives them one and that just supports that activity and causes shelter dogs their life and that’s not fair so yea.
JD: Okay thank you.
