Dear Rescue & Humane Community:
This program begins March 1, 2005 at the West Los Angeles and
West Valley shelters.
This program will save the lives of many kittens and puppies
AND will create a link between the breeding adults who create these babies. This
is a monumental step that LAAS is taking to save lives!
LAAS kills more than 6,000 kittens and 1,000
puppies each year. The new program will utilize LAAS volunteers
who want to help bottle kittens and puppies dropped off at the shelters by
the public. Very importantly, the program will attempt to
educate the public who brings in unweaned baby(ies) to the shelter. The
public will be told the TRUTH---that Animal Services will most likely kill the
baby(ies) because of lack of resources.
3 Components To The
Program
1. IF the public is willing, they will have the option
to take the baby(ies) home, and the shelter will provide them with a starter kit
(bottle, formula, instructions and a list of rescue/humane groups
willing to 'coach' them through the arduous task of bottle feeding, spay/neuter
and placement). Participating rescue groups will not be responsible to
taking these unweaned, but are agreeing to 'partner' with the public to provide
information, support and advice.
2. If the public still chooses to leave the baby(ies) at
the shelter, shelter volunteers trained in bottle feeding will assist the
shelter in keeping the animals alive and healthy for as long as
possible. The Department will immediately contact
participating rescue groups who are willing to save these unweaned babies
who are not so lucky to go home with the person who found them. These
kittens and puppies will be adopted to rescue groups who are already part of the
Adoption Partner Program and those who are not. The fees
for these unweaned will be only the legally-required $15 microchip
deposit. If you are not already an Adoption Partner, LAAS will have a
stream-lined process to sign you up for "this program only" which you can do at
the shelter.
3. If the baby(ies) are kittens (and statistically most
of them are), the public will ALSO be provided with information about TNR, with
the hope that they might be willing to find/trap the unaltered mother, get her
fixed, return her back to her colony and prevent future litters.
This is an incredible opportunity for
rescue/humane groups to partner with LAAS. By partnering with the
shelter AND the public, we can not only save the lives of the unweaned
babies, but we can get to the breeding adults as well and thus stop this
vicious cycle. This is the beginning of implementing TNR and other much
needed spay/neuter projects.
PLEASE contact me if you or your group is
interested in participating and I can answer your questions, of which I
am sure you will have many. I look forward to hearing from you.
Christi Metropole
Feral Cat Alliance