A boy visits a Shih Tzu dog at the East Valley Animal Shelter in Los Angeles. (File photo by Ed Crisosomo, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Last week, animal protection individuals and organizations gathered at Los Angeles City Hall to urge city leaders to do more to solve the overcrowding crisis plaguing local shelters.
As Los Angeles' largest private animal welfare foundation for the past 20 years, we feel compelled to speak out.
It is beyond unfair to blame Mayor Karen Bass and Stacey Daines for the deplorable conditions at Los Angeles animal shelters. They did not cause this crisis, they inherited it.
Last year, hundreds of thousands of beautiful, adopted dogs and cats were put down by municipal animal shelters in the county because there was no room at the inn. This is a tragedy.
Non-governmental organizations are working to help resolve the crisis. Over the years, through my organization alone, he has directly rescued over 10,000 dogs and cats (most of which were already scheduled for euthanasia) from local shelters and successfully found good homes for each. did.
Uncontrolled overpopulation of pets has been a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, with domestic and backyard breeding being the biggest culprit.
Many people are looking for specific breeds. It's their right and there's no need to be ashamed of it. But then our local shelters become overrun with purebred German shepherds and blue-eyed huskies who then end up being relinquished or abandoned.
We need bolder measures to prevent pet overpopulation. A key part of the solution is expanding public voucher programs that fund low-cost or free spay and neuter services to prevent unnecessary births and, in turn, unwanted animals from entering shelters. It is to do.
When you multiply this by the number of puppies and kittens a mother can have at one time and the number of litters a mother can have in her lifetime, this upfront investment is minimal compared to the cost of caring for these pets in a shelter. It's a barrel. Simple math shows that funding spay/neuter surgery is a wise investment.
Private clinics charge upwards of $1,000 for these procedures, making it a challenge to help those who cannot afford these services. Since 2005, my philanthropic foundation has been responsible for building and funding most of the non-governmental, free and low-cost spay and neuter services in Los Angeles, and we continue to staunchly support these efforts.
Spaying and neutering is an investment that will save you money by significantly reducing the number of animals entering shelters tomorrow and into the distant future.
This shouldn't just fall on me and my foundation because this is so important to ending this crisis.
This is where the city and county can make great strides. We need to make these services affordable and available to those who need them. The first step is to expand and increase vouchers for these private, not-for-profit facilities that provide these services at a significantly reduced cost.
The Michelson Found Animals Foundation, in partnership with the Robert and Erica Branson Foundation, has committed more than $1 million to the first privately funded free, low-cost spay, neuter and pet wellness center in more than 15 years. He pledged to donate.
Perhaps just as important, the center safely performs more than 30 procedures per day by specially trained veterinarians. Most local veterinarians can only complete six.
The new center in San Pedro will be one of the world's leading facilities to train veterinarians and their staff how to safely perform high-volume spays and neuters.
Although this is a crisis, it is not an unsolvable problem.
Founded in 2005, the Michelson Found Animals Foundation is one of Los Angeles' largest animal welfare organizations. With funding from Dr. Gary Michelson and Aliyah Michelson, Michelson Found Animals operates a wide range of programs that advocate for pets in all the ways they intersect with our society. These include community partnerships to provide essential food and pet care to underserved communities in Los Angeles, and support for free and low-cost spay and neuter services to reduce pet overpopulation. Includes catalytic grants to expand access and impact investments to foster innovation in pet care. Education and advocacy efforts to advance policies that help pets and their families. Among his many programs, Mr. Michelson created and launched the nation's first free microchip registry and has helped rehome millions of pets. Michelson Found Animals is part of Michelson Philanthropies, a network of privately run foundations that conduct philanthropic activities.
