Goodbye A3780642, I'm Sorry You Couldn't Find Your Friend

He was euthanized today. He never stood a chance. Impounded on February 4th as a stray, his photo never was put up on the Carson website. If he had a family looking to find him, they would not know he was at Carson, not with so many other Pit Bulls impounded there. Not without a photo.

A3780642 was destined to die at Carson and he did. He lived 9 days at the Carson shelter. He was photographed by a photographer for the LA Times and was in the newspaper yesterday. Did the reporter and the photographer know that he had just a couple of days to live from the time they met him? Did they know how he came to Carson? Did they care?

Goodbye, A3780642 you beautiful boy.

Friend Wanted

This is the picture under the title of "Animal shelters are under scrutiny" an article published in today's edition of the LA Times. This beautiful dog is a stray impounded on 2/4/08. His impound number is A3780642. Ironically, they have him listed at 10 month of age - the same age as Zephyr when she was impounded on 10/27/07.

The Carson shelter has yet to put his photo on the website. He has long since passed his stray hold period so he can be euthanized at any time now. If he has a family out there looking for him, likely they will not find him because his photo did not show up on the shelter's Lost and Found page. This is perfectly normal practice for the LA County Shelter system. He is a Pit Bull so he gets even less attention and is even less worthy of their effort.

He is one of many stray Pit Bulls who will end up losing his life in the LA County shelter system. His amber color eyes say a lot. They are full of sadness, fear and confusion. I have not met him but just looking at this photo of him, my heart aches because I know just as he does, that he did not ask for any of this. He did not ask to be born in to a world already full of homeless pets; he did not ask to be born into a world where the majority of the people have wrongfully concluded and condemned his breed as dangerous and deathly.

The photographer for this article titled this photo "friend wanted" so I thought it appropriate to name this blog entry the same.

A3780642 is looking for a friend. Someone who will be his savior and help take him out of hell.

Zephyr's story

She was picked up in Culver City on the block of 6300 Green Valley Circle as a stray on 10/27/07. A3745343 was her impound number and this photo here was her Carson shelter mugshot. Zephyr was just ten-month old. I saw Zephyr's photo on the LA County DACC's website but I never got to meet Zephyr while she was still alive. My rescue partner who at the time, was still a volunteer with the Carson shelter (she has since been 'fired' because she spoke out on Zephyr's behalf) met Zephyr and thought she was a sweet, darling puppy. She put a "Call when PTS" on Zephyr hopping to be able to get Zephyr out of Carson.

This was a photo of Zephyr taken by my rescue partner. Zephyr was still vibrant and full of life in this photo.
However, like most all the animals at the Carson shelter, Zephyr came down with upper-respiratory infection. What made her even more susceptible to this URI was the fact that she ever received any vaccination upon impound. She never got her Bordetella and DHLPP shots as she was supposed to. I have Zephyr's record to show that she never got her vaccinations. What is being sent via the PRA will be a doctored piece of document. It will show that the shelter gave her Bordetella and DHLPP on 11/27/07 - the same day they reported her very sick and recommended that she be humanely euthanized. My rescue partner never received the call even though she had asked that they call when Zephyr was to be euthanized. It's interesting though that they would give Zephyr her shots on the day she was reported by the veterinary staff to be very ill and on the very day that the shelter vet recommended that Zephyr be put to sleep. Does that make sense to you? It makes no sense to me. The reason is that the department of animal care and control lied. They never gave Zephyr a chance. She was never vaccinated. She fell ill and they failed to treat her so she died IN THEIR CARE.

This was Zephyr looking on and around her in the late afternoon of Friday 11/30/07. One can hardly recognize that she is the same puppy who was so full of life just a few weeks prior. In this photo, we didn't know that it was Zephyr's last night being alive.

What happened to Zephyr did not have to happen, but it did. I am sure there are many, many more like Zephyr dying in the LA County shelters right now as I am writing this blog entry. Their deaths will not be known as Zephyr's death would have been unknown had it not been for us showing up the morning of 12/1/07 to try and get her out to a private emergency vet.

If you are reading this blog entry, I hope that Zephyr's short tragic life touched you the way it touched me and forever changed my life. Four days after Zephyr's death, my rescue partner (former Carson volunteer) and I rescued another puppy (8-month old) from Carson. Justin was his name. Justin also died from distemper (he received his vaccination 3 weeks after he was impounded at Carson). I was able to get Justin's cremain. I did not get Zephyr's cremain as Marcia Mayeda sent her body out for the necropsy.

A Magnificent German Shepherd

I was at the Downey shelter on Saturday, Feb. 2 when I met this beautiful German Shepherd. His kennel card listed him as an 8-year old female with the name Roxy. Roxy turned out to be an intact male who was turned in on January 31, with a euthanasia request.

He wore a tired, sorrowful expression in his eyes as if he knew why he was there. He had elbows that were thickened by callous skin. One of many indications that he spent his entire life as an outside dog who was neglected. His fur was clumpy as if he was just recently hosed down and was drying out.

I sat outside his cage as he pressed his nose to my hand to give me a gentle kiss. The space he was allowed was just too small. One could tell that he was at one point, a majestic looking dog. We sat together in the sun for a while. People passed by and he would look up to see if they would pay him a second look. No one did.

He and I both knew that it was not his time to go. I told him that I didn't understand why people can be so cruel, how they can just decide that it was time to end a life just like that. I told him that not all people are like that, that there are people out there with broken hearts because they know about him and dogs like him, but like me - are helpless because we don't have any place to take him to.

When it was time to go, I asked him to go through the guillotine door to the inside part of his cage because I just couldn't bring myself to walk away from him. He looked at me and he understood. He walked through the door and went in.

This is the last photo of him taken by Ryan Olshan.

I looked for him when I got to a computer an hour later but could not find his record. I know he is gone. I hope that his last moment was as peaceful as it could have been even if it was at the Downey shelter. I hope whoever it was who took him from his cage and walked him for the last time to where he took his last breath was someone kind and compassionate.

Here is my prayer for him and all the animals who shared a common, untimely ending like his.

A PRAYER FOR ANIMALS

Hear our humble prayer, O God, for our
friends the animals,
especially for animals who are suffering;
for any that are hunted or lost or
deserted or frightened or hungry;
for all that must be put to death.

We entreat for them all Thy mercy and pity,
and for those who deal with them we ask a
heart of compassion and gentle hands and
kindly words. Make us, ourselves, to be true
friends to animals and so to share the blessings
of the merciful.


--- Albert Schweitzer ---