OUR LAGUNA: Animal shelter gets a boost from volunteers

Volunteers at the Laguna Beach Animal Shelter have a new name and new funds, but their purpose has not changed.

Protecting Our Pets, formerly known as the Pet Responsibility Committee, recently was awarded a $5,000 grant from the Petfinder.com Foundation.

“Our mission is to provide additional funding for the shelter to bridge the gap between city funding and the needs of the animals,” said Elizabeth Bauer, president of the newly dubbed POP.

“The grant was for the specific purpose of emergency preparedness, and we used it to buy a generator so if we lose power, we don’t have to pack up and leave.”

While the shelter’s basic upkeep and routine operation is funded by the city, private donations pay for expensive surgical procedures, medication and to serve a small number of dogs rescued from other facilities.

Donations also help fund education programs developed by the shelter staff to encourage informed and responsible pet ownership. Building upgrades are also needed.

The shelter has provided temporary care for lost, strayed, sick or injured animals in Laguna Beach since 1975, when a group of volunteers successfully lobbied the City Council to purchase the former Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals building on Laguna Canyon Road.

Former Mayor Neil Fitzpatrick came up with the name Pet Owners Obligation to the Public for the group, but it was abandoned when someone figured out the acronym.

“I became discouraged when they dumped the name,” Fitzpatrick said.

Regardless of the name, volunteers have performed invaluable service to the shelter since Day 1.

Besides raising funds, and as important, volunteers assist the staff, which includes Manager Nancy Goodwin, Animal Services Officers Joy Falk, Dave Pietarila and John Thompson, and two full-time kennel attendants, Laura Dunaway and Kathleen Sherwood, who has worked at the shelter for 22 years.

“We also have four staff people who fill in on different days: Jakqui Kuhns, and Pat Barham, who also still volunteers, and Laura’s daughters, Callie and Taylor, when school is out,” Sherwood said.

Volunteers commit to a minimum of four hours a week spent bathing, walking and socializing with the animals in the shelter. They also assist in adoptions and maintain a list of lost and found pets, staff the front and greet the public.

“I always wanted to be a veterinarian and I didn’t, so I decided to hang out with the animals here,” Nancy Englund said.

That was 16 years ago.

“It’s a lot of fun,” she said. “I fall in love with every dog that comes in.”

Animals brought to the shelter are held for seven days to allow time for owners to reclaim their pets. Because Laguna is a small community, the claim rate is high, about 80%.

Unclaimed animals are seen by a veterinarian, bathed, groomed, vaccinated, wormed, micro-chipped and neutered or spayed in addition to any needed medical care. And they are given names.

The shelter boasts that every animal put up for adoption is healthy and has no serious behavior problems. That doesn’t mean that every dog should go to a new home already occupied by a cat or children, or that every cat wants to live with a canine. Those quirks are specified by the staff.

Potential adopters are required to fill out an application and put on a waiting list.

The Adoption Committee reviews the applications and determines which one has the best chance of providing permanent, rewarding and peaceful co-existence.

Applicants can become better acquainted with the dog of their choice in the play yard, which is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.

“It gives them a chance to introduce the dog to other family members, including other pets,” Englund said.

The stringent polices have kept the return rate between 5 and 10%, compared to the national average that is close to 50%.

“The return rate is so low because they are so picky, which I approve of,” Englund said.

Staff and volunteers have adopted some of the “hard-to-place” animals.

Foster homes are sought for animals that are too young or too fragile to be left alone for long periods or have been stranded by emergencies that plague Laguna: fires, floods and landslides.

The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.

Visitors are welcome. The shelter is at 20612 Laguna Canyon Road, next door to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center — which is also worth a visit to see the rescued sea mammals at play and learn more about them.

For more information about the shelter, call (949) 497-3552.

NOT YOUR EVERYDAY PET

Sawdust Festival visitors will have the opportunity Wednesday to get a close-up look at more exotic critters than the dogs, cats and sea mammals sheltered in Laguna Beach.

Festival guest artist Chris Hoy and Shannon Thompson will be bringing some of the animals that inspire Hoy’s wildlife paintings to the Main Entertainment Deck from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., a reprise of their July 23 show. Thompson is Hoy’s long-time friend and founder of E & E Animals — Animals for Education and Entertainment, based in Riverside.

“I am adding a lion and a baby wolf to the show because I was so impressed with the reaction to the first show,” Hoy said, “The adults loved it as much as the kids.”

Hoy has had 20 years’ experience showing wildlife to audiences. He has interacted with more than 1,000 exotic critters in his visits to all seven continents, most of them twice.

In 2007, he met a 6-month-old panda on his last trip to China. In December, he will travel to Camaroon to play with gorillas.

These experiences drive his passion for wildlife, clearly visible in his acrylic paintings.

His career began in 1979 when he went on a trip to Canada.

“I saw my first bald eagle, which was extinct at that time in California,” Hoy said. “It changed everything for me.”

On that same trip he held a baby tiger at a petting zoo in Oregon and started drawing — pencil drawings that were accepted that year in the Festival of Arts.

“It was a gift,” Hoy said

Although wild animals are not the usual performers, the Main Entertainment Deck is an integral part of the festival. Entertainers for the upcoming week are listed in the Coastline Pilot’s “Going Out” section.

For more information about the festival, visit web site www.sawdustartfestival.org or call (949) 494-3030.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; hand-deliver to Suite 22 in the Lumberyard, 384 Forest Ave.; call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949) 494-8979, or e-mail [email protected].