Mountain Views News          Saturday, August 29, 2015

9

JUST FOR BEST FRIENDS

Mountain Views-News Saturday, August 29, 2015 


LOOKING FOR A BEST FRIEND?

UNITED HOPE FOR 
ANIMALS

An Humane Approach to the 

Pet Overpopulation Problem

Happy Tails

by Chris Leclerc

Meet one of the Bean brothers! Butter Bean is a 
beautiful domestic short hair mix cat, 1 year old 
and weighing around 4.4 pounds. He has a soft 
silky short black coat and beautiful green eyes. He 
has a simple and elegant appearance that does not 
require a lot of grooming. 

 Butter Bean is a sweet, 
playful, social boy. He 
was from a litter of six 
black kittens, affectionately 
known as the ‘Beans’. One 
of the benefits of a large 
family is that he learned to 
play nicely and share his 
toys with his siblings. He 
loves to spend time in the 
climber by the window 
and bask in the sunlight, 
but if you wave a mouse 
toy nearby, his playful 
nature comes out and 
he is on it! Butter Bean 
is a happy fellow, house 
broken and would be a 
great companion. This playful boy has a lifetime 
of love and affection to share and would be a great 
addition to a lucky family.

 To celebrate National Black Cat Appreciation 
Day, all black cats are available for the special 
reduced adoption fee of $25 through the end of 
August, which includes spay/neuter surgery, a 
microchip, first vaccinations and a free wellness 
check-up at a participating veterinarian. 

 Please come in to meet 
Butter Bean and his friends 
in person. They will charm 
you with their feline antics 
and playful natures. If a 
black cat is in your future, 
you won’t want to miss this 
limited time celebration. 

 If you are interested in 
meeting Butter Bean or any 
of the other available black 
cats at the shelter, visit the 
San Gabriel Valley Humane 
Society at 851 E. Grand 
Ave., San Gabriel, Calif. 
91776. Stop by any time 
from 10:00am to 4:30pm 
Tuesday thru Sunday to 
arrange a meet and greet with Butter Bean. For 
more information, call (626) 286-1159. See our 
website at www.sgvhumane.org for information 
and photos of all our wonderful pets. 

 


According to statistics reported by Los Angeles 
Animal Services during the short 12 month 
period from April 2011 to March 2012, a total of 
57,640 cats and dogs were taken in at LA animal 
shelters alone, 22,569 of which were euthanized, 
including puppies and kittens. This does not 
include all of LA County, this is just in the city of 
Los Angeles. These statistics are a few years old, so 
I am sure the numbers have grown exponentially 
by now.

 In a highly developed, educated, sophisticated 
society with so many advantages, how on earth 
can could this be? I don’t understand why people 
are still breeding and/or failing to neuter or spay 
their pets, with these statistics in mind. As radical 
as it may sound to some, I feel strongly that there 
should be a law against breeding altogether, until 
we can get this thing under control. The fact is 
there are far too many homeless animals with far 
too few good homes to place them in. When will 
the madness end? Unless we make some major 
changes in our animal protection legislation, 
thousands more innocent, defenseless pets will 
perish. We should be ashamed for allowing this 
to happen.

 Fortunately, not everyone is turning their back 
on this important issue, in fact many are uniting 
to help provide more humane conditions and a 
second chance for life. United Hope for Animals 
(UHA) is a 501c3 non-profit organization 
committed to community-based solutions to 
animal welfare issues. Through three programs, 
they take a holistic approach to ending and 
preventing suffering. Two of their programs are 
in Mexico. Through the ‘Perrera Program‘, UHA 
provides drugs to Baja pounds (perreras), to 
humanely end the suffering of pets who have no 
other options.

 Before UHA established relationships with the 
pounds in Baja, dogs were euthanized through 
electrocution. In partnership with their sister 
organization, Animal Advocates of the United 
States, they have succeeded in reaching all of the 
perreras in Baja, which are now electrocution 
free! UHA also sponsors a monthly spay/neuter 
clinic in Ensenada and surrounding communities 
to prevent suffering due to pet overpopulation. At 
the last spay/neuter clinic, 92 animals were altered 
and won’t be contributing to the overpopulation 
problem.

 Here in Los Angeles, UHA sponsors the 
‘Shelter Support Program’ wherein they work 
with the Baldwin Park Animal Shelter to facilitate 
pet adoptions. Baldwin Park is an LA County 
shelter that manages animal control for several 
different cities. On any given day, they house 
up to 350+ dogs and 250+ cats. They intake as 
many as 50-70 pets a day, and even more during 
the summer months. UHA works very hard in 
partnership with the staff at the Baldwin Park 
shelter, to reduce the euthanasia rate. They do this 
in a few ways.

 First, they hold “Glamour Shot Days” at 
the shelter every two weeks. Their dedicated 
volunteers go to the shelter, get to know about 
80 pets, mostly dogs but some cats too, take 
studio quality photos and videos and write a bio 
on each one, after which the photos, videos and 
bios are compiled and networked to the rescue 
community and adopting public. Next, UHA’s 
volunteer adoption coordinators interface with 
potential adopters, to help identify and match 
them with the pet that would best fit their home 
and lifestyle. They also assist the new pet owners 
in navigating through the adoption process, to 
help make it an easier, more positive experience.

 UHA’s goals with their Shelter Support 
Program are two-fold; First, to bring identity, 
dignity and hope to the lives that would otherwise 
pass anonymously through the city/county 
animal control system And second, to educate 
the public. Many people are not even aware of the 
magnitude of the pet overpopulation problem, 
and are surprised to learn about Baldwin Park, 
which is just one of several shelters in this city. 
They recently worked with a couple of classes 
from Cal State LA, and the students found the 
experience quite illuminating. Most of them, 
professed animal lovers, had never been to a 
shelter and had never heard of a microchip. Many 
even said that the experience with UHA helped 
change their view of animals.

 In addition to advocating adoptions at the 
Baldwin Park shelter, UHA also holds a mobile 
adoption event once a month at the PetCo store 
in La Canada. Their volunteers also take on 
personal rescue projects such as fostering and 
placing dogs and cats in loving homes. The 
Shelter Support Program has recently been 
expanded to the Downey and Carson areas as 
well. The ultimate goal for UHA, with sufficient 
funding, is to expand this excellent program 
into every city they possibly can.

 If this article had ended after the first paragraph, 
it would be pretty depressing. But, thanks to 
the animal-loving, hard-working volunteers at 
United Hope for Animals, it ends in a happier 
tale of hope. UHA advocates approximately 160 
shelter pets a month, with a 94% success rate, 
and as an avid animal lover myself, that makes 
me very happy! For more information about 
how you can volunteer or support United Hope 
for Animals through the a donation, please visit 
their website at: www.unitedhope4animals.org. 
It is through the generosity of donors such as 
yourself that they are able to carry out their good 
work on behalf of the animals. Many thanks to 
the beautiful people at UHA. My heart goes out 
to you!


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com