Program areas at SPCALA
Companion animal services:spcala companion animal services provides safe shelter, nourishing food, veterinary care, and enrichment to thousands of homeless, abused, and otherwise in-need animals annually.to reduce the strain on Spcala's shelters, and offer pets for adoption to a new community in Los Angeles, Spcala re-opened the Spcala pet adoption center in the historic west adams district of Los Angeles, late in fiscal year 2024.veterinary services:spcala veterinarians, registered veterinary technicians, and veterinary assistants performed thousands of intakes, pre/post surgery, foster, and re-check examinations of shelter animals. Further, veterinary staff performed 11,736 procedures and treatments, including spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations, diagnostic testing, and microchipping. Additionally, Spcala provied care for 370 community animals at public low-cost vaccine clinics.training & enrichment: enrichment and training activities help animals cope with the inevitable stress and anxiety inherent in shelter life - most strikingly important to survivors of animal cruelty. The Spcala animal behavior & training department worked directly with shelter dogs and cats, managed protective custody dogs, and conducted assessments for violence prevention humane education as well as other programs. The department provided staff and volunteers the tools they needed to better understand and interpret canine body language, training methods used and exercises taught by conducting helping enhance animals' lives (heal) and other training classes. Adoption, reunification, & retention:finding - and keeping - new homes for shelter animals and returning lost pets to their owners remains paramount. A total of 2,467 animals found new homes, reunited with their owners, or transferred to credible rescue groups, thanks to Spcala's programs and services. Further, Spcala provided foster homes for 686 animals in need of temporary placement. Training, agility, and specialty classes increase the ability of adopters to effectively communicate with their pets and enhance the human-animal bond. To that end, Spcala enrolled 11,220 (new and continuing) students in dog training classes.
Violence prevention humane education programs:spcala aims to support the development of healthy relationships and compassionate communities as one way to prevent animal cruelty and interpersonal violence. The program does this by:*engaging youth and children in empathy-based animal welfare education and social-emotional learning. *encouraging youth advocacy for animals, others, and themselves. *offering violence intervention and support services for adults and families.in fiscal year 2024, Spcala extended concepts of empathy and compassion to over 1,320 youth, adults, and children through a host of offerings.teaching love & compassion (tlc) and the court diversion program for youth:tlc is a program for underserved youth that offers a small-group format which combines social-emotional learning with animal welfare lessons and hands-on positive reinforcement training with shelter dogs. Spcala developed tlc over twenty-five years ago and has such significant success with it we now also offer the Spcala court diversion program for youth. The diversion program is an animal-assisted intervention program modeled after tlc but specifically made for justice system-involved youth referred by the Los Angeles county district attorneys' office and other juvenile justice professionals. This past fiscal year, Spcala updated the program's cirriculum, expanding it from a 16-hour to 25-hour program, held over four days, spread out in a two-month period.spcala offered tlc five times during the year, at middle schools in whittier, south whittier, and long beach, California, reaching 41 students. The expanded diversion program was offered once during the fiscal year, reaching six students.animal safety net (asn):domestic violence survivors will often not leave a situation of abuse if it means they must leave their pets behind. Abusers often threaten, harm, or kill pets to maintain control. Since 1998, the Spcala animal safety net (asn): pet housing program has worked to break the cycle of violence by providing safe, temporary housing for the pets of domestic violence survivors. This past fiscal year, Spcala took steps to expand the program to others in crisis including those experiencing temporary homelessness, or those entering treatment facilities. In fiscal year 2024, Spcala housed 25 asn pets helping 21 families, which included 8 children. The average length of stay for asn pets was 120 days. Out of the 21 clients helped, 15 were domestic violence survivors, two were unhoused, and four were in treatment or recovery.additional programming:spcala friends for life summer camp returned, hosting 204 youth over the course of six, one-week sessions. Spcala offered full scholarships to 41 long beach area youth for a special seventh week of camp, with expanded hours, curriculum, meals, and transportation, made possible by a participatory budgeting grant. Additionally, Spcala continues to offer pet care patch workshops, online presentations, and other resources for youth and educators.
Animal protection service program (aps): Spcala is the only animal welfare agency in the city of Los Angeles that is also law enforcement. Program areas include: animal cruelty investigations in which Spcala humane officers investigate animal cruelty and assist in the prosecution of individuals or organizations who neglect or abuse animals anywhere in the state of California. In fiscal year 2024, aps staff fielded 4,490 calls which resulted in 44 formal complaints. In the course of their investigations, Spcala humane officers checked on the health and welfare of over 660 animals. Most complaints were found to have no violation, or were resolved through education, prevention, or referral to another agency. No new criminal cases were submitted for prosecution consideration. Spcala humane officers frequently aid other law enforcement agencies in the execution of search warrants, when animals are known to be present or animal cruelty is suspected. Non-animal cruelty related warrants include narcotics raids and chop shops, among other crimes. In these cases, Spcala humane officers will be attached to the entry team and tasked with the containment and confinement of any dogs on the property. Spcala humane officers serve to provide for the safety both of the dogs and the officers on the scene, mitigating the danger of pets and guard dogs being shot by law enforcement, who may be inexperienced in the handling of animals in such situations. In other instances, Spcala expertise in investigating animal cruelty is requested, frequently involving bloodsports (e.g. Cockfighting, dogfighting). Aps also operates Spcala's disaster animal response team (dart), in which Spcala rescues and provides temporary shelter and front-line veterinary care for animals during emergencies and disasters on a local, national, and international level.
Other program servces: volunteers provide support to all aspects of Spcala programs and services. In fiscal year 2024, Spcala maintained its steadfast commitment to cultivating a robust volunteer base, recruiting 252 new volunteers. New and returing volunteers donated a total of 43,293 hours of their time in support of Spcala programs and services, a 29% increase over the previous year.pets who needed temporary in-home care (including asn program pets and survivors of animal cruelty) were cared for by foster volunteers, who donated 18,298 hours of their time in fiscal year 2024.in the shelters, volunteers provide invaluable enrichment to shelter pets, reducing their stress and making them more desirable to potential adopters. Shelter dogs enjoyed 12,079 hours of training and socializing with volunteers, while shelter cats benefitted from 4,789 hours of volunteer time. In addition to working with specific types of animals and programs, volunteers assisted in the day-to-day care of shelter animals through cleaning, feeding, and grooming, assisted in office activities, did mountains of laundry, and assisted veterinary services.