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Los Angeles' animal shelters are filled to more than 200 per cent capacity. The overcrowding stresses animals and staff. Volunteers give dogs a break in taking them to a nearby park once a month. They also get a bath and hot dog treats. The pack walk is a great opportunity to show the community how adoptable those shelter animals are.
After days stuck in narrow concrete kennels, a dozen huskies, shepherds, and pit bull mixes roll around in the grass at Lake Balboa Park. Volunteer Kerstin Tula’s companion is a handsome, black, 58-pound mixed-breed with a white spot on his snout. “His name is Iceman, he’s been in the shelter since June 2023,” Tula says as she puts an orange bandana with “adopt me” printed on it around the dog’s neck. “I hope someone sees him on the walk, or I’ll make a video to get him adopted because he’s a great dog.” The City of LA’s six animal shelters house about twice as many dogs as they were built for. The city is not planning to build more shelters and is instead trying to limit the number of stray animals in LA. They offer spay-and-neuter discounts, and in April, the LA City Council put in place a moratorium on new dog breeding licenses. But their primary strategy to clear space in the shelters is to step up public adoptions and foster care. That’s where pack walks come in: Shelter volunteers take a group of dogs to a local park to offer exercise and a little TLC while showing off the dogs’ loveability – which can be hard to discern for potential adopters visiting the prison-like environment of the shelters. The volunteers take lots of videos for social media and photos to replace the dogs’ mugshots on the shelters’ websites. The pups look so much cuter frolicking in the grass than cowering behind the mesh of their kennel cells.
