Los Angeles based ARME (Animal Rescue Media Education) rescue homeless animals and tirelessly work to educate the public through award winning films like Behind the Mask and Skin Trade. They are holding a silent auction this month to help raise funds for their next 3 films. You can bid on some fabulous vegan items, including two of our most popular wallets which are currently going for only $10!

Go to the auction website here and enter skintrade as the auction username and password to view items up for bid.

The bidding is currently underway, and you have until July 31st at 11:00 PM PDT to enter a bid.

From the ARME website:

Proceeds from this auction will be used to save animals from death row in Southern California, as well as assist us in continuing to make award-winning documentary films that expose the horrors of the animal-abusing industries.

Starting today through Father’s Day, LA Animal Services is offering a special discount adoption special for both cats and dogs. You can visit any of the 6 local shelters where they have reduced the adoption price of cats to $50.50 and dogs to $78.50. The discounted adoption fees include spay/neutering, microchipping, and a license for your pet. Most vets will also give your new pet an initial checkup completely free if you tell them they are from LA Animal Services. You can click on the image to view the flyer for all the details.

This past Sunday we headed over to visit Los Angeles’ premiere non-profit organization dedicated to saving homeless and abandoned cats and kittens, Kitten Rescue. Since the day we started The Vegan Collection, Kitten Rescue has been one of the 4 charities that we give a portion of our profit to support, yet we had never actually visited their facility. When we heard that they would be opening their doors for their Second Annual “St. Catrick’s Day” celebration, we jumped at the chance to see the inner-workings of this fantastic group.

When we got to the nondescript building in Atwater Village we were greeted by a slew of friendly volunteers, one of which was kind enough to spend about 15 minutes giving us a full tour of their facilities and some background information about the organization. Currently Kitten Rescue has 157 cats at their location with another 1,500+ being fostered by volunteers and organizations throughout Los Angeles. Of the 157 cats at their location, most are available for adoption, but a handful of older and feral cats which would generally not get adopted in the shelter system, have found a forever home at the facility. They are a completely volunteer run organization with one paid employee who manages the facility.

The thing that struck us the most was how well organized this volunteer run no-kill shelter operates. The task of keeping track of over 1,500 animals while still maintaining a safe environment for these animals is unfathomable. And the fact that Kitten Rescue does it all on a shoe-string budget is a testament to how far this organization stretches it’s donation dollars.

Even though we weren’t able to stick around for the green beer and vegan nachos, we had a fantastic time chatting with the volunteers and finally meeting some of the people we had previously only talked to via e-mail. Kitten Rescue only allows the public to come in and explore their facility once a year, but they are always looking for more volunteers to socialize the animals or foster families to care for animals waiting for their FURRever homes. You can find out all the information about volunteering for Kitten Rescue on their website here, or throw them a few bucks on their donation page here.

Photos graciously provided by Kitten Rescue volunteer Natalie N.

If you’re still looking for the perfect Valentines date, don’t miss the 1st Annual “Adopt A Valentine” pet adoption event happening Saturday, February 13th at LA Animal Services’ North Central shelter (3201 Lacy St LA 90021 – two blocks east of Figueroa off Ave 26). This special pet adoption benefit will include substantial discounts on adoption fees ($78.50 per dog and $50.50 per cat), plus an extra $25 off the first 10 adoptions of the day. Click on the image to view the flyer with all the information.

This Saturday is “Save A Stray” day at the fourteen Los Angeles area animal care locations. There will be discounted prices on adoptions as well as volunteers on hand to assist you in finding a perfect match. By choosing to adopt, you save the life of the animal you take home, the one who now has space at the shelter as well as the one that was never bred.

All of the facilities managed by Los Angeles Animal Services, the LA County Department of Animal Care and Control and SEAACA will be joining together to help find wonderful homes for deserving pets!

LA Animal Services discount adoption days actually starts today and runs through December 20th. You get 50% off the adoption of any cat or dog and get free microchipping of the animal. Click on the image to view the flyer and get more information.

Here’s a great new volunteer run website. “Bound Angels” goal is to try and teach shelters a better way to market their animals. They are currently focusing on my neighborhood shelter, North Central, on Lacy Street. Here is a current sample.

Check out their site here and be sure to forward it on.

Katya Lidsky has come up with an innovative way to get people to adopt from the local shelters, she offers her service as a shelter dog personal shopper. Shelter Shopper Inc. does an initial consultation and then searches every shelter and rescue group in order to find the perfect match. They do a personality assessment of both the animal and the potential owner and arrange a meet-and-greet to make sure you get the right pet for your lifestyle. This is a great way to get people who aren’t willing to go to a shelter to still adopt a rescue animal. You can find more information about Shelter Shopper Inc. at their website here.

I have no idea if the current overcrowding at LA Animal Services shelters can be directly linked to the recent fee increase by LAAS, but I’m sure it’s not helping. As an attempt to alleviate some of the overcrowding, LAAS is dropping their adoption fees by 50% as well as giving you a free microchip from August 19th – 23rd.  So if you know anyone who’s in the market for a gently used cat, dog or rabbit, let them know they can pick one up next week at bargain basement prices. You can click here to view all the details.

As disheartening as volunteering for LA Animal Services can sometimes be, it’s more critical now than ever to put aside those feelings and step up and help. FOX 11 news (a.k.a. FoxLA) did a short piece which you can view below about the extreme overcrowding currently happening at LA Shelters.

And remember, if you don’t have time to personally volunteer, donating funds to rescue organizations that pull animals from the shelters is also extremely helpful.

As of July 1, not only did the state hike sales tax, but LA Animal Services drastically raised their adoption fees. Unfortunately, with budget cut-backs and people looking to make up the shortfall, the animals are getting the short-end of the stick. Prices for dog adoptions are now $117, cats are $76 and rabbits are $56. I understand that the cost of living for everything in California is going up, but the jump in 20 plus dollars seems a bit excessive. I would think that lower fees would get more animals out of the shelters costing less money for taxpayers, but time will tell if the new fees cause lower adoption rate than the previous adoption fees. Too bad the animals are the ones who will suffer in the meantime, but what’s new?