Teri Austin, president of the Amanda Foundation, walks through the 100-year-old building in Beverly Hills that she turned into her animal rescue, pointing out dogs, cats, puppies and kittens in need. Animals need surgeries and vaccines, for which the nonprofit counts on donations. But funding is running thin as Austin and her team try to combat Los Angeles’ overpopulation of stray dogs and cats. She walks to the end of a hallway and points to a room where newborn black kittens are quarantined because their immune systems are vulnerable, as she remarks that kitten season is in full swing. They have kennels of dogs of varying ages down another hallway, and she points to a goldendoodle—an expensive dog among breeders. There are newborn puppies and elderly dogs who had homes, but in one way or another, ended up here.
Every day, perfectly healthy and adoptable dogs are surrendered to shelters and rescues because there’s no room for them where they came from. And every day, more and more dogs are euthanized in these institutions. Shelters cannot turn down owners who want to surrender their dogs, so they eventually must make room. Though rescues do their part in removing vulnerable dogs from overcrowded shelters, they too are beginning to run out of space and, if not space, funding.
