LA residents could get paid to foster shelter animals under this new motion
Credit: Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control
LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles City Council approved a motion Friday seeking to establish a monetary stipend to encourage residents to foster animals from the city's six shelters in an effort to reduce overpopulation at the facilities.
According to officials, the stipend proposal includes a recommended dollar amount and pay structure based on models in other cities.
"It's going to take a multi-pronged strategy and creative approaches to decompress our shelters," said Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who introduced the motion. "Our foster program is one of the best tools we have to get our animals out of the shelter, give them love and enrichment."
Hernandez, who chairs the council's Neighborhoods and Enrichment Committee, described being a foster volunteer as an "incredible, rewarding experience," though it can be "a great deal of work."
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Some animals, like kittens, need to be bottle-fed. Others might need medications or have special needs. Foster volunteers are responsible for giving the animals they take home the same care and love that they need, she added.
"Many nonprofit organizations have instituted a stipend for their foster volunteers, which both compensates them for their vital work and incentivizes more people to join the program," Hernandez said.
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Earlier this month, the City Council approved a temporary moratorium on dog breeding permits in another bid to address overpopulation at the six city-run animal shelters. The moratorium will be lifted once shelters are at or below 75% capacity for three consecutive months, and could be automatically reinstated if shelter capacity rises above 75%.
City officials emphasized the moratorium is only temporary until the shelters' can get control of the situation. It will affect dogs specifically, not cats or rabbits, because the shelters are reporting an influx of purebred dogs being dropped off.
City News Service contributed to this report.