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Three Ways to Help FAAS Help Animals from the Los Angeles Fire Disaster

To me, hope is everything. It can help us envision a brighter future in our darkest hours. But as I’m reading and watching stories about the fires consuming the Los Angeles area, I feel gutted—sometimes hopeless—about what seems like never-ending devastation.

Alameda Post - a dog in a crate is taken off a plane into the hands of people on the ground as FAAS helped during the Maui fires in 2023
Our animal care staff helped offload animals coming by plane from Maui in 2023. Photo FAAS.

Like so many of you, FAAS has been wanting to offer our services, to help in any way we can. No one has any idea how many thousands of pets are missing, injured, or worse. Pasadena Humane alone has taken in more than 400 animals since the fires began. Search-and-rescue teams continue to find beloved cats, dogs, and other animals.

FAAS is going to be doing what we can over the coming weeks and months to help. This week, we’re scheduled to take in at least 10 cats in need of homes. These are cats who had been in Los Angeles-area shelters before the fires started, and who need to be moved to make room for the animals who are coming in from the fires in every condition.



It’s kind of a domino effect. We need to make room in our shelter so we can welcome animals from this unprecedented disaster. The cats are the first wave, but we anticipate bringing in more as the situation unfolds. We’d love to be able to take in some dogs as well, but we are full.

Alameda Post - a photo of a dog and a cat taken in by FAAS after the Maui fires
Left: Mochi is one of several animals we took in from the Maui fires in 2023. We hope to make room at FAAS so we can welcome some dogs from Los Angeles. Right: Sweetheart, who came to us after the Maui fires in 2023. Photos FAAS.

So many of you have been asking what you can do to help. Here are three things that would make a huge difference:

  • If you’ve been thinking of fostering or adopting one of our animals, this would be an incredible time to do so. What a beautiful act of love it would be to take in a FAAS resident so we can help animals from the Los Angeles area. If we get enough dogs out of the shelter and into homes, we’ll have the capacity to house some dogs—something badly needed.
  • You can adopt one of the animals coming into FAAS from the fire zone, though that could be a little wait. We’re not sure when the cats will be available for adoption. It depends on their conditions, vaccination status, etc.
  • You can donate to the brand-new Disaster Response Fund we’ve set up to help us help the animals we take in from the fires–and from other disasters we will likely help with in the future. The money will be set aside for transportation, medical, food, and other expenses directly related to these animals.

I don’t know about you, but being able to take action to help in any way gives me hope, because we are working with each other for the greater good.

We’re all in this together. Thank you for anything you can do.

John L. Lipp
FAAS Executive Director


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