Rains Slow Traffic at Animal Shelters

It may be raining cats and dogs this year, but not at area animal shelters.

Unusually heavy rains and cold winds that bring stuffy noses, coughs and the flu to humans have brought a noticeable reduction of the workload at Los Angeles city and county animal control sites, officials report.

“Those would be human illnesses only,” said Dena Mangiamele, chief veterinarian for the Los Angeles Animal Regulation Department.

Officials credit cold air with reducing the exchange of viruses or harmful bacteria between animals arriving at shelters, and they said recent nasty weather corralled most pets indoors, causing the number of strays to drop.

These are trends Lt. George Enriquez has noticed each of his 27 years as an animal control official.

“It’s kind of strange,” said the supervisor of County Animal Control Center 6 in Castaic. “It seems like we get more sick animals in during the summer. But that could be because more animals are out.”

In the summer, vacationing pet owners often entrust their animals to neighbors or relatives who subsequently lose the pet whose habits and escape capabilities may not be known, Mangiamele said.

That, warm weather and an annual birth cycle that begins in the spring and quiets in September drive up problems in the summertime.

“Our shelters are overwhelmed in the spring and summer,” Mangiamele said.

In the winter, Enriquez said, “people are home and they tend to keep an eye on their animal more.”

John Saucedo, a kennel attendant at the Glendale Humane Society, agreed.

“A lot of what we get in the rain are complaint calls from people saying other people have left their dogs out in the backyard without a doghouse or things like that,” Saucedo said. “But when it rains, things are calmer.”

Even so, the number of strays struck by cars increases when it rains, Mangiamele said. “We see more of them hit,” she said. “People are concentrating more on the weather.”