Dog Days: Going strong after decades of service
The shy dog in the back of the kennel wouldn’t budge. So Ginny Sargent sat on the concrete floor in its cage repeatedly in order to gain its trust. When they eventually became friends, Sargent hauled the dog to the bathtub in the back of the animal shelter for a bath.
This is not an unusual scene. For more than 25 years, Sargent, of Hermosa Beach, has been washing dogs at the Carson Animal Shelter in Gardena. She started off with co-workers from TRW washing dogs on Saturdays, and though the co-workers have all fallen away, she’s still there.
[scrollGallery id = 420]Sargent isn’t just one of the most dedicated people at Carson, an L.A. County animal shelter that serves more than 20 communities, including Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes. She’s also the one less-experienced volunteers seek out and learn from.
I know. When I was a new volunteer in 2007, I myself sought out Sargent. She is one of a few volunteers at the shelter for two and a half decades. I found her in the grooming room, where she can usually be found, and she told me what I needed to hear at the time: that every little bit matters, that it’s better to go slow and steady than to burn out, that you just do the best you can do.
The Carson Animal Shelter has 144 dog kennels, many of which hold more than one dog. Some dogs are picked up by animal control officers in trucks. Some are dropped off by owners who are moving and can’t take their dog with them. Some owners discard their dogs after the pet grows old or sick, like an outdated product.
Most of the dogs that end up at Carson are dirty, some especially dirty. Sargent walks the long cement aisles and finds them, and bathes them. Others are matted terribly, so it’s painful for them to even move. Sargent clips their hair. Some dogs are full of fleas and burrs, and they hunker in a corner of their kennel and won’t come out. Sargent knows to be patient and persistent, and she sits in their cage and talks to them, which often leads to a bath.
Clean dogs are happier dogs. Clean dogs are more likely to catch someone’s eye and get adopted. That’s why Sargent and others put bandanas on the dogs after a bath— because when people see a scarf, it helps them focus on a particular animal. More than 16,000 animals a year pass through Carson, the majority of which are dogs, most of which end up euthanized.
Drawing someone’s eye to one of them is an accomplishment.
Besides, a few minutes in Sargent’s arms is a gift to an animal locked up inside such a loud and large animal pound.
Sargent doesn’t try to do it all, she said. She just does her little part, and she’s often smiling while she does it.
“This is my little bit of making a difference,” Sargent said, setting up the grooming table. “I don’t have kids so I don’t make a contribution that way. This is my little contribution.”
Sargent has been married for 42 years to her husband Scott, who happened to volunteer at Carson for a year several years ago. He stopped volunteering when they adopted a dog with separation anxiety, and ever since the couple has a strict one-pet rule, he said.
But just because Sargent can’t take any more dogs home, she can still increase the chances they find a home elsewhere.
A few years ago one particular dog that used to be white but looked more like a shade of dirt arrived at Carson. Her hair was badly matted and after Sergant clipped it and calmed the dog down, a microchip was discovered under her skin. The dog’s owners were notified, and the family drove a long distance to pick up their dog, which happened to have been lost for more than a year.
Sargent said she bathed that dog at the suggestion of another veteran volunteer, Evelyn Conley, who also happens to live in Hermosa Beach. Conley, an anesthesiologist at Torrance Memorial Hospital, has been volunteering at Carson for 12 years.
When I first met Conley as a volunteer in 2007, she was moving dogs from kennel to kennel. I asked her why. She explained that members of the public don’t notice the dogs in the end kennels next to the wall, so she was rotating them out. She moved around Carson like it was her own backyard, and the dogs responded to her as if they were her own.
When I met up with Conley at Carson last week, she was volunteering on two hours’ sleep after a long shift at the hospital, pulling friendly but very shy dogs from their kennels in order to warm them up and make them “more adoptable.”
The first time Conley contacted the shelter about volunteering 12 years ago, she was told there was no way for her to help. But Conley showed up on a Saturday and the group washing dogs invited her to join, and that’s how she started. A couple of years later, L.A. County began its volunteer program at its six shelters, and it’s been a growing process between volunteers and staff ever since.
Conley convinced administrators to change the policy that prohibited taking photos of dogs because photos increase their chances of finding a new home, she said.
Conley works with all of the breed rescue groups, including the mixed breeds. The rescue groups know her as the person who knows the dogs at Carson. She roams the aisles, replacing cage cards, identifying the dogs with “kennel cough” and letting staff know, switching up dogs in the kennels if they aren’t getting along, walking dogs, and letting Sargent know which ones could use a bath.
There’s always something to do at Carson, which is one of six county animal shelters that make up the department of animal care and control, the largest animal shelter system in the country. L.A. County shelters handle 90,000 animals a year. For the fiscal year between July 1, 2011 and June 31, 2012, county shelters took in 76,638 dogs and cats, of which 42,327 were euthanized, or about 55 percent, according to county records.
Like public agencies everywhere, the DACC is weathering deep budget cuts. The department’s staff has been slashed from 385 in 2008 to 350 last year to 317 at present, according to county officials. To get the work done, the department relies on general relief workers doing community service hours and volunteers to help staff.
“We’re an extension of what needs to get done down here, so you help the kennel staff do the things nobody in the system is designed to do — getting the dogs out for walks, looking at the dogs not just as impounded animals but as potential pets,” Conley said.
“We don’t have enough volunteers. We could always use more. One more volunteer, one more dog gets a walk. There’s no downside. You can come when you are able. You can create a role for yourself, like Ginny does grooming. If something discourages you, just remember: It’s not about you. It’s about them (the animals).”
The staff at Carson is appreciative.
“They really help out getting these dogs out of their shells when we sometimes don’t have the time,” said Gacey Meza, an animal care attendant.
During a brief visit to Carson last week, the front office called for county workers to pick up animals three times within five minutes, leaving only volunteers to assist the public in the kennels. Conley and Sargent had their leashes ready.
Carson has about 50 active volunteers these days, and many see how Sargent and Conley interact with the public and emulate them, as I did when I was a volunteer at Carson for three years. Some younger volunteers like the idea of working at Carson for a long time, as Sargent and Conley have done.
“No one is forcing you to do it,” said Yirialim Cholico, 21, who lives in Los Angeles and has volunteered at Carson for three years. “You choose to do it. If you have passion like I do, then it makes you feel good to do it.”
The volume of stray animals continues to fill up Carson and other county animal shelters. That’s not expected to change – and neither are the staffing trends. Conley has seen many shelter managers come and go. Sargent has seen even more.
The biggest difference between Carson now and 25 years ago is the teamwork between volunteers and staff, Sargent said.
Carson’s challenge is that it’s so large and can be intimidating, she added.
“I think it gets overwhelming for people, and sometimes there are a lot of Pit Bulls and the big dominant breeds,” Sargent said. “And if you take the time and try not to get overwhelmed, there are a huge number of really adoptable dogs.”
After 25 years, she still isn’t overwhelmed. She retired from Northrop four years ago as a senior programmer, and has bathed dogs at Carson three days a week since.
Earlier this month, Sargent was scrubbing a pooch alongside another volunteer with considerably less experience.
Brett Gansbauer, 17, has been a volunteer for about a year.
“I couldn’t resist. He looked so dirty,” Gansbauer said while rinsing the little dog in the bathtub.
“Make sure you get all the soap out,” Sargent said, passing along the sort of knowledge that makes life better for the dogs during their stay.
“We feel blessed to have her here,” said Al Garcia, an animal care attendant at Carson since 2007. What makes Sargent one of the most important people at the shelter, Garcia explained, is that she volunteers religiously, and she takes the most matted, dirty dogs, even if they are aggressive, and she does the best she can with them.
Anyone interested in volunteering at a county animal shelter can visit http://animalcare.lacounty.gov/, or call the county’s volunteer services department at (562) 256-1367.