Student Veterinary Group Forms Pet Council
By Sandi Cain, Best Friends NetworkThe Ontario, Calif. homeless camp called Tent City has been purged of people who came from other areas to live and those who had former homes within Ontario now have IDs and permission to stay. The city is also cleaning up and reorganizing the camp to keep it safe. Some of the residents with animals have departed, but it is unclear how many of those animals were seized or turned in to shelters.
A group of veterinary students from Western University that had provided spay/neuter/vaccination and other health services to these residents free of charge had tried to have the pet ban overturned. Now they've formed the Camp Hope Pet Council made up of students, faculty veterinarians and staff and hopefully some camp residents.
They are seeking help from any rescue groups that have contacts or relationships with the Inland Valley Humane Society or Ontario's West End Animal Shelter. These are the two shelters most likely to have animals seized from the camp or turned in by former residents. The students would like to find these animals foster homes but have not been able to confirm which animals may be there.
The student effort is headed by Jamie Lee Slingluff, SC-ACVP President, DVM Research Club President and Student Chapter of Christian Vet Mission President at Western University’s School of Veterinary Medicine.
The city of Ontario, Calif., about 50 miles from downtown L.A., last year created a camp where the homeless and their pets were welcome. Their intent was to have a place where down-and-out residents from Ontario could safely camp away from city streets and neighborhoods. But word spread, and the camp grew to about 400 people—many of whom came from other areas to live. As of March 24, only those people who previously lived in Ontario were allowed to stay--and pets were to be banned.
Slingluff in an email said the mission of the Pet Counci is two-fold. "First we still have the hope of partnering with the city for the long-term to preserve the human-animal bond when developing
community plans for homeless. Second, to continue to provide
veterinary support and services to the homeless community, in and
outside of Camp Hope. We are working on several partnerships with non-profit organizations to distribute pet supplies and to organize vet clinics through, so that we can still serve those at Camp Hope who are there currently, or who have left with their animals. We are working to establish donations and sponsorship from companies to help defray cost these endeavors.
Lastly and very importantly, we are working to refine our proposal to
the city. We have public health experts and lawyers working with us
on this preparation as well. Our hope is to meet again with the city
once this proposal is refined."
The students met with Housing Director Brent Schultz to present a proposal offering to continue their spay/neuter and vaccination program, to provide assistance in getting all resident pets licensed, and to provide leashes and collars for the dogs and cats if they could remain on the site.
The students also have fanned out to area shelters to try to identify any animals at the shelters that came from the homeless camp but are not having much success on that front so far.
Schultz earlier said the city had made arrangements with the Inland Valley Humane Society in Pomona to house the animals for 10 days and try to find them foster or permanent homes. "We want to treat them in a humane way," he said. Schultz added that the city would welcome other groups who could assist in relocating the animals as needed.
Nonprofit groups can apply to the city to assist these people with their animals. The city has been working with about 100 nonprofit groups and churches locally to help both the people and the animals.
Slingluff said her group would like help from rescue groups in finding foster homes for animals already removed to area shelters. She also relayed a big 'thank you' to all those who sent letters to the City of Ontario about this situation--200 in all!
Additional updates will be posted as news becomes available.
What You Can Do: If you are a nonprofit rescue group interested in assisting these animals, if you would like to donate any supplies to their efforts or if you have a relationship with area shelters around Ontario that may be housing pets from former residents of the homeless camp, please contact Slingluff at
jamielee7@mac.com this weekend.
If you'd like to assist the Inland Valley Humane Society through fostering or adoption, please call them at (909) 623-9777.
Please contact the city by fax ASAP at (909) 395-2453.
Ask to allow these legal residents to keep their animals as long as they obey camp rules, suggest alternatives or offer other assistance to help these people keep their pets. (As with all such communication, please remember to be respectful and constructive with your comments. The city did not expect its homeless camp to grow so large in such a short time and is trying to control that growth.)
Photo courtesy of Jamie Slingluff