More Pets and People
Together…

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Growth

Gratitude for the Cal for All Animals Community

Reflecting after the 72nd and final All Call 

On Valentine’s Day 2022, we gathered in a Zoom room, all squares and no chocolates. A one-eyed cat named Pirate purred his way into the scene. California for All Animals launched with an invitation to dream different, as so many Californians have before. An invitation to imagine what’s possible when we invest in what it takes to match animals in need with the right outcome through the right care, delivered in the right place and at the right time.

Does that feel incredibly idealistic now?

It’s true that rising costs and pet restrictions continue to lock families out of stable housing. Violent immigration enforcement policies separate families and send pets to already crowded shelters. For many shelters and communities, essential vet care is out of reach. Even with over $16 million in grant funding devoted to spay/neuter, we’re still limited by shortages of veterinarians and support staff, and a pandemic-era surgery backlog persists.

These aren’t personal failures. They’re systems failures that make it increasingly difficult for people to care for animals and for shelters to serve their communities.

But this is also true: Our collective action to make change brings us closer to that Valentine’s Day vision.

Over 72 All Calls, we saw what this looks like in practice. Shelters building partnerships with veterinarians and community organizations to deliver low-cost care, free spay/neuter, microchips, and vaccines. Piloting short-term foster programs, veterinary assistance funds, fee-waived Return-to-Home and education-before-citation approaches that recognize people want to care for their animals when barriers are removed. Translating shelter websites and adoption materials. Sharing Emotional Support Animal information, pet food, and supplies through pop-up events, flyers and door-knocking. And within and across organizations, sharing disaster support and mutual aid resources, and strengthening cross-team collaboration to get animals home faster. There is a role for everyone to play.

You’ve documented what it means to meet people where they are, with compassion, respect, and a recognition of what we share: a belief that pets are family, and that we all deserve the conditions needed to care for the animals who add so much to our lives.

“More Pets and People Together, More Growth” – Illustration by Lola Victor (Siskiyou Humane Society)

Ultimately, these 72 hours offer a record of reimagining not just what we do, but how we do it. You’ve documented what it means to meet people where they are, with compassion, respect, and a recognition of what we share: a belief that pets are family, and that we all deserve the conditions needed to care for the animals who add so much to our lives.

The momentum is spreading. For the first time in 140 years of animal sheltering, New York City will include spay/neuter funding in its budget. Texas appropriated $13 million for spay/neuter over two years.

A California that’s truly for All Animals—and for safer, healthier, and more connected communities where people and animals can thrive together—requires ongoing action and ongoing investment.

Thank you for everything you’ve brought to this work over the last three years. The All Calls are ending, but their spirit continues. We hope, on days you feel discouraged, you’ll be reminded of the many colleagues who are ready to support you.

The community relationships and partnerships you’ve built—they’re yours to keep growing. You’ve shown us that meaningful change builds slowly, through small, brave acts of innovation and care. The bright spots you’ve shared—they’re spreading.

And the advocacy you’re doing matters. City councils, county boards, and state legislators need to hear from shelter teams and community members why sustained funding is so important. They need to hear firsthand stories that show why a robust state spay/neuter fund is crucial.

Keep committing to changing systems rather than blaming individuals and one another. We can continue moving toward that vision of the right care, in the right place, at the right time—where pets and people have what they need to stay together, and shelters have what they need to be there when animals need help most.

More Pets and People
Together…

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Compassion

Petting Pitties and Swapping Advice: Compassion in Action at The PAW Mission

As part of our More Pets and People Together campaign, we’re asking community members inside the shelter and out, “What do communities look like when we’re stronger side by side? What does More Pets and People Together mean to you?” Together we’re envisioning and creating communities that keep and bring pets and people together, places rooted in mutual care, joy, and connection, where everyone belongs. The PAW Mission Founder and Executive Director Jessica Lopez reflects on the people and circumstances that challenged her assumptions and cleared the way for a new understanding of what compassion looks, feels, and sounds like. 

On Fridays the Pico Rivera Clinic opened at 6 a.m., and Jessica Lopez was sure Gloria would be first in line. Jessica had recently left work in the private practice veterinary world for a job managing two high-volume spay/neuter clinics for Spay/Neuter Project of Los Angeles, and she’d come to know Gloria through her weekly TNR routine. Without fail, Gloria would trap one of the many community cats she looked after, then line up in the dark at 5 a.m. for the clinic’s low-cost spay/neuter services so she could get in and out and still make it to her job by 6:30. 

“Rain or shine. She was all business, always composed,” Jessica said. “One time we had a fire in the clinic. She was right there, like, ‘How can I help?’”

That morning, though, when the doors opened, Gloria was distraught. One of the cats she’d waited in line with the week before had been hit by a car. “She was on the street,” she told Jessica through tears, “and I had to bring her in.”

The community cats that passed through the clinic every day? For caregivers like Gloria, Jessica realized, they’re family.

Over time Jessica questioned more of the assumptions she’d carried into the field. “I did a lot of emergency and critical care as a technician, and I was very dead set on the belief that if you did not have $1,500 in your bank account ready for an emergency, then you should not have a pet,” she said. “I was making 16 bucks an hour, and I’m expecting people to have $1,500? That wasn’t even one paycheck of mine.”

At community events, people aren’t just standing in line for health checks, vaccines or pet food. They’re petting pitties and swapping advice with the people behind them or sharing stories with the cat parents in front of them.

Photo courtesy The PAW Mission

That expectation didn’t square up with her family’s experience either. “We always had pets. We never had an extra $1,500 in the bank account for anything. Ideally everybody has extra income for the emergency fund, for the rainy-day fund. But a lot of people—the majority of the U.S.—is struggling, and they’re going paycheck to paycheck.” 

People like Gloria changed her views on what true pet care is and what animal care organizations could be offering. Now, through The PAW Mission, Jessica’s goal is to leave the assumptions behind and start with one question: “How can we help you?” Her team can support community members with pet food and supplies, free vaccines, spay/neuter, and low-cost vet care. They can share information or help them bring home a new pet or Rodent Ranger.  

No matter what, it’s important to meet people where they are, with compassion, Jessica explained. “How are we going to impact our community if we’re constantly telling them that they’re doing something wrong, and we’re not trying to understand where they’re coming from?”  

For Jessica, more compassion leads to more pets and people together, and it also leads to more voices and a stronger community. She sees it in action at every PAW Mission event. People aren’t just standing in line for health checks, vaccines or pet food. They’re petting pitties and swapping advice with the people behind them or sharing stories with the cat parents in front of them. They’re hanging out after on a nearby bench, laughing together in the sun. They’re realizing that neighbors—even the ones with the rambunctious dog—can also be friends. 

It’s a change you can feel, Jessica said. “Everybody needs that village to help, whether it’s for pets or for kids.” 

Three Minutes of Insight from Jessica Lopez

On support networks

0:54

On changing minds

0:33

On spay/neuter

0:24

On the power of events

1:14

Hear Jessica reflect on the support networks we all need in our lives, why the benefits of community events go beyond vaccinations, and how to rethink our approach to changing minds.

Jessica Lopez serves as Executive Director/Founder of The PAW Mission, overseeing the organization’s management, programs and development. Jessica has worked in the veterinary field for over 20 years; for 14 of those years she worked building vital community programs, wellness clinics, vaccine clinics, and building great teams for organizations in both Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Jessica has always known she was going to work with either animals or children, and she is exhilarated to do both at The PAW Mission. Jessica resides in Yucaipa with her family (husband and three kids) and a menagerie of farm animals, including cows, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, cats, and dogs!

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California State Director Allison Cardona and Program Manager Nadia Oseguera reflect on what we accomplished together in 2023 and look ahead to challenges and opportunities 2024 will bring.

Over the past year, it’s been incredible to learn about the programs funded by California for All Animals grants. All across the state, capacity-expanding spay/neuter, veterinary care, supplies, transportation, training, and community engagement programs are keeping pets and people together in their homes and communities. It has been inspiring to hear how animal shelters are engaging community members in inclusive ways, understanding that people love their pets and deserve to keep that bond.

2023 has also been exceptionally challenging for shelters and the communities they serve, and we know you are feeling that strain on a cellular level. Agencies and organizations serving people and pets nationwide are struggling with compounding crises, and California is no exception. Structural challenges like lack of access to pet-inclusive housing, veterinary care, and the veterinary professional shortage, to name a few, are creating the need for innovation, flexibility, and collaboration to address issues and create change. Organizations like the Humane Society of Sonoma County, Berkeley Humane, and Stanislaus Animal Services are partnering with CAMP LA to provide subsidized training for veterinarians to perform high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter surgeries. Just today, Cal for All shelters and partner organizations surpassed 22,000 grant-powered spay/neuter surgeries!

We’ll need partnerships like these to weather 2024 together. Economic hardship and housing insecurity will continue to strain pet owners’ ability to care for their pets. We see animal shelters making the shift to providing resources, support, and connection to services so pet owners are empowered and supported to care for their pets. Collaboration and integration between animal shelters and human services is going to be a game changer in 2024.

Stay tuned for more grant impact news—and more grants—in the new year.