Speaker 1: So Pasadena has come to a Pasadena Humane more specifically,
Speaker 1: has come to the rescue of more than a thousand
Speaker 1: PEPs since the wildfire tour through Altadena and Pasadena. We
Speaker 1: wanted to go back check in with PR and communications
Speaker 1: manager Kevin McManus to find out how things are going.
Speaker 1: So wake Up Call went out and about to Pasadena Humane.
Speaker 1: So first, Kevin, we want to go back to the
Speaker 1: night the fire started, well, the night of the.
Speaker 2: Seventh, which is the night of eating fire broke out.
Speaker 2: Knowing where it.
Speaker 3: Was located, we knew that we had to be prepared
Speaker 3: for emergency boarding because that's a service that we always
Speaker 3: provide to the cities.
Speaker 2: In our neighborhood.
Speaker 3: So we actually had staff here even overnight that first night. Thankfully,
Speaker 3: because by the end of the day on the A
Speaker 3: three had taken in over three hundred and fifty animals.
Speaker 3: So that's yeah, people, and these are the people who
Speaker 3: evacuated with their pets with them, right, So that was,
Speaker 3: you know, obviously a huge challenge for us.
Speaker 2: We were only able to accomplish.
Speaker 3: That because well, one, we have an incredible team of
Speaker 3: folks who work here, but we also had a ton
Speaker 3: of outside help from other shelters who realized what was
Speaker 3: going on and how they could help right away was
Speaker 3: to come in and take literally every adoptable animal that
Speaker 3: we had on site before the fire started.
Speaker 1: Oh so you've basically cleared the space so you could
Speaker 1: take in the animals.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, with the combined effort of a number of shelters,
Speaker 3: we yeah, by the end of the day on Thursday
Speaker 3: or Friday, like every animal who was here was just
Speaker 3: here for for emergency boarding and at least our owned pets.
Speaker 2: You know that and people who you know, who they
Speaker 2: belonged to.
Speaker 3: But with the you know, within you know, hours of
Speaker 3: the fire breaking out, we also started to see stray
Speaker 3: animals coming in and so you know, we we've i mean,
Speaker 3: since it started, we've taken in over a thousand animals
Speaker 3: at this point into the shelter alone, a combination of
Speaker 3: emergency boarding and strays, and we've also been able to
Speaker 3: reunite a lot of animals in the field.
Speaker 2: So what that means is we have.
Speaker 3: Animal control officers out in the burn zones, out patrolling
Speaker 3: looking for lost pets, you know, or people who have
Speaker 3: you know, found pets and brought them to us.
Speaker 2: So we're able to reunite a lot of animals that.
Speaker 1: Way, and so they're not necessarily even coming into the shelter.
Speaker 1: But the number now is astronomical fourteen hundreds.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and a lot of that is, yeah, due to
Speaker 3: the really hard work of our animal control being out
Speaker 3: there as soon as they could, like in the areas
Speaker 3: that were impacted, because we knew like.
Speaker 2: There was there were going to be a ton of
Speaker 2: animals who needed our help.
Speaker 3: And so again we relied on a lot of assistance
Speaker 3: from other organizations ASPCA and American Humane and Sant Diego
Speaker 3: Humani Alley County, like everyone was really pitching in in
Speaker 3: such a great community, really communal effort to help these animals.
Speaker 1: Okay, and you're continuing, you know, it's a month, is
Speaker 1: it a month? Gosh, it's like it's almost a month
Speaker 1: after the fire, and you're still holding on to some animals,
Speaker 1: and so even some of them that have been reunited,
Speaker 1: they're not ready to take them home yet because they
Speaker 1: don't have a home to go back to. So you're
Speaker 1: holding in here.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: Right from the start, we've committed to keeping people's pets
Speaker 3: as long as it took for them to get back
Speaker 3: on their feet, and we're going to stand by that.
Speaker 3: You know, we had no idea at the time that
Speaker 3: we would, you know, a month later, still be caring
Speaker 3: for two hundred and fifty family pets, dogs and another
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty family members, another one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty cats, plus a bunch of exotic pets that we
Speaker 3: would rarely see on a regular basis. What kind of
Speaker 3: exotic pets do we, Oh, we have a bunch of birds,
Speaker 3: some really interesting reptiles. We even have some goldfish. Yeah,
Speaker 3: like Noah's art. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But you know, obviously that is a service that.
Speaker 3: We want to do for the community because it's so
Speaker 3: important for us year round, but especially at this time
Speaker 3: to keep families together whenever possible.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we're out and about to Pasadena Humane this
Speaker 1: week to find out about everything that's been done to
Speaker 1: rescue and care for the animals displaced in the fire
Speaker 1: in Altadena. We're talking with pr and Communications manager Kevin
Speaker 1: McManus because they have reunited fourteen hundred animals with their owners,
Speaker 1: and not only that, they're providing homes for the animals
Speaker 1: until their families are ready to take them back, and
Speaker 1: they're caring for the animals who were injured in the fire.
Speaker 3: Right from the start, saw some injured animals coming in wildlife,
Speaker 3: but it's a lot of domestics as well, so a
Speaker 3: lot of cats have come in with burn injuries and popads,
Speaker 3: some dogs as well, And thankfully we have we have
Speaker 3: five veterinarians on staff and a really talented veterinary team
Speaker 3: who like, you know, basically we're like, okay, we'll roll
Speaker 3: up their sleeves and get to work, and we have
Speaker 3: an ICU here on site.
Speaker 2: It was used as kind of like a triage where
Speaker 2: you know, we.
Speaker 3: Had oxygen chambers set up for some of the cats
Speaker 3: to had a smoking inhalation. We had you know, like
Speaker 3: basically burn units for these animals. And our team has
Speaker 3: really just stepped up and you know, the care that
Speaker 3: they're giving these injured animals, you know, to make them
Speaker 3: back to hole. It's really incredible. Yeah, we're seeing now
Speaker 3: like the results of that hard work.
Speaker 1: And the other thing that is pretty amazing is how
Speaker 1: people have turned out to donate supplies.
Speaker 2: I mean, you've got a lot of supplies. Yeah.
Speaker 3: It was one of the most amazing things that a
Speaker 3: couple of days after the fire, broke out. So I
Speaker 3: think Thursday, whatever the ninth, I was coming into work
Speaker 3: very early and I turned the corner onto Raymond and
Speaker 3: I saw a line of cars and I thought, you know,
Speaker 3: dear God, these are.
Speaker 2: More people who have been evacuated, Like where are we
Speaker 2: going to put all these animals?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: And it was actually people who had read a social
Speaker 3: media post we had put up that we needed four
Speaker 3: types of four things we need to create some bowls
Speaker 3: and blankets and towels, and people kind of just reacted
Speaker 3: to that in such an amazing way that we had
Speaker 3: a line of people waiting to bring us stuff.
Speaker 2: So all of the crates and bulls and.
Speaker 3: Blankets and towels and food and leashes and everything that
Speaker 3: we could possibly need to take care of the animals
Speaker 3: that were in our care and to provide for our
Speaker 3: food bank, which is something that we operate year round,
Speaker 3: giving people food if they can't afford it, if they
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: Put in an effort to keep families together.
Speaker 3: So just that amazing, outpower outpouring of support was incredible.
Speaker 1: And then one other thing that I wanted to chat
Speaker 1: with you really quick about was a options because now,
Speaker 1: like you said, all the animals that were at the
Speaker 1: Human at Pasadena Humane were moved out to make room
Speaker 1: for the displaced animals. But now as we're walking around,
Speaker 1: we're seeing that there are some strays here and some
Speaker 1: cats that are adoptable. But you've had the adoption center closed,
Speaker 1: but that's changing. You're reopening it.
Speaker 2: This whole time, we've also still had to operate.
Speaker 3: Like normals, so we did get you know, non fire
Speaker 3: related stray animals, owner surrender animals. I anticipate that within
Speaker 3: the next day or two we're going to start putting
Speaker 3: the animals that will be available for adoption on the
Speaker 3: adoptable part.
Speaker 2: Of our website.
Speaker 1: Okay, and where's that.
Speaker 2: It's Pasadena Humane dot org.
Speaker 3: If you want to click view Pets, you can kind
Speaker 3: of see the animals that are here.
Speaker 2: If you're still looking for your lost animal at this point,
Speaker 2: there's also a link on the website.
Speaker 3: So please, if you see an animal that you think
Speaker 3: is yours, call us, even if you're not in a
Speaker 3: place where you can reclaim that animal. To know, so
Speaker 3: we don't accidentally adopt out someone's a name, right.
Speaker 1: Because at some point, if nobody comes to claim them,
Speaker 1: they will become adoptable, right.
Speaker 3: And that's the sad kind of reality of just shelters. Yeah,
Speaker 3: a lot of animals they come in like nobody comes
Speaker 3: to get them and for whatever reason, you know, we'll
Speaker 3: never understand it, but we Yeah, our goal is to
Speaker 3: make every animal that comes in here find their their
Speaker 3: happy home. And if it's not with their home that
Speaker 3: they were within a month ago, then that's okay too.
Speaker 1: Yep. And I can tell there's good animal who's a
Speaker 1: good animals here. Like I said, I got my Alex
Speaker 1: here and then one of my best friends just got
Speaker 1: a new kitten and his name is Ozzie and he's
Speaker 1: growing like a weed and we got him here and
Speaker 1: he's a beautiful, beautiful animal. So if you're looking to adopt,
Speaker 1: check out Pasadena you may and is it dot org
Speaker 1: or dot com, dot org, dot org. Kevin McManus, thank
Speaker 1: you and thank you for everything that you and everybody
Speaker 1: at Pasadena.
Speaker 2: And he made the still thank you our pleasure.
Speaker 1: See you made me cry at the very end. I
Speaker 1: made it through the whole interview before I started grining.
Speaker 1: So thanks to Kevin and everybody Pasadena. I mean they
Speaker 1: are doing I mean they're doing God's worth. It's amazing
Speaker 1: what they're doing. And like I said, we got to
Speaker 1: tour around and see all the animals, and if they
Speaker 1: have a name tag on the enclosure or the cage, whatever,
Speaker 1: then that means that they know who it is. They've
Speaker 1: been reunited with their family, and the family just can't
Speaker 1: take them back yet because they, like I said, they
Speaker 1: don't have anywhere to go too, so they've committed that
Speaker 1: they will keep them until the family is ready and
Speaker 1: the crates and the kennels are full. And then there's
Speaker 1: also the ones that need to be adopted. So again
Speaker 1: they're going to reopen adoptions I believe, he said February tenth, officially,
Speaker 1: because they haven't been able to adopt anybody out for
Speaker 1: a month because they've been in emergency mode caring for
Speaker 1: all of these animals. So there's lots of pups and
Speaker 1: kittens and grown dogs and grown cats and beautiful animals
Speaker 1: that would love a new home. As I mentioned, I'm
Speaker 1: going to put that up on my Instagram at Amy K.
Speaker 1: King would love for you to follow me if you're
Speaker 1: so inclined. It's also going to be up at KFI
Speaker 1: AM six point forty. We're still editing the video, but
Speaker 1: it's worth a look. The animals are beautiful, and we
Speaker 1: have some we have. We actually went into the operating
Speaker 1: room and got to see one of the cats who
Speaker 1: was being treated because her little paws were completely burned
Speaker 1: and her ears were burned. But she's doing much much better.