Recently Tyna and I got a chance to visit L.A. Love & Leashes at the Westside Pavilion in Los Angeles. L.A. Love & Leashes is a non-profit “shelter shop.” Dogs and cats from the LA shelters are brought to the store daily, so they can be adopted in a non-threatening (AKA non-shelter) environment. They also sell pet products like food, supplies, treats, etc. All of the proceeds go to the shelters.
I got to hold the adorable little corgi-mix puppy in the pic above right before he was adopted to a gal who was adopting her second pet from L.A. Love & Leashes – how cool is that!
L.A. Love & LeashesAs of today, they have saved 789 lives! Incredible! The staff are wonderful, the place is clean, and they have lots of unique dog and cat supplies for sale. I bought Riley some dried pumpkin and apple pectin for his uneasy tummy, and Tyna got her kitty a new toy. You can go shopping at the mall (buy some makeup!), grab some lunch at the food court, and then go adopt a cat or a dog! 🙂
A note: just because the animals are in the shop doesn’t mean they are necessarily “safe.” The shelters decide which animals go to the store each day, and there are rare occasions when the animals don’t get adopted.
After visiting LA Love & Leashes, I went to one of the local Los Angeles shelters to help my boyfriend’s mom find a new kitty (which she did – a little cutie she named Rex). Although the shelter was clean and efficient, the sheer number of animals in cages is just terrible. Knowing that they won’t all make it to a loving home breaks my heart. I rescued all of my pets and Riley and Miko were both from the North Central LA shelter. If you want to see a list of dogs and cats that are currently available at all LA shelters, click here.
This is why people don’t like going to the shelters (it’s heartbreaking):
Photos from an LA animal shelterI used to volunteer at the North Central LA shelter. I took photos of the cats and dogs to post on Petfinder. It was A LOT of work and it felt nice to be helping, but it was hard to see all the animals who didn’t make it. I went every week, and if a cat or dog was missing, I didn’t ask the employees if the animal was adopted or euthanized. I didn’t want to know. I couldn’t handle it.
L.A. Love & LeashesSo now, I help out with the social media for LA Love & Leashes pro bono because it’s my way of giving back to the animals. Social media is what I do best, and it’s a way for me to help even though my schedule is crazy busy. If you would like to volunteer to help with the social media by finding fun, uplifting animal content for their social media pages, contact me (jen at mybeautybunny dot com). We have set up a dropbox for volunteers to add content in order to keep the pages fun and engaging, and hopefully keep people coming back so more animals can be adopted!
I highly recommend you support and follow LA Love & Leashes on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. You can see all the kitties and doggies who are looking for good homes. If you can donate, they are always in need of donations. There’s rent to pay, animals to feed, and a lot of costs that go into helping save these animals lives. You can also inquire about fostering an animal, or volunteering.
Go by and see all the cuties on display – it’s such a clean, happy place! And maybe you’ll take home your new best friend! 🙂
L.A. Love & Leashes
Westside Pavilion
1st Floor (between Nordstrom and Macy’s)
10800 West Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
310-441-1150
I seriously would not be able to leave that place without a doggie. When we rescued our Pit mix (she died a few years back) she was in a local shelter in the tiniest cage ever, it was horrible. I wish there were more places out there like LA Love & Leashes.
This is a great idea! It is nice for those shelter dogs to get out of those cages and come into a calm environment (at least for a little bit if they don’t get adopted). I have two dogs, both adopted from out local shelter; one is 17 now! Our dogs are literally the best doggies on the planet and people always say “I can’t believe they came from a shelter”! That statement breaks my heart that people don’t believe they can find a good pet at a shelter. But at the same time I am happy that I can change their perception (at least in my little world)!
There was a similar shop in my OC mall that recently had to close because the rent was too high. It was so sad and I hope more of these stores were available.
This is a very pretty cool place to visit !
Ooooo i really want to go when I’m in town!!!!
they have a similar place in cary, nc at the cary towne mall. the pets are rotated …i think every mall should have one….the animals get noticed more….and maybe more adoptions