“No-Kill December” Campaign Saves Hundreds of Orphaned Animals

With her spunky personality and pink pajamas, an abandoned pit bull mix named Sky is one of hundreds of orphaned animals that was saved from certain death this month as part of a the city of Los Angeles' "No-Kill December" campaign.

For the first time ever, LA’s six animal shelters have made it through an entire month without having to euthanize any healthy, adoptable animals.

The movement is part of effort to create fully no-kill shelters, but with some 60,000 animals lingering in shelter cages throughout the city, that’s no easy task.

"The owners turn them in for different reasons," said Cmdr. Jan Selder with LA Animal Services. "They have too many; they can’t afford them; they’re moving; their landlord said no; the animal’s too old, too sick, too fat, too skinny. We get every imaginable reason.

"So we have to ask the community: help us out."

If no one claims an animal, shelters would normally euthanize it. For this month, shelters are only putting down animals that are too sick or too dangerous to adopt.

Sky was "scared of everything and everybody" when she first came to the East Valley Animal Shelter, said volunteer Andrew Brown. But "with some work and some patience, she became the friendly dog that you see now," Brown said.

Sky went home with a family on Wednesday. Her new parents said they came to the shelter to look at another dog, "but fell in love with her."

For the next week, Angelenos can adopt a dog from a shelter at a discounted rate of $83, and cats are $50. The animals come spayed or neutered with vaccines and a microchip.

To see photos and get more information about adoptable pups and kittens, click here.