Los Angeles Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Traci Park often find themselves on the opposite ends of policy proposals in the city, especially when it comes to homelessness.
Park, who represents the 11th City Council District on the Westside, is a vocal advocate for the anti-camping law and RV parking ban, while Hernandez of the 1st City Council District, which includes Pico-Union and MacArthur Park, has been critical of the policies, which, according Hernandez, criminalize homelessness.
But it turns out the two officials, who were both elected in 2022, had one thing in common: their love of animals.
Their passion for animal advocacy along with the overcrowding conditions they witnessed at the city’s shelters motivated them to push for a temporary moratorium on dog breeding permits, Hernandez and Park said.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
The Los Angeles City Council passed the temporary moratorium on dog breeding permits last month in an attempt to address overpopulation at the six city-run animal shelters.
‘We both love animals!’
When LA’s homelessness problems made headlines in the past couple of years, the public may have read or heard about the two council members' opposing views on how to offer housing to the homeless population or whether to ban RVs from parking overnight in certain neighborhoods.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
But Hernandez and Park said, behind the scenes, they learned more about each other and their shared passion for animal advocacy.
“[Park] was bringing in cats for adoption at City Hall, and I was bringing in dogs for adoption at City Hall,” recalled Hernandez. “I'm just grateful that there's another person on the council that cares as much for animals as I do.”
Park said their common bond over animal advocacy made it easy to come together to look for solutions for the city’s crowded animal shelters that are overwhelmed with un-adopted animals with some forced to euthanize healthy dogs.
“When we discussed what could be done to ease the burden on our shelters and find homes for the animals, we easily knew what we needed to do moving forward,” Park said.
‘They refuel me’
Park and Hernandez may be influential decision makers who are faced with heavy and challenging tasks of solving homelessness, but they are no different than other pet parents when asked about their fur babies.
“They are the loves of my life, and they bring me a lot of joy,” said Hernandez, who is a dog mom to three boxers, Ringo Rosie and Coco. “They refuel me because they have endless love.”
Park is also a proud pet owner with two rescue cats.
“Bad Frances loves to chase the feather wand, and Cheddar, my adventure boy, likes to go for walks on his leash,” Park described, saying she chose to adopt because there were countless animals out there in need of loving homes.
Park also said she has been partnering with the LA Animal Service to provide updates on shelter animals to her constituents.
"I initiated an 'Adopt a Pet' feature in my weekly newsletter... with personalized write-ups," said Park whose coastal district has been seeing sick marine mammals and birds in the past year. "Whether it's collaborating with my colleagues in council or groups like the Marine Mammal Care Center, I intend to use my team in office to ensure we get support for the comprehensive protection and well-being of all our animal neighbors."
‘Our animals need partners on this council’
When Hernandez and Park first started the discussion of proposing the breeding moratorium, they were informed about potential opposition from LA residents, some of whom make a living by breeding dogs.
“I understand that everybody's trying to make their way into trying to survive. But what's happening is that we are getting purebred dogs that are being dropped off and surrendered at the shelters or being found in the streets, Hernandez explained. “We cannot keep up with the number of pets coming in with the inflow.”
Under the ordinance, the moratorium would be lifted once shelters are at or below 75% capacity for three consecutive months, and could be automatically reinstated if shelter capacity rises above 75%.
Park, who also acknowledged the ordinance may not be a “silver bullet,” said this would be one of the solutions needed to clear the shelters in the city.
“We need to use every tool we have available to us to bring the shelter population down,” Park said during the April City Council meeting. “Hopefully it’ll stem the inflow of dogs into our shelters and alleviate burnout among shelter staff and some of the suffering experienced by animals in our community.”
Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who seconded the motion, noted during the meeting that the moratorium would also save taxpayers’ money as it has become increasingly costly for housing and even euthanizing un-adopted dogs.
“Get your Labradors, Bulldogs, Corgis from the shelter,” Blumenfield said.
More work to be done to clear the shelters
As Hernandez noted she and Park wanted to “create a barrier to try limit the inflow of animals” with the moratorium on dog breeding permits, the City Council is taking a “multipronged approach” to improve the conditions at the shelters, according to Hernandez.
She said a new plan is in the works to encourage people to foster shelter pets with financial incentives.
“We're putting a report together on figuring out how we can pay stipends to our foster volunteers because they're giving time, they're giving food, they're giving their love,” Hernandez said. “We want to be able to support them in fostering our pets through stipends.
