Annie Harvilicz’s brother came to her in need. While fleeing his Palisades home on Tuesday—one of thousands of structures destroyed by the nearly 20,000-acre Palisades Fire in Los Angeles—he needed to find a place to house his two pets: a cat and bunny.
Harvilicz, an L.A.-based veterinarian, saw this as an opportunity to house animals that were displaced amid the chaos of burning homes and evacuations.
Read more: Home Losses From the LA Fires Hasten ‘An Uninsurable Future’
“We had this unique situation where my veterinary hospital, where I’ve been for 15 years, just moved to a new location that was bigger, and we hadn’t gotten rid of our [old] lease yet,” says Harvilicz, 47. “I looked around, and the vet hospital has exam rooms that are empty, the x-ray room is empty, the pharmacy room is empty. And I was like, ‘All these rooms are empty. We could put animals in all these rooms.’”
Seeing her community in need, Harvilicz, who works at the Animal Wellness Centers in Marina del Rey and Laguna Vista Veterinary Center in Harbor City, shared a Facebook post offering to house any animals seeking shelter at the old Marina del Rey location of her veterinary hospital. The response was substantial.
As of Thursday afternoon, the old veterinary clinic space is a temporary home to 14 dogs, 12 cats, and a rabbit (though she is also in conversations about taking in a tortoise and eight hens). Since the Palisades Fire started Tuesday night, however, her team has housed many other animals that have only needed to stay for a night and have been able to return to their families.
Harvilicz now spends the vast majority of her day sifting through emails and organizing pet drop-offs either at her old clinic, or with other volunteers who have offered temporary housing to pets. More than 170,000 residents in Los Angeles County have faced evacuation orders due to the five fires now burning in Los Angeles County, and many other residents still remain at-risk due to gusty winds, which reached 60 mph speeds on Thursday.
Harvilicz says that while the outside world feels apocalyptic at times, she’s been warmed by the outpouring of support from others in the community. “I thought we would be absolutely inundated, but we haven’t been and I think the reason for that is a lot of we’re actually connecting a lot of people,” she says. “I actually got… substantially more emails, probably like 50 to [every] one, of people calling to help, volunteer, bring food, help animals.”
Harvilicz isn’t the only one taking action. David Dimeno, president of Coachella Valley Horse Rescue, is taking in displaced horses.
Larger animals can be housed at the Lancaster Animal Care Center, Industry Hills Expo, Pomona Fairplex and Antelope Valley Fair. Specific guidelines regarding capacity and the types of animals being taken in have been shared on the Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control site. Smaller animals can be housed at the Agoura Animal Care Center, Baldwin Park Animal Care Center, Carson Animal Care Center, Downey Animal Care Center, Lancaster Animal Care Center, and Palmdale Animal Care Center. Other local shelters may also be housing pets.
Read more: The Conditions That Led to the ‘Unprecedented’ Los Angeles County Fires
Part of the work, Harvilicz says, is informing residents who only have one or two small pets that they can take their pets to hotels or find housing to accommodate their needs. “There are a lot of hotels that are becoming pet friendly. There are a lot of rental units that are accepting pets,” she says. “It’s better for the family and it’s better for the pets.”
While there is no data surrounding the number of animals hurt and displaced by the fires, Harvilicz says that she’s already begun to see a shift in the emails she is receiving from concerned families. “I started to get the first emails from people saying I had to leave my dog. If anybody brings in a dog that looks like this, please let me know, because I hope I can find him again,” she says. “This is probably just the beginning of learning about the animals that didn’t make it out.”
So far, Harvilicz has only had to attend to one animal that exhibited clear injuries from the fire at her job. To better support her efforts and prepare to provide free or low-cost care for the animals impacted by the fires, Harvilicz is asking people to donate to her nonprofit, Animal Wellness Foundation, to offset the costs. She has been running the nonprofit for some 15 years, and the organization regularly provides pet care for low-income families.
While the fires undeniably worry her, Harvilicz feels hopeful about the way the community has been coming together. “It made me feel proud to be an Angeleno,” she says. “I was so impressed with how people were helping each other.”
