When the fires tore through Los Angeles in January 2025, thousands of animals were displaced, separated from their families, and funneled into shelters that were never built to handle a crisis of that scale. Nearly 1,000 animals came through the Pasadena Humane Society alone. Rescue organizations scrambled. Shelters filled overnight. Animals that survived the fires didn't survive the shelters.

This cannot keep happening.

But the crisis didn't start with the fires. In just the first nine months of 2024, LA County shelters euthanized 1,244 dogs and 1,517 cats — a 72% increase in dog euthanasia compared to the year before, according to a KTLA audit. Officials declared the situation "critical," warning that healthy, adoptable pets were dying simply due to lack of space. Not because they were suffering. Not because they were dangerous. Because the system had no room for them.

This is happening in one of the wealthiest, most animal-loving cities in the world.

Other cities have proven there is a better way. Austin, Texas achieved No-Kill status in 2011 — defined as saving 90% or more of all shelter animals — and has maintained it for over a decade. The difference was not resources. It was commitment. Austin invested in foster networks, community outreach, and transparent accountability systems. The results speak for themselves.

Los Angeles can do the same. But only if the LA County Board of Supervisors commits to it now — before the next wildfire season, before the next surge, before another 1,000 animals cycle through an overwhelmed system with no plan to save them.

My name is Shaileen Sorenson. I'm an LA-based actor and animal welfare activist, and I'm calling on the LA County Board of Supervisors to commit to No-Kill status across all county-operated animal shelters by 2028.

Here is what that commitment must include:

Expand and fund community foster networks. During the 2025 fires, organizations like Wags & Walks and Best Friends Animal Society stepped in to relocate animals and free up critical shelter space. This cannot be voluntary emergency response — it must be a funded, permanent infrastructure. LA County must formally partner with and financially support foster networks year-round, not just in crisis.

Require real-time public posting of all at-risk animals. Every animal facing euthanasia must be posted publicly online before any action is taken. Families searching for lost pets and adopters ready to save a life cannot help if they don't know the animal is there. Transparency is the simplest tool we have and we are not using it.

Fund countywide low-cost spay and neuter programs. Overpopulation is the root cause of shelter overcrowding. Preventing animals from entering the system is cheaper, more humane, and more effective than managing the crisis after the fact.

Build a disaster animal response protocol. The 2025 fires exposed that LA County had no coordinated system for sheltering, tracking, and reuniting displaced animals during a major disaster. That plan must exist and must be tested before the next emergency — not written during one.

Publish monthly public transparency reports. Every county-operated shelter must publicly report monthly intake numbers, live release rates, and euthanasia numbers. You cannot fix what you do not measure, and the public deserves to know what is happening in facilities funded by their taxes.

The 2025 fires showed us what happens when a system built at minimum capacity meets a maximum crisis. Animals paid for it with their lives. The solution is not to wait for the next disaster and respond better. The solution is to build a system that does not require a crisis to reveal its failures.

No healthy animal in Los Angeles should die because there was no room. No family should lose a pet in a disaster because no one had a plan. And no city that calls itself a leader should accept a 72% rise in euthanasia as normal.

Sign this petition and demand that the LA County Board of Supervisors commit to No-Kill status by 2028.

— Shaileen Sorenson, Los Angeles