A classmate and I had an idea to create a petition for landlords in Long Beach to give their tenants a pet deposit based on their income. This is because, one of the main reasons for pet abandonment is housing issues and pets not being allowed in apartment buildings. The pet deposit being based off of the individual tenants income will help for the prices to be fair. This will also benefit the space issues in shelters caused by people surrendering their pets due to their housing issues. Because of space issues in shelters, people may abandon their pets on the side of the road or just put them down. Animals on the side of the road can be run over, or hunted or attacked by bigger predators. This year so far from January 1st to June 16th 3,296 according to Woof state report. According to the APPA has determined that Americans own 95.6 million cats and 83.3 dogs.

If landlords don't allow pets they are missing out on millions of potential renters. The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC) has seen a similar trend. In the first quarter of 2023, 4,971 dogs were admitted into DACC’s seven animal care centers. This is an increase of 1,048 dogs (26.7%) over Q1 in 2022. People might argue that it is okay to not allow pets because shelters can just intake the animals and adopt them out to other people, but most shelters or pounds in LA are struggling with space and that is why a lot of animals get put down.According to KTLA over 3,000 dogs have been euthanized this year in LA due to space issues.

In California there was a bill that did not pass, it was Assembly bill 2216. This bill would have made it illegal for landlords to ban pets, and they would be required to use pet deposits and pet rent. A problem with even passing our bill, is that landlords can still say that pets are not allowed because it is their building and they are renting it out. A zillow search shows that out of 2,514 available rentals in Long Beach at the moment, only 857 allow pets. If someone is not able to obtain one of those 857 they will have to either abandon their pets on the streets, euthanize them, or surrender them to shelters when they might be euthanized there anyway because of space issues.

Please help us in our mission to slow the rates of pet abandonment in Long Beach by having landlords give people an option to pay a pet deposit so their pets can stay in their residence. Your support would help us greatly to pass this bill. Even if this has not happened to you, we hope that this still touches your heart enough to sign our petition.