As an Animal Welfare Officer/Animal Control Officer I responded to a call in January for 2 dogs that were left in an apartment for a week with no food or water. The owners were left by ICE agents who detained the owner at the apartment. ICE made no effort to alert animal control services and we were only notified by the property manager about a week later because reports of barking were made by neighbors. These dogs starved for a week because of the negligence of ICE agents who could have just made a 1 minute phone call. This should never have happened and yet this not an isolated incident.

When people are detained or deported, their pets can be left behind with no safe way to get food, water, medical care, or shelter. Local animal-control agencies are already seeing cases connected to deportations. Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control reported that 15 dogs had been relinquished since June 10, 2025 because their owners were deported, and warned that other pets may need help.

Pets should not become collateral damage of immigration enforcement. ICE already coordinates with state and local agencies as part of its enforcement operations, and its detention standards include procedures for handling detainees' property. But the current standards I found do not establish a clear pet-notification and animal-care handoff requirement.

We are calling on ICE to create a mandatory nationwide protocol requiring officers to ask whether a detained or removed person has animals in their care and, when a pet may be left without a responsible caregiver, immediately notify the appropriate local animal-control or animal-welfare agency before removal whenever practicable. The protocol should also provide a way for the owner or their designated contact to identify a safe caregiver.

Sign this petition and demand that ICE put a basic animal-safety safeguard in place: no deportation should leave a pet without a plan for care.