Volunteers power efforts to help pets amid L.A. fires

Like most Angelenos, Alex Mestres’ life has been forever changed by the devastating wildfires. While he, his wife, and their pets are safe, his mom’s house was completely destroyed in the Palisades fire.

“I now have many friends or friends of friends that have lost homes,” says Alex. “You really can't put yourself in that person's shoes until it's happened to you.”

Alex, a driver in the entertainment industry, found himself with time on his hands and restlessness in his heart. So the animal lover decided to try volunteering with Best Friends. He signed up online, showed up the next morning, and has been at the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in West L.A. almost every day since.

“It's my home-away-from-home,” he says. “It's given me purpose and a reason to get up in the morning.”

And Alex wasn’t the only person moved by the fires to take action. In just one week, 1,000 people signed up to volunteer with Best Friends. “The volunteer response has been utterly, utterly amazing,” says Brandi Canning, Best Friends national volunteer manager.

Before the fires, volunteers at the pet adoption center were typically busy with tasks like walking dogs and cleaning cat enclosures. But with the threat of evacuation, the staff was focused on moving animals out of the center. However, that didn’t mean there was no work to be done — far from it.

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Alex took it upon himself to clean up the play yard, which was filling up with crates and donations from people across the country. That’s been a big part of the volunteer effort: receiving packages, opening boxes, sorting items, and organizing receipts. At one point, donations were coming faster than volunteers could process them.

“I was just amazed that we tackled all the boxes. And then another delivery came,” says Sophia Lim, a registered nurse who started volunteering with Best Friends during a trip to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in 2009. Since then, she has done everything from cleaning kennels to caring for neonatal kittens to speaking at outreach events.

Many of the donated items went to Best Friends’ pet pantry, a resource for families who have been displaced from their homes. In addition to every pet supply imaginable, the pantry also offers products for people, such as toothpaste, wipes, and air purifiers. Volunteers like Sophia give each visitor a bag or dolly, help them find the essentials they need, and load up their car.

“It’s hard to talk to people who have lost their homes. They feel like they shouldn’t take too much. I always tell them, ‘No, please take what you need,’” says Sophia, noting that wet and dry food for both cats and dogs have been the most in-demand items.

In addition to stocking the pet pantry, the team is delivering supplies to shelters and rescue groups across the region. Fortunately, there are people like Christine Kauffman who don’t mind driving in infamous L.A. traffic.

“I just put on a podcast and don’t drive at rush hour. Plus, you know you’re doing a good thing,” says Christine, who just recently moved from New York to Los Angeles and started her own pet care business. She previously volunteered at a shelter in NYC, and the fires prompted her to get involved in her new community. In addition to making deliveries and helping out at the center, Christine will be driving kittens and supplies to foster homes as needed.

Since the wildfires started, Best Friends has placed nearly 1,000 pets in adoptive homes, in foster homes, at other Best Friends locations, and with rescue partners — and each one of those pets needs paperwork. That’s where data-entry volunteers like Lillie Schlessinger come in.

“The medical team had reached out to me, said they're overwhelmed with paperwork, and asked if there was any way I could help,” says Lillie, whose in-laws lost their home in the Palisades.

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She starts by creating a profile with each pet’s basic information. Then, after pets receive their initial exam, medical staff send their notes to Lillie to enter into the system. This includes crucial details, such as a pet’s microchip number, their vaccination status, and whether they are spayed or neutered. And she does it all from her home computer.

The role is ideal for a detail-oriented person like Lillie, who started volunteering with Best Friends after retiring in 2019. In addition to remote data entry, Lillie has walked dogs, processed adoptions, and tended to newborn kittens in the kitten nursery — whatever is needed to help the animals.

Amid the devastation, catastrophic events like this bring out the best in people. Best Friends has received thousands of calls and emails from those eager to help. Sometimes, the person replying to those messages is on the other side of the country. Volunteer Lisa Zarek of Lutz, Florida, monitors the email and voicemail inbox and responds to all types of inquiries from people interested in fostering, volunteering, adopting, and donating. At the height of the crisis, she was receiving a phone call a minute.

“I feel very good about being able to relieve that burden from the staff,” says Lisa. She’s been supporting Best Friends for two decades and currently volunteers as a virtual mentor for foster caregivers in her retirement.

Despite being 2,500 miles away in Florida, Lisa knows what it feels like when your community is impacted by natural disasters. “People that had to evacuate or lost everything are most worried about their pets. The things that go in the car first are the pets,” she says. “People are their best selves when they have their animals.”

While the outpouring of support has been unprecedented, Best Friends can still use more volunteers, particularly foster caregivers, transport drivers, and greeters at the pet adoption center. Anyone interested in helping out (whether based in L.A. or elsewhere) is asked to complete this form.

Veteran volunteers and first-timers alike are finding solace in giving back during this time of crisis. They say the animals aren’t the only ones who benefit.

“It truly is a two-way street,” says Alex. “Best Friends just being here and opening the door to me has been huge.”

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill in 2025. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.