Please understand we don’t own a facility that houses animals. We are a non-profit rescue organization. Unlike animal control who’s hired by the city or county, we do not drive around picking up animals. Each and every dog or cat needs to have a plan and a place to go before we rescue it. 

The City of Los Angeles Department of Animal Services estimates that anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 feral and stray dogs and cats roam the streets of Los Angeles at any time. Hope For Paws suggests you use the following steps when finding a stray: 

Find the Owner

The first thing to do when you find a stray animal is to take the animal to your local shelter. Legally, you must take the animal to the shelter for the minimum holding period, or make an attempt to find the owner with flyers, ads, etc. for ten days. The best way for an owner to locate their missing pet is through the shelter system. Even if a dog or cat does not have a collar or appears filthy, someone still could be looking for them. Collars can come off, and many dogs are excellent escape artists and can make their way out of what seems the most secure yard. Moreover, with the new micro-chipping technology, a dog or  cat could very well have a microchip that would be scanned immediately at a Veterinarian's office (they will do it for free) or Public Animal Shelter. 

If you decide you still want to rescue and re-home the animal, you can place “First Rights” on the animal. Every stray turned into a shelter has to be held for five working days to give the owner a chance to reclaim it. After the five-day period, the animal becomes available for adoption. Through the First Rights program, if you show up between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. on the first day the animal is available for adoption, you have the right to adopt him/her.

If you decide against taking the animal to a public shelter, you must put up flyers in the area where you found the dog or cat for at least ten days before you can legally claim ownership of the animal and attempt to re-home him/her. You can also post on Next Door and Facebook as well. 

When placing an ad, be careful to give simple descriptions that do not describe too much about the animal, so that you can determine whether or not any callers really do own the dog or cat in question. For example, a good ad would be: “Found small dog, Vermont and Slauson. Please call xxx-xxx-xxxx”. When someone answers your ad, make sure they can give you an accurate description of the animal. You can ask the caller to produce a photo of the animal, a veterinary reference, or proof of ownership. Ask the owner for the animal’s name and call it out to see if the animal reacts. 

Also be sure to look on Facebook, Craigslist, and flyers posted in your neighborhood to see if anyone is looking for the animal. Your local animal shelter also keeps logs of lost dog and cat calls and you can view these to see if any animals match your animal’s description.

The Animal has No Owner – What’s Next?

Flyers and ads need to be posted immediately. If no one contacts you within a week, take the animal to your local shelter. Upon intake at the shelter be sure to get the animal ID number and the date the animal will be available, should the owner not claim him/her.  

The shelters are open 24 hours a day to take animals in, even though they are open to the public during regular business hours only. Once the animal becomes available, and no owner has claimed the animal, you can then reach out to rescue groups and network him/her on social media sites to try and find the animal a home.

Finding a Home For the Animal 

The first thing to consider before re-homing the animal is what his/her current needs are. The more you know about the animal, the better chance you will have at finding them a forever home. For example: Does he/she need training? Does he/she need medical care? Have they been spayed/neutered/vaccinated? Is it a young dog or a senior dog? Is he/she good with other dogs, cats and children? Is the animal house broken? 

Please be very cautious of where you post the dog for adoption. Craigslist is not advisable. Unfortunately many dogs and cats have ended up in horrendous situations from posting on Craigslist. Most rescue organizations will courtesy post for you on their websites. Facebook, Nextdoor, word of mouth, and attending adoption events are great ways to find the animal a loving home. Keep in mind, it might take several months to find the right home and you must be willing to foster or find a foster in the interim. 

Don’t give up, you are a hero for helping them. 

Under most state and federal laws, animals are considered as property and have little or no legal rights of their own. If you witness an animal being neglected or abused, this is an Animal Control issue and you must contact them immediately, and report the situation. Rescue Organizations can do very little when an animal has a legal owner. However, if animal control confiscates the dog from the owner and takes it to the shelter, a rescue organization or a private party can legally adopt it from the shelter when it becomes available. 

For more information regarding animal neglect and laws please visit these websites: 

Humane Society

Shouse Law Group

In the state of California animals are considered property. Only animal control can confiscate the dog. Please immediately contact animal control to report this incident. However once the dog is in the shelter then you can adopt it yourself or network the dog to a rescue group.

We are located in Southern California. We advise you to reach out to rescue organizations that are in your area so the animal can get rescued immediately. If the rescue is unsuccessful, please contact us and many times we can give you tips or advice over the phone. Traveling to rescue an animal is at the discretion of Eldad Hagar.

Hope For Paws focuses on rescuing stray and abandoned animals in the greater Los Angeles area.  We did accomplish rescues in Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica and in Israel when true emergencies occurred.

Thank you for supporting Hope For Paws. We now allow you to update your monthly donation online. To get started, please enter the email address used to create your subscription in the box below. If your email address does not match with an existing recurring donation, please contact us on this page. After confirming your email address, you'll be able to modify your donation.

Of course! We're honored to have your support. Please send all checks to the address below: 

Hope For Paws

3940 Laurel Canyon Blvd #140

Studio City, CA 91604

We only accept donations by check or through our website. For security purposes, we do not provide donors with any information about our bank account.

If you represent a charitable foundation in the US, please use this form to contact us about alternate ways to process a gift.

Happy Birthday!!! We're honored that you're considering dedicating your birthday to support Hope For Paws and our animal rescue organization. 

Did you know that Facebook has created an amazing movement to use birthdays for good? It's simple and impactful way that you can help us raise awareness for animal rescue. Don’t worry, it’s easy to setup and launch your campaign.

1. Open your Facebook account (or create one here)

2. On your homepage, find the Fundraiser option in the column on the left. Click on the Fundraiser button and then Select Nonprofit. If you don’t see the Hope For Paws, just type this into the box.

3. That’s it...Facebook will walk you through the remaining steps.

Don’t forget to set an achievable fundraising goal. Try starting with $150 or $200. You can always raise the amount based on success.

The best way to donate from out of the country is through our website.  Our secure payment processor will accept both credit and bank cards from the majority of countries in the world. Before making your gift, please ensure that your preferred payment method will allow transactions from the US. 

If you choose to send us a donation by mail, please make sure to convert your money orders to US dollars. Local banks in the US often charge high conversion fees which sometimes exceed the cost of the donation.

For security reasons, our payment processors never send us your credit card information and we do not have the ability to change the amount of your monthly contribution. If you would like to increase the amount of your donation, you will need to create a second monthly gift.

If you would like to decrease the amount of your monthly gift, please use this form to contact us. 

At Hope for Paws, we rely on members for regular and predictable funds, allowing us to respond to emergencies and make commitments to treat every animal that we rescue. To get started, please enter the email address used to create your subscription in the box below. If your email address does not match with an existing recurring donation, please contact us on this page. After confirming your email address, you'll be able to modify your donation.

Hope For Paws uses PayPal and a secure payment processor to complete donations.

When you checkout, you'll have the option to process your gift directly with Hope For Paws or through PayPal. Both processes are secure and we never receive your credit or bank card details.

Thank you for supporting Hope For Paws! A few times a week, Facebook automatically transfers our organization the donations processed through Facebook Payments. Facebook currently covers all financial transactions fees, so we receive 100% of your donation. 

If you opted into sharing your email address with Hope For Paws, you should receive a receipt acknowledging your gift during the first week of the month following your donation. 

If you did not to share your email address with Hope For Paws, you'll only receive a receipt from Facebook Payments. Please refer to this FAQ published by Facebook for additional help. To receive future updates from Hope For Paws, please sign-up for our monthly newsletter which includes stories from our most recent animal rescues in Los Angeles and around the world.

Thank you for supporting Hope For Paws through Facebook. We receive 100% of your donations, but our organization has no control over the processing of the payment. If you have setup a recurring gift through Facebook, any change to the current plan needs to be made through your Facebook account. 

Please review this article in the Facebook Help Center to learn how to edit recurring payments.

Usually when individuals take distributions from their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), it counts as income for tax purposes. An IRA charitable rollover, also called a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD), is an exception. Individuals age 70.5 and older can distribute up to $100,000 each year from their IRAs to their favorite 501(c)(3) without counting the distribution as income.

Please visit this page to be guided through the process of creating the charitable distribution from your retirement account.

Donating stock directly to Hope For Paws can be a tax friendly way to increase your charitable impact, quickly and easily. If you donate appreciated stock directly to Hope For Paws, you do not incur capital gains tax. Your generous stock donation is fully tax deductible and over 20% more valuable than if you'd sold it and then donated the after-tax earnings.

To learn more or to make a donation today, please make your gift with our partner The Giving Block where you'll find all of the information required to transfer stock to Hope For Paws.

We usually ship Lucky Leash orders two to three days per week. The exact day depends on our rescue schedule and varies each week. Once we've packaged your shipment, you'll receive an email notification with tracking information. The leashes are sent through the US Post Office and we've found that the tracking information for a small percentage of packages is not always updated. Generally, these packages are still in transit and will be delivered within 2-5 business days within the US. 

International shipments usually take longer to arrive because the packages must clear customs before continuing to the destination. 

If you have additional questions, please reply to the shipping notification email or the original email you received after placing your order. To research the status of your shipment, please provide us with your order number, name and email address. 

Please don't forget to send us a picture of your dogs with their new Lucky Leash! We love receiving pictures of pets from around the world with their Lucky Leash. 

As a non-profit animal rescue organization, Hope For Paws has a strict policy about not promoting third party goods and services. We strive to actively engage our community and our content focuses on our rescue animals. At this time, we don't promote other goods or services to our supporters.

As a member of our community, you can be assured that Hope For Paws will never sell your personal information to another organization.

At this time, the Hope For Paws channel is not eligible for revenue sharing or adds because a portion of our animal rescue videos use copyrighted music. Based on the existing policy at YouTube, Hope For Paws does not receive any income from ads or revenue sharing on our rescue videos.

Please click here to sign up for our monthly newsletter.

We promise to never sell your personal information to another organization and you can opt-out at anytime. We generally send updates on our rescues every 3-5 weeks. We hope that you find our newsletter to be an inspiring and uplifting part of your day.

Hope For Paws is a small organization located in Los Angeles, California. We do not have branches anywhere else. There are other organizations using our name but we are not affiliated with them in any way.

Hope For Paws encourages students and the next generation to continue our work. Please get involved with your local shelter by volunteering or fostering animals waiting to find their long term home. Most cities and towns have an adoption center where you can volunteer and even take animals for walks in your neighborhood. 

If you're active on social media, this can be a great way to inform your community about animals that need to be adopted. If you're interested in helping Hope For Paws, sharing our rescue videos on social media is the best way that you can help raise awareness of our organization.

We do not have any volunteer opportunities at Hope For Paws. Our team is constantly in the field rescuing stray and unwanted animals. Our rescues situations are unpredictable, the animals are often frightened or injured, we're frequently in dangerous areas and we cannot risk anyone’s safety. For liability reasons we only work with our trained staff. 

We encourage our community to volunteer with local animal rescues and shelters in their area. Shelters and rescues are often inundated with an influx of animals every day. The shelters and rescues need people to clean kennels, to bathe, walk, and help train the animals so they can find a loving forever home. You'll find the experience highly rewarding and gratifying, both as an individual and for a family. Your volunteer work will help an animal get out of the shelter into its forever home.