Annie Harvilicz’s brother came to her in need. While fleeing his Palisades home on Tuesday—one of thousands of structures destroyed by the nearly 20,000-acre Palisades Fire in Los Angeles—he needed to find a place to house his two pets: a cat and bunny.
Harvilicz, an L.A.-based veterinarian, saw this as an opportunity to house animals that were displaced amid the chaos of burning homes and evacuations.
Read more: Home Losses From the LA Fires Hasten ‘An Uninsurable Future’
“We had this unique situation where my veterinary hospital, where I’ve been for 15 years, just moved to a new location that was bigger, and we hadn’t gotten rid of our [old] lease yet,” says Harvilicz, 47. “I looked around, and the vet hospital has exam rooms that are empty, the x-ray room is empty, the pharmacy room is empty. And I was like, ‘All these rooms are empty. We could put animals in all these rooms.’”
Seeing her community in need, Harvilicz, who works at the Animal Wellness Centers in Marina del Rey and Laguna Vista Veterinary Center in Harbor City, shared a Facebook post offering to house any animals seeking shelter at the old Marina del Rey location of her veterinary hospital. The response was substantial.
As of Thursday afternoon, the old veterinary clinic space is a temporary home to 14 dogs, 12 cats, and a rabbit (though she is also in conversations about taking in a tortoise and eight hens). Since the Palisades Fire started Tuesday night, however, her team has housed many other animals that have only needed to stay for a night and have been able to return to their families.
Harvilicz now spends the vast majority of her day sifting through emails and organizing pet drop-offs either at her old clinic, or with other volunteers who have offered temporary housing to pets. More than 170,000 residents in Los Angeles County have faced evacuation orders due to the five fires now burning in Los Angeles County, and many other residents still remain at-risk due to…
