Animal Abuse Suspects Plead Guilty
Los Angeles – Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles’ (spcaLA) progressive Teaching Love and Compassion (TLC) program began its first program of the year on Tuesday, January 16th at the P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village in Long Beach. Twelve students and two peer leaders from the Cubberley Elementary School in Long Beach are taking part in the four week program.
TLC, developed in 1994, is designed to teach at-risk youth empathy and compassion for animals and fellow humans -- qualities lacking in most violent offenders. By learning and refining anger management techniques and conflict resolution skills, the children learn to work together to improve their life skills, as well as socialize and train shelter animals, making them more adoptable.
The TLC program is being conducted after school from January 16th until February 9th with the graduation set for February 8th. The students will be working with five dogs from spcaLA’s P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village. The students will help train and socialize the dogs with the assistance of spcaLA’s training and humane education staff.
The program coincides with spcaLA’s Stop The Cycle of Violence: The Cure campaign. The campaign includes donated outdoor advertising space with more than 600 billboards, bus shelters and bus tails throughout Southern California and a public service announcement for television broadcast. The focus of the campaign is to raise awareness about the cycle of violence as it relates to children abusing animals.
The P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village is located at 7700 E. Spring St. in Long Beach. The program begins promptly at 3:40 p.m.
About spcaLA
Celebrating 130 years, spcaLA is an independent, nonprofit animal welfare organization serving Southern California. There is no national SPCA, parent organization, or umbrella group that provides financial support to spcaLA. Donations run programs and services including Cruelty Investigation, Disaster Animal Response Team, Humane Education, and a variety of shelter services.
