Vet opens empty hospital, takes in dozens of displaced pets in wildfire

As the Palisades fire raged across the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles, Annie Harvilicz got a desperate call from her brother. He was fleeing the area with his family and asked if she could take in his cat, Winston, and his bunny, Oreo.

Harvilicz, an L.A.-based veterinarian, said yes right away. She runs two animal hospitals – one in Marina del Rey and another in Harbor City. Her hospitals are not in the zone of the multiple major active California fires, which have so far claimed at least two lives and scorched more than 21,000 acres of land.

In thinking about where to shelter Winston and Oreo, Harvilicz realized she had a perfect spot. Two weeks ago, she had moved her Marina del Rey hospital to a new building just a block away, and she still had access to the old building. When she brought the cat and the bunny there, she got an idea.

“I looked around and was like, ‘There’s going to be other people that need help, and we have all this empty space. Let’s use it,’ ” said Harvilicz.

She put out an offer on social media: “I am happy to house any animals that need to be evacuated. If you know anyone who needs to leave and doesn’t have a place for their pets please have them email me,” she wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday morning.

Requests from pet owners began to trickle in, as she expected. But then something unexpected happened: Harvilicz’s inbox began blowing up with hundreds of people volunteering to help her however they could.

“For every person who needed help, there were 50 people offering to help,” she said. “It brings tears to my eyes.”

She quickly began coordinating pet drop-offs, and also fielding questions from panicked pet owners. She advised people with only one pet to keep their animals with them, if possible.

“That’s what’s better for them and better for their pets,” she said.

So far, about a dozen dogs and 15 cats are sheltering at Harvilicz’s animal hospital. She and her staff are looking after the pets – feeding them, walking them, playing with them – with the help of volunteers and pet owners, some of whom are staying at hotels nearby.

“I think we’re going to get more,” said Harvilicz, who is keeping some of the dogs at her home in the nearby Westchester neighborhood. “There’s no way this is going to be over today.”

Harvilicz’s staff is ready to provide medical care to animals that need it.

“If anyone got any burns or smoke inhalation, we can take care of them,” she said. “Come to us if you need help with your animal.”

In addition to her two animal hospitals, Harvilicz runs a nonprofit called the Animal Wellness Foundation.

“We do rescue work, rehabilitating and rehoming animals. We also help families that are low-income with vet care,” she said.

While taking in stranded animals during the wildfires has been fulfilling, Harvilicz said it has also been heartbreaking.

As word spread about her offer, someone reached out to Harvilicz about nine donkeys that needed to evacuate.

At her Harbor City animal hospital, there’s room for larger animals such as horses and donkeys.

“We do have the space that we could house them temporarily,” she said. “We just need to get them there.”

Harvilicz found someone with a trailer who was willing to pick up the donkeys and drive them to the hospital, but when Harvilicz called the donkey owner to confirm the plan, “she said she already had to leave and she let them all loose,” Harvilicz said, adding that the donkeys’ chance of survival is very slim.

She said she hopes to create a disaster relief program for the next wildfire crisis.

“I’d like to work to never have that happen again,” she said, referring to the donkeys.

A bright spot for Harvilicz has been that the animals in her empty hospital seem to be taking everything in stride.

“The dogs that are friendly with each other are staying in rooms together,” she said. “They’re not all in kennels and cages. They actually are hanging out with each other; they are pretty happy dogs right now.”

Harvilicz said the outpouring of support from animal lovers has helped to keep her going.

“People love animals,” she said. “They’re such amazing beings, and they touch the hearts of so many people. That just comes out so beautifully when there is a time of tragedy.”