Where Is Animal Control?

IT’S A DIFFERENT WORLD FOR HOMELESS CAMP DOGS

There is a hidden world in Sacramento, off the grid and unknown to most. Dogs in small cages or padlocked to trees and poles. Chains tangled with little room to move. Many without food, water or shelter.

These are the dogs of homeless camps.

“You know those commercials on TV?” Debbie Tillotson says. She’s talking about the heart-wrenching public service ads that expose the underworld of animal abuse. “You can easily insert Sacramento. This is your backyard, it’s the same thing.”

For the past year, Tillotson and Linda Massaro have visited the American River Parkway near Highway 160 every day to take food, water and supplies to homeless camp dogs.

Tillotson and Massaro began volunteering 14 years ago at Mercer Clinic, held monthly at Loaves & Fishes, where the unhoused receive free medical services for pets. The clinic shut down when the pandemic hit.

“The reason we ended up down at the river was because when COVID came, they stopped having the clinics,” Tillotson says. “But we knew there had to be animals that needed help.

“We had no idea what we were walking into.”

Tillotson and Massaro have helped nearly 40 dogs in more than eight homeless camps. The duo purchase food and supplies with their own money. In the summer, they take water. “Bowls too,” Tillotson says. “A lot of these people don’t have anything down there for the animals.”

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Massaro, who works in West Sacramento, goes to the river on her lunch break. Tillotson works nights in Rocklin and visits dogs earlier in the day.

“People have a misconception of how well the dogs are taken care of,” Tillotson says. “The standard MO is, ‘I feed my dog before I feed myself.’ That is the biggest line of crap I’ve ever heard.

“They don’t feed them. They don’t give them water. They keep them on heavy chains.”

Tillotson and Massaro have left bags of food that have gone unopened. Now they stay to feed the dogs to ensure they get nourishment. “They are starving, ravenous,” Tillotson says.

To get dogs out of dirt and rain, Tillotson and Massaro build small houses using PVC pipe wrapped in a tarp. Heavy cardboard and commercial-grade garbage bags provide a water-proof floor, topped with straw so the dogs can dig in and stay warm. Each house costs $100.

“We have gone out in the middle of the night with pouring down, freezing rain to build structures for the dogs because they won’t let them in the tent,” Tillotson says. “The next day, one homeless man said, ‘At least they didn’t cry all night.’ Why are they crying? Because they’re soaking wet, freezing their asses off in the middle of nowhere, no protection, nothing.”

Tillotson talks about a young pit bull mix chained to a tree with two padlocks. “The chain was extremely heavy,” she says. “No water, no food. I tried to get him loose but couldn’t. Where is animal control?”

Earlier this year, Tillotson and Massaro shared their stories with the City Council’s Animal Care Citizens Advisory Committee.

They gave examples of chronic dog abusers who take mother dogs and their puppies from other homeless camps to sell or trade for drugs and alcohol. Before one set of puppies was taken, Tillotson and Massaro got the animals their first set of shots and put them on a spay/neuter list. “Now, guess what? These puppies are going to die because they’re not going to get their second shots,” Tillotson said. Massaro told the committee the mother dog now lives in a small cage. None of the dogs are being fed.