The Dog Whisperer: Cesar Millan, SPARC featured in television news program
June 05, 2013
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Pound dogs are wonderful dogs to take home, and Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center has plenty of dogs - and cats also! - that want to be someone’s “furever” friend.
And to help with that quest, famed “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan, accompanied by Mar Yvette of Fox 11 News Los Angeles, visited SPARC in recent weeks to address various aspects of animal ownership as well as to highlight SPARC.
In honor of May’s National Pet Month, Millan visited SPARC and gave televised advice on how to select the perfect pet for the owner’s lifestyle, the importance of training for a newly adopted pet, how to react to various animal situations, and how to be a responsible pet owner. Millan selected SPARC as a Cesar Millan “Shelter Star” recipient due to its status as the first and only open-admission no-kill shelter in Ventura County, providing a model for other shelters, rescues and adoption programs throughout Southern California.
Jeanne Marie Webster, a SPARC co-founder, said that such wide publicity for SPARC is always good, “but more important, it sends a message that pound dogs are great dogs, and we have a potpourri of dogs and cats” ready for adoption.
Santa Paula Police Det. Ken Clark and his girlfriend have been pet shopping at SPARC: “We’re looking at dogs,” he noted, and although several smaller varieties were frolicking in a nearby pen, Clark said, “I think my girlfriend wants a bigger one.”
Millan was demonstrating how to approach a dog, or rather how to let a dog approach you on its own terms, the access method the first step in evaluating the animal. When meeting a new dog, making eye contact and speaking are to be avoided. “Don’t touch the dog, let the dog approach you,” said Millan, who noted the dog’s barks were more curiosity than threatening.
As Millan filmed a segment for the morning news program, Interim Police Chief Ishmael Cordero said SPARC has proven its commitment, and “really has been paying attention to their goals and mission,” but Webster said if it was not for the fact Santa Paula is a “progressive city,” the no-kill shelter would not have opened a year ago.
Millan said he has visited Santa Paula “many times... I come for Mexican food” at Familia Diaz. And Santa Paula, he added, “should be very proud... it’s a small town with big thinking” when it came to advocating and creating a no-kill shelter.
Millan said the City of Los Angeles is “a big town with small thinking... the no-kill shelter is a rare breed now” that should be embraced by larger and all cities. With millions of animals euthanized each year worldwide, Santa Paula, said Millan, has definitely proven “it’s the leader of the pack” of animal advocacy, amid the social model of being a “disposal society” no longer naturally wired to commit to many things, including caring for its pets.
One of Millan’s favorite quotes is Gandhi’s, “’The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.’ We are not acting accordingly.”
Millan suggested that a famed quote of JFK be reworded: “Ask not what your dog will do for you, but what you will do for your dog,” the first step to a successful relationship. “Too many people look at the wants, what they want, but,” he noted, “they don’t see the needs of the dog” on the canine’s level.
Millan grew up working with animals on his grandfather’s Sinaloa, Mexico farm and his natural way with dogs earned him the nickname el Perrero, “the dog boy.” His television series “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan” is now in its ninth season, and he has authored bestselling books, has a foundation and established the Dog Psychology Center. Surrounded by dogs while talking to SPARC staff and visitors, Millan noted, “I am living my dream.”
For more information on Millan and his work, visit: www.millanfoundation.org or www.cesarsway.com. For more information on the Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center visit www.sparcsaveslives.org.
Are you ready to meet your new pet, volunteer or make a donation? Visit SPARC, 705 E. Santa Barbara St., or call 805-525-8609.
