Archbishop of Los Angeles José Gomez celebrated Holy Saturday with a blessing of the animals on Olvera Street. The blessing has been a tradition on Olvera Street since its founding in 1930, when priests would bless cows, horses and goats at La Placita Church “to help ensure health, fecundity and productivity.” The line for animal blessings began at 1 p.m. in front of Pico House on Main Street.
Ray Garcia of East Los Angeles brings Wicket for a blessing by Archbishop José Gomez.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Joshua Cueto waits for Peanut, his cockatiel, to be blessed.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Archbishop Gomez leads the blessing of the animals.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Kiwi Montana, a bichon on hind legs, waits for treats while in line for a blessing.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Cecilia Garcia brings the ashes of her dog Cachita to be blessed.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Archbishop Gomez blessed people too during the event.
When Victory Outreach Church in Pomona went up in flames early Sunday morning, incinerating the church building along with more than 500 toys set to be given away later in the day , it didn’t take long for the spirit of Christmas to sweep through the community.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department sent 100 firefighters to fight the blaze and then to knock down walls, stamping out hot spots. But before the smoke had even cleared, fire officials hatched a plan to send two Search and Rescue trucks loaded with toys to the disaster site later in the day.
A Los Angeles County fighter pump responded to a fire at Victory Outreach Church in Pomona. The church was in the process of setting up to give food and gifts to families later in the day.
(Onscene.TV)
And after news of the disaster spread, all morning long, members of the community converged on the site with donated toys.
“We have to help save Christmas for this congregation,” said L.A. County Fire Captain Sheila Kelliher-Burkoh. “We know the building isn’t the church. The church is in the hearts of these people and we’re here to help.”
The blaze ignited a little after 2 a.m., burning so fiercely in the building’s attic that firefighters had to retreat. No one was injured, but when the flames were finally out, the building was gone, along with 500 toys the congregation had painstakingly collected for children in need. “That is the horrible timing of this one,” Kelliher-Burkoh said.
Officials at the L.A. County Fire department quickly decided they could help. The department, in conjunction with ABC7-TV, collects toys all season for the needy, storing them in a giant warehouse in Vernon before distributing them. As firefighters sent giant machines through the smoldering site to make it safe, officials back at headquarters made plans to dispatch two trucks’ worth of toys to the church by 5 p.m.
“We’re still going to do what we intended to do,” said Jose Montiel, a congregant who, along with his wife, Lourdes, helped organize the toy drive and signed up more than 600 needy families.
Victory Outreach Church members Chuck Ortega, left, and Mario Munoz gather toys Sunday for a giveaway later in the afternoon. Toys that originally were gathered for the giveaway burned in a fire that began around 2 a.m. Sunday, destroying the structure built in 1981.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Meanwhile, all across Pomona and beyond, members of the community heard about the disaster and rushed to Victory Outreach to save the holiday for the church’s children.
Around 11 a.m., Steve Ybarra arrived at the scene of the disaster with a pickup truck stuffed with presents. Ybarra is a pastor of the nearby Abundant Living Family Church. His congregation held their toy drive a day earlier, he said, and had some leftover gifts. When he heard about the fire, he said, “it broke my heart.”
A few minutes later, another woman from the neighborhood, Carole Glass, walked up holding a toy to contribute — a stuffed dragon. “It’s more important to give to someone who really needs it,” she said.
Behind them stood the ruined church. At the spot where the door used to be, one element had survived: A small Christmas tree in a golden pot that somehow escaped the flames.
Victory Outreach Church in Pomona erupted in flames around 2 a.m. Sunday, resulting in a total loss of the structure built in 1981.
Ninja poked his head out from under his shell and nibbled away at food scraps next to a podium at the Los Angeles Zoo as Chief Executive and Director Denise Verret made a landmark announcement.
The radiated tortoise, who was confiscated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service alongside dozens of other critically endangered, trafficked reptiles and brought to the zoo in 1998, is now “thriving and healthy,” Verret said.
Ninja is one of 50 animals at the Los Angeles Zoo that were placed there after being confiscated — a success story that officials hope will be replicated by the first-of-its-kind program announced Friday: the Southern California Wildlife Confiscations Network.
A tomistoma, a freshwater crocodilian confiscated in 1998 as a hatchling, is shown at the Los Angeles Zoo.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums aims to simplify the placement of confiscated animals by having a regional point of contact for wildlife enforcement officers to find trusted animal care facilities. The logistics of finding placement for a confiscated animal can be a challenge for federal wildlife officers, who must also juggle the trafficking investigation.
In the past, wildlife enforcement agents have had to rely on informal contacts and relationships with local zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries and wildlife rescues.
Under the wildlife confiscations network, a pilot program that officials plan to replicate nationwide beginning next year, a newly established confiscations coordinator will note the specific housing needs of the species involved and refer to a list of “fully vetted and permitted professional animal care facilities in the region to determine which can meet the case needs.”
Matthew Martin, assistant special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the partnership will help authorities “free up time and follow up on investigative leads while they’re still fresh.”
Colonel, a scarlet macaw, was confiscated at Los Angeles International Airport in 2014 and brought to the Los Angeles Zoo.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Wildlife trafficking is often thought of as something that happens in “far away places like Africa, Asia or Australia,” said Dan Ashe, president of the Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums, “but it’s very much an American problem as well.”
Southern California is an epicenter for the trafficking of wild animals, often smuggled for the illegal pet trade and regularly moved through ports of entry, he said.
For at least the last decade, Martin said, U.S. native turtles have been exported overseas.
At the southern border, he said, the Fish and Wildlife Service has intercepted a lot of trafficked sea cucumbers and swim bladders from totoaba fish, an endangered species since 1979.
Star, a Bali myna, was one of eight survivors from 93 birds confiscated in 2017 and brought to the Los Angeles Zoo.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
At ports of entry or exit such as Los Angeles International Airport or a U.S. Postal Service facility, Fish and Wildlife officials search incoming shipments of permitted live animals to ensure there isn’t any activity of illegal trade. Inspectors check labels and open boxes, and if the shipment matches its documentation, it is sealed up and ready to be transported to its destination. For extra assurance, a trained K-9 is also on scene to sniff out any smuggled animals.
In 2022, Fish and Wildlife special agents and the service’s law enforcement partners investigated more than 10,000 wildlife trafficking cases and collected more than $11 million in criminal penalties.
“Illegal wildlife trafficking, whether driven by profit or personal gain, has devastating consequences for our environment and biodiversity,” said Verret of the Los Angeles Zoo.
The global issue puts countless species on the brink of extinction and affects entire ecosystems, she said, and officials are hopeful that the Southern California Wildlife Confiscations Network will help them focus on stamping out the illegal trade.
From 2015 to 2019, the Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums noted, federal authorities had 834 cases of live wildlife that was refused clearance, including 48,793 individual animals and plants that required placement. Los Angeles led the nation in number of cases, with 177.
