It’s Show Time : Program Lets Pets Make Own Adoption Plea

You never know what the guests on this Long Beach cable talk show are going to do. Mimi, for example, used her moment in the spotlight to show the viewing audience her posterior. The little guy who followed her passed up the opportunity to shake his host’s hand, putting his head in it instead and taking a brief nap.

Long Beach’s newest cable television show makes Geraldo and Oprah seem predictably mundane, but these new stars are not looking for fame--just a home. They are a handful of the dogs and cats who wind up at the Long Beach Animal Shelter, and all they want from television is a chance to beat some terrible odds.

Only 1,827 of the 12,831 animals brought to the Willow Street shelter last year were adopted, officials reported. A total of 8,395 were put to death for lack of a home.

Fred Bergendorff learned of the numbers while searching the shelter for a stray cat one day and was astounded. Using his background as a radio marketing director, he conceived “The Pet Place,” a monthly Simmons Cable program that showcases everything from regal cats to lovable mutts from the Long Beach shelter, where anywhere from 10 to 40 unwanted animals are destroyed every day.

“I’ve just had a passion for pets all my life and I wanted to do something,” Bergendorff said during a break in the first taping last week, standing behind his guest stars’ platform with a cup of water, a pack of rawhide chews and a lime green squeaky toy.

He shows off their finer points: “A lot of care and a lot of love--that shouldn’t be too hard to give this little guy.”

He excuses their temporary indiscretions. “This one is going to stop crying just as soon as she gets a good home.”

And he leaves each one of them with a promise: “Yes, it’s been very nice meeting you, and we’re going to find you a nice home.”

“I want to melt people’s hearts,” he said in an interview later. “These pets need love, they need care, they need a home.”

The only thing they don’t need is a script. Off-screen, they are a forgotten batch of numbers in pink or blue collars waiting their turn for the euthanasia list. On-screen, they are a fruit salad of personality--a white puppy with Groucho Marx eyebrows and excruciatingly polite posture, a 2-month-old shepherd prone to car sickness, a sleek brown Doberman mix who plops his chin flat on the table and sizes you up sideways.

Their dressing room is an animal control truck parked behind the studio. Makeup consists of a quick brushing and a blast of Canine No. 5 deodorant.

“This show is a miracle,” shelter director Roger Hatakeyama said. “Every one of the animals we don’t place . . . well, it’s just so terrible. If we can raise the consciousness of the public, it’s going to be great.”

Despite years of work to control the pet population explosion, the problem here and around the country remains at tragic heights, officials said.

Nationally, only 43% of dogs and 26% of cats are either returned to their owners or placed in new homes once they are impounded, according to the American Humane Assn. Some shelters destroy as many as 150 animals a day, said John Gonzales, Long Beach senior animal control officer.

The city-run Long Beach shelter, which also serves Lakewood and Cerritos, holds up to 300 animals and is almost always filled with everything from strays to pets dumped when their owners decide to take a vacation, Gonzales said.

Animal control officers hear an array of creative arguments against spaying or neutering pets, including, “changes his personality,” or “deprives him of a sex life” or “I want him to sire just one litter.”

“I can’t tell you how many times I hear people say they don’t want to spay or neuter their animals because they want their children to experience the miracle of birth,” Gonzales said. “I just want to reach out and shake them and say, ‘Listen, after your child sees the miracle of birth, I want you to bring him in to watch me have to put these animals to sleep.’ ”

A litter can add anywhere from four to nine puppies and kittens to already overcrowded shelters, where the window for adoption is limited.

Under a city ordinance, pets are held in Long Beach for five days to give owners a chance to claim them. They become available for adoption on the sixth day and could be destroyed as early as the seventh, depending on kennel space, Gonzales said.

“Even if people find homes for the litters they breed, that’s nine animals in the shelter who could have used those homes,” animal control officer Wesley Moore said. “We find them left in boxes at supermarkets, abandoned on somebody else’s doorstep--and people say we’re the bad guys.”

The first show, featuring 16 dogs and one kitten, will run for about a month on Channel 3, a Long Beach cable channel. Those animals are available for adoption now, but officers were uncertain how long they would be held.

A new show is to be taped monthly with a different cast of pets, as well as animal health and care tips.

WHEN TO SEE IT

“The Pet Place” airs on Long Beach cable Channel 3 at 2 p.m. Sundays, 10:30 a.m. Mondays, 10 p.m. Tuesdays, 4 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays, 10 p.m. Fridays and 11:30 a.m. Saturdays. Dogs and cats can be adopted at the shelter at 3001 Willow St. at a cost ranging from $30 to $40, plus a refundable $25 spay and neuter fee.