Lassie Could Shop Here : Unusual Thrift Shop Recycles Pet Supplies and Provides Jobs for Handicapped
The age of recycling has gone to the dogs--and cats and birds and horses--at a new Sherman Oaks thrift shop.
The Pet & Equestrian Thrift Store, or PETS, was opened in December to give animal lovers a place to recycle and shop--and the handicapped a place to work.
Helen Donnell, a professional horse trainer in Woodland Hills, said the store is unique locally. “The used market has been very scattered. Some of the feed and tack stores take large items such as saddles, but for some of the smaller horse items, there has never been a centralized used store for it,” she said. Donnell, who has donated a Western costume to the store, tends to buy its smaller items, such as brushes.
The store in the Sherman Oaks Village shopping center carries pet supplies ranging from dog leashes and currycombs to bridles, bits, saddles and bird cages. It also sells new merchandise at wholesale and handmade crafts.
Used pet equipment makes up about 60% of the inventory, with a barely used $600 English saddle, which was donated to the shop, priced at $375. Gently used dog leashes and brushes cost a dollar or two, compared with several dollars new.
The store was set up to give the handicapped employment opportunities. “The disabled and the handicapped relate to animals,” said Brad Wells, who is interviewing handicapped workers to manage the store. “For quite a few years I’d been volunteering my time to Ahead With Horses, the Sun Valley group that works with the handicapped through equine therapy. Those experiences proved to me that being around animals served as a great motivator for the handicapped.”
Last fall, Wells, Devorah Hardberger and Paul Hancock founded a nonprofit public benefit corporation called the Equine Project Inc., and the thrift store is the workshop program that tries to mainstream the disabled into the work force.
“We’ve seen a lot of kids come through the Ahead With Horses program so successfully, and then not have a job to go to,” said Hardberger, who manages the store Sundays. “There are no restrictions on the age or number of ‘handicapable’ staffers we can train in our store.”
Wells, a Burbank engineer who once worked in the aerospace industry, is philosophical about changing careers. “I began to think about the ways I could reach out to the community to give the handicapable some work experience. And the idea of opening a thrift shop involving animals seemed a natural as a place for them to learn retail operations so they could eventually mainstream into regular industry.”
Virginia Terman, who owns the shopping complex, lets the thrift shop use the 900-square-foot space rent-free because she became friends with Wells while he was teaching her son to ride a horse, said Raymond Wong, manager of the Treehouse Club Toy Store that Terman owns in the complex.
Wong, referring to Terman, said: “When she heard of his idea, she thought, ‘Well, why not donate a shop in the complex to do some good rather than letting it sit empty,’ which is never good for a shopping center anyway.”
Wells manages the store with the help of three volunteers, but he eventually expects handicapped workers to manage the store, too. With the addition of new workers, the store hours will expand to include day hours during the week.
“Since we’re totally privately funded, it’s been a slower process than we originally anticipated to get handicapable workers into the shop,” Wells said. “Right now many of the handicapable don’t have the transportation to get to the store. Our volunteer base shrunk considerably once the Gulf War broke out. People seemed to concentrate more on their family and friends than community programs.”
A fair amount of business comes from passersby, and Wells networking in the community has brought many equestrians into the shop, he said.
“Anything with an animal on it can find its way onto our shelves here,” Wells said. The shop also features pet portrait artists, who work on consignment.
And nobody walks away empty-handed after visiting PETS. There’s a basket at the store entrance inviting customers to take a free horseshoe for good luck.
The Pet & Equestrian Thrift Store, 13317 Ventura Blvd. at Fulton Avenue, is open from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. For information, call (818) 986-3541.
