Nearly 400 dogs got sprung from six Los Angeles Animal Services shelters over the weekend, not for good, but for a few hours of grass, sunshine, and car rides with strangers who wanted to help. By the time the day was done, 23 of those dogs had new families waiting for them, and 37 more were headed into foster homes.
The event, called Adventure Buddies Day, paired volunteers with shelter dogs for outings on September 19, part of a nationwide push organized by Best Friends Animal Society that also touched shelters in Houston, New York City, Salt Lake City, Northwest Arkansas, and the group's headquarters in Kanab, Utah. In Los Angeles, the nonprofit partnered with Los Angeles Animal Services to get volunteers into shelter lobbies and dogs out into the world, according to NBC Los Angeles, whose Karla Rendon reported on the outings.
Brittany Thorn, executive director of Best Friends Animal Society in Los Angeles, described the turnout in simple terms. “Seeing a lobby full of people who took time out of their weekend to come get a shelter dog out just for a couple of hours is amazing,” Thorn said, according to the outlet's report. She added that the event showed Angelenos genuinely care about animals.
A Bull Terrier Named Chico Gets His Afternoon
Among the pairings was volunteer Steven Szydio and Chico, a bull terrier who spent part of his outing pausing on a patch of nearby grass for a drink of water. Szydio said he was excited to meet Chico, take him out of the shelter, show him the world, and make some new friends, per the same account. Multiplied across nearly 400 dogs and their volunteer companions, that was the scene across LA's shelter system for the day.
The numbers matter because of what LA's shelters are up against. The city's six municipal facilities were built to hold roughly 800 dogs total, but populations have swelled past 1,500 in recent years, according to Los Angeles Animal Services. That kind of overcrowding is part of why the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously in April 2024 to freeze new dog breeding licenses until shelter populations drop to 75% of kennel capacity, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Why Day Outings Matter
Day-outing programs give shelter dogs time outside their kennels and a chance to spend time with volunteers. For a few hours, they get a change of scenery and time beyond the shelter.
A Los Angeles Animal Services video posted to Facebook thanked participants after a past weekend event.
The stakes behind these events go beyond kennel counts. LA city shelters recorded a 43% surge in kitten euthanasias, nearly 900 kittens, along with a 2% rise in dog euthanasias during the first half of 2026 compared to the same period the year before, driven by capacity strains, Hoodline reported in coverage of the Woofstock adoption event. In July, the Los Angeles City Council approved a $14 million joint funding initiative, split evenly between the ASPCA and Best Friends Animal Society, aimed at supporting staffing and operations across the city's six shelters.
Leadership at the department has also changed hands this year. The City Council confirmed Gabrielle Amster, former director of Wallis Annenberg PetSpace, as General Manager of Los Angeles Animal Services in May 2026 to oversee the six shelters. The department manages more than 50,000 animals.
