Santa Clarita resident and actor J. Eddie Peck, known for playing Cole Howard on “The Young and the Restless,” along with members of the communities of Cool, California, and Joplin, Missouri, came together to help animals in need at the Castaic Animal Care Center.
On Monday morning, Cool residents Shari LaRocque and Lorrie Attleberger met Peck and others at the shelter with supplies. Among the items they brought were dog toys, leashes, collars, bowls, bottles, food, brushes, pee pads and elevated Kuranda dog beds.
“What we’re really hoping to do — because we’re the only shelter out here — we want to expand it and make it larger, so we don’t have any euthanizations,” Peck said in an interview at the shelter. “And we want take the stress off Palmdale and Lancaster and maybe the West Valley when they have overflow, and they’re forced into a euthanized program.”
Peck, who was born and raised in Joplin, Missouri, grew up with animals. He said his mother had an animal rescue. When he’d get home from school, he’d have kennels to clean and animals to take care of. As an adult, he’s regularly adopted dogs, and he’s had many pets. When he had his ranch in Agua Dulce, he kept farm animals. He still has cats, a dog and even a pig now.
LaRocque, who also grew up with animals in Joplin, said she had a life-changing moment in 2017 when she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer that pushed her to do more.
“You know, God tells us that when you’re suffering, help others,” LaRocque said in an interview on Monday at the Castaic shelter. “I couldn’t be around people because I was on chemo, and so, through a lady at my church, I found out about fostering, and I took in my first litter of puppies and fell in love. It just really felt like I had a purpose, and it got me through cancer.”
She said she continues her work to help animals.
Peck said he met LaRocque through the media.
“She was an anchor in Joplin for a number of years, and I’m an actor,” Peck said. “I went back a couple of times, Shari had interviewed me there, and we became friends. She now lives in Cool, California, and Shari was thinking — along with some other folks in Cool — ‘What can we do to help these people in Southern California who are affected by the fires?’ Because they’ve had their own fires in that area as well.”
That’s how it started. Then it became a way to help the animals at the shelter.
Peck, having adopted dogs from the Castaic Animal Care Center for 40 years, said he also comes out to the shelter to visit dogs who are in danger of being euthanized — with hopes to help adopt them. He spoke with the center’s manager, Paul Maradiaga, about how he and others could help.
According to Maradiaga, the shelter had an Amazon wish list with items on it that they’d been trying to secure.
“I connected with him, saying, ‘These are some of the items that we need,’ and he (Peck) said, ‘Let me look into this, Paul.’ And then this happened,” Maradiaga said, referring to all the supplies that arrived on Monday.
Peck had gone back to LaRocque with the wish list, and LaRocque went to the residents of Cool, which is northeast of Sacramento. According to Peck, so many people wanted to help.
“Cool is such a canine and equine community,” he said.
In addition to folks purchasing items off the wish list, some people donated money to the shelter.
Lorrie Attleberger, owner of American River Pizza and Grill in Cool, did a spaghetti dinner fundraiser in February. They raised hundreds of dollars toward the cause.
According to LaRocque, people in Joplin also gave.
“Being a former news anchor there,” she said, “I still keep in touch with everybody, and I still have connections at the NBC affiliate. I reached out to them, and then I posted online what we were doing, and some of the reporters picked up on it and just kind of ran with it.”
All parties combined raised around $3,500 on the Amazon wish list, not including cash donations and other items that were still coming in.
Valencia resident Erica Sellers also had a hand in all that’s being done to help the shelter. She said that for the past year, she’s been active in trying to find homes for dogs at the shelter, adding that, since she began, she’s helped save over 50 dogs just by sharing word online about these animals who were close to being euthanized.
“I support this shelter mostly because it’s one thing I can really focus on,” she said on Monday at the shelter. “If I focus here, then I know I can really make a difference. I just network with the community. And I meet the most interesting people in the world, like the guy from ‘The Young and the Restless’ and his wonderful wife.”
Peck and his wife, Sonya Peck, who he gave credit to for helping to save dogs at the shelter, have a goal to regularly come out to the shelter and visit dogs on the urgent list — dogs who are given 72 hours before possible euthanization.
“We come out and we meet each one of those dogs, one-on-one,” Peck said. “So, when I say that I know the dog, I’ve spent some time with the dog. I’ve given the dog my amateur assessment, and I can vouch for that dog.”
After meeting with the dogs, Peck and his wife will then try to find people to adopt them. Six weeks ago, the couple met a dog named Pilgrim that they ended up adopting for themselves.
Pilgrim, Peck said, was very active — even aggressive. Once acclimated at his home, however, he came to be the sweetest, most well-mannered dog he’d had in years.
“It can take three months for a dog to fully decompress,” he said, “and feel as though they can trust the environment and trust the people they are with.”
According to Peck, another way to help save dogs is to make the shelter more inviting. He said he’s helping the shelter recruit more volunteers. The more volunteers they have, the more care the animals receive.
For example, there are only so many volunteers and only so much time in the day to bring dogs out for walks and for playtime. If there isn’t enough help to get the dogs out, Peck said, they remain cooped up and they get restless. More volunteers and more time walking and playing with the animals, he said, makes those animals happier and more adoptable.
Additionally, the shelter is trying to make the place more inviting. Maradiaga said they have a whole host of projects in the works to improve the living conditions, and projects to make the place more visually enticing and welcoming to those looking to adopt.
Maradiaga spoke about landscaping work they’re doing with the Boy Scouts, expanding meet-and-greet areas for the dogs and people looking to adopt, and adding brighter and more pleasing lighting in the place.
Peck said he wants to do all he can to assist with all of that, adding that the recent donations comprise the first of many of these kinds of efforts.
“It’s all the small things,” Peck said. “When a person comes in to adopt a dog, the shelter tries to send them out with some things that they need. A lot of times, it’s food or treats or bedding — things to be able to get them down the road. And they (the shelter) can donate those things to the adopters when they come in.”
The Castaic Animal Care Center has scheduled its “Spring Fling” adoption event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the shelter. According to a release, they’re offering discounted adoptions and giveaways. For more information about the Castaic Animal Care Center, go to bit.ly/4hhvWKT.
