(Nov. 23, 2010) — Trekking up the hill to her house after a long day at school and a rather loud bus ride, the tired look on junior Rita Barsegyan’s face disappears, and lights up with an excited twinkle in her eye. She points over to a lawn and says, “Look! It’s a white cat.” She rummages through her bag to find a cookie left over from the day and feeds it to the cat. Since elementary school, Barsegyan has had a deep attachment and interest in all things animals. She is an aspiring veterinarian and the owner of several pets. Currently, she has three pets whom she calls family: a Giant Schnauzer and two parrots — an African Love Bird and an African Grey. “My mom says that if we get anymore pets, our house will be a zoo,” Barsegyan said. Barsegyan is no stranger to caring for animals — while on vacation in Armenia, she once took in a stray dog that was starving, sick and weak. “I fed him and took care of him every day until it got well. Then he got chubby and left,” Barsegyan said, laughing. Barsegyan says that her experiences with animals, like helping her cat give birth three times and growing up with a Rottweiler, are what make her want to continue to help animals and become a veterinarian in the future. Barsegyan plans on volunteering at a local animal shelter next summer, disappointed that she was previously unable to. Spanish teacher Julie Ann Melville has a deep attachment to animals too, especially with her recently adopted puppy, Sweets. While dining on the patio of a restaurant, she heard the the whining of a dog coming from the back of a car in the parking lot. Upon contacting the owner of the vehicle, she found out that the man had been picking up neglected four-week-old puppies from a backyard breeder in his neighborhood. “I was told that these puppies were getting run over after escaping. Their owner wasn’t leaving them any water or food,” Melville said. In March, she took Sweets in and contacted the SPCA (Society for the Prevention to Cruelty of Animals) in hopes of getting the other animals sent to a shelter. The most recent national survey held in 1997 by the National Council on Pet Population and Study concluded that roughly 64 percent of animals that enter a shelter were euthanized. The Los Angeles Animal Shelter, reported that a total of roughly 19,500 animals were euthanized in 2009. Junior Dillen Maurer currently owns two cats and a dog; both of his cats were rescued from the pound. He chose to adopt his cats from the shelter because it is an affordable and ethical option, saying, “All animals deserve a second chance, and I wanted to give my cats a second chance.”