Support Jeff Murrell's Animal Rescue Efforts

UPDATE- Now that the evacuations have lifted in parts of the Palisades Fire Zone, I have begun the return of animals to their homes, and placing feed at locations ahead of their return. In addition to providing support to animals and animal owners, I have been the primary support for Palisades Fire first responders - this includes distributing over 1600 meals per day and all supplies needed to keep firefighters and law enforcement going. I coordinated with Starlink and SpaceX to deliver communications to front lines first responders, as well as solar generators to power communication equipment. I have been working directly with the Disaster Resources Command Post, California Highway Patrol, Army, Army National Guard and the LA County Sheriff, and have official credentials to enter the disaster area.

End UPDATE-

Volunteers helping Los Angeles fire victims need your support!

My name is Jeff Murrell and I’ve had the privilege over the last few days of saving hundreds of animals and property throughout the Topanga Canyon area from becoming victims of the Palisades fire, both with my own heavy machinery, and through my work organizing others.

There were so many animals trapped – either because the owners didn’t have the resources to evacuate the animals on their own or because the owners had been forced to evacuate without the animals. If was incredibly dangerous for the animals and for us as the fires were often already on the properties or very close by. We’ve saved everything from horses, llamas, sheep (and a ram), and pigs to ducks and chickens, cats and dogs and even some fish.

I am deeply grateful that I was able to take time away from my work and deploy my equipment to make a small, but meaningful difference (especially to the animals and their owners) in the absolute devastation caused by the fires across the LA area. It’s haunting to imagine what would have happed to these animals otherwise, especially after watching many of their properties later turn to ash.

The next big push, even as we continue to evacuate animals in response to calls that are coming in faster than we can deal with them, is to build out additional space on my ranch to help provide longer-term storage for animals that are currently housed at large animal shelters. These shelters are too crowded to be more than a short-term solution. The animals will need more space over the longer-term while owners rebuild so I’m planning to add space and capacity on my ranch to help fill this need.

It won’t surprise you that this has been and will continue to be really expensive – from the huge amount of fuel needed to move all the animals around to my lost wages for the time I’ve put in and will continue to put in over the coming days to the additional fencing, water and feed troughs and other supplies needed to help house animals at my place. I hope you will consider doing what you can to support the evacuation of hundreds of animals by helping me cover some of my expenses. Just to be clear, I’m definitely not looking to get anything out of this other than to be able to continue helping the animals and families impacted and still at risk from the ongoing, devastating fires.