Celebrating One Year with Dr. Elizabeth Olken — and the Work She has done on Her Days Off
It has been one year since Dr. Elizabeth Olken joined the team at La Cumbre Animal Hospital, and we couldn't be more grateful to have her. In twelve months she's become a steady, familiar presence in our exam rooms — she sees patients five days a week, more than any other doctor on our staff, because she believes continuity of care matters. If you've brought your pet in recently, chances are good you've met her.
But there's a part of Dr. Olken's veterinary life that happens about 100 miles south of Santa Barbara and we wanted to use this anniversary as an excuse to tell you about it.
Four Saturdays a Year on Skid Row
Since 2023, Dr. Olken has served as Lead Veterinarian for the Pet's Landing clinic in the Skid Row neighborhood of Los Angeles — a free veterinary clinic for people experiencing homelessness and their companion animals.
The clinic is a genuine collaboration. It's operated primarily through The People Concern's k9 Connection program, in partnership with the Street Dog Coalition, which funds the veterinary effort and supplies the vaccines, medications, and equipment. Alongside the veterinary care, the larger clinic day also offers human health care and legal advocacy to the community — everything in one place, on one Saturday.
Those Saturdays come around four times a year: March, June, September, and December. At each one, the team typically serves 100 to 120 people and 150 to 200+ animals.
How She Got Here
Dr. Olken first got involved with the Street Dog Coalition as a veterinary student in Fort Collins, Colorado — which happens to be the city where the organization was founded. What began as a local student volunteer effort has since grown into a national network of clinics serving unhoused pet owners across the country, and Dr. Olken has carried that commitment with her ever since.
What Happens at a Clinic Day
The pace is fast, and the philosophy is simple: help as many as possible, without judgment.
- Preventative care comes first — vaccines, deworming, and flea and tick prevention are the backbone of every clinic.
- Medical concerns are addressed where possible, with a limited formulary of oral and injectable medications.
- Everyone is welcome. Most attendees hear about the clinic through flyers posted in the neighborhood or from their case workers.
- Care can open doors. Many attendees are working toward qualifying for housing — specifically, housing that allows them to keep their animals. The People Concern is somewhat unusual among Los Angeles organizations in how hard it works to keep people and their pets together, and a current vaccine record can be part of what makes that possible.
That last point is worth sitting with. For a lot of the people who come through the Pet's Landing clinic, their dog or cat is the most important relationship in their life. Keeping that animal healthy isn't a side concern — it's tied directly to whether they can accept a housing placement at all.
See It for Yourself
The clinic works with volunteer photographers and videographers who capture the day far better than any of us could describe it. Here's a short video from a past clinic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddpLXdofSwE
Thank You, Dr. Olken
The same qualities our clients see in Dr. Olken here in Santa Barbara — her patience, her thoroughness, her insistence on meeting every animal and every person where they are — are the qualities that make her so effective on Skid Row. We're lucky to have her, and so are the 200-odd patients who see her four Saturdays a year.
Happy one-year anniversary, Dr. Olken. Here's to many more!