Scandal at Los Angeles Animal Shelter

LA Animal Services is the subject of an internal investigation surrounding missing animals. At first, it sounds like employees may have been taking them, but volunteers had access too....

Excerpt from CityWatch...

Brenda Barnette, General Manager of the Animal Services Department, said 64 animals have disappeared from six shelters in roughly a year,” Zanhiser reports. “Of that total, 39 were housed at the city's North Central shelter on Lacy Street — a missing rate considered unusually high.”

“They were the young ones, the cute ones,” Barnette said. "They were ones that would have been likely to have been sold or be a nice gift for someone." The majority of the unaccounted-for animals were dogs, Barnette said.”

At a recent Encino Neighborhood Council meeting Ms. Barnette announced that her LA Animal Services staff has a “few bad apples”—not exactly the public description you expect from a City manager. This week she disclosed that she went to Mayor Villaraigosa and LAPD, plus Human Resources to ask them to help sniff out what happened to 64 animals—mostly dogs—missing from over 68,000 impounded this year at six city shelters.

Ms. Barnette apparently failed to mention that early this year she personally ordered that volunteers are to have keys to the kennels to remove animals at any time. The type of key she made available is reportedly the universal key that provides access to all city facilities and is not marked “Do Not Duplicate.” She also reportedly did not set up a standard procedure for monitoring the issuance and use of the keys.

Sign ALDF Petition to Help Kentucky's Homeless Animals

Sounds like it's hell for these animals in Kentucky shelters. The State used to provide oversight, but in 2004, they abrogated responsibility to the counties. According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, things are not going well.

Please sign the petition to help them.

When Is a Dog Unadoptable?

I rejoined my local animal shelter's volunteer program a few months ago (long story as to why I quit in the first place). One day while I was volunteering I met a little pit bull puppy who was recovering from a spaying. Very sweet and gentle animal (I have a soft spot for pits....and pugs!)

The puppy seemed too thin to me so I asked about her story. Apparently, she, her mother and seven siblings had been confiscated from a crack house. Someone had called in an animal cruelty report. All eight of the puppies were in foster care. When I asked about the mom, I was told that she was put down because she was food aggressive and, therefore, "unadoptable." The tone of the answer implied that I'd better not argue it, so I didn't. But the answer just didn't sit well with me and I keep thinking about it.

I had a couple of dogs when I was a kid, but I mostly grew up with cats. I have a lot of patience with cats. I don't believe that any cat is unadoptable, even feral cats. I believe that a feral may never be a lap cat and they may never even let you pet them. But you can earn their friendship and companionship. To me, that means a lot. They deserve life, even if it's on their own terms. (There are also many "feral" and "food-aggressive" personality types in humans, but we don't put them down.)

But I'm no dog expert. I'd like to hear what others think. Is this a legitimate reason to put a dog down or is this just BS? Are food-aggressive dogs dangerous or is that just a convenient myth?

California Budget Woes May Lead to More Shelter Deaths

This sucks. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's new budget is calling for the euthanization of animals after only three days. Currently, it takes six days before they can be euthanized.

I understand that budgets are an issue, but, again, these are lives we are talking about. It's not the animals' fault that they have found themselves in this situation. It's the constant and conscious culture of killing animals in this society that I absolutely hate.

Thanks to LA Unleashed for the story.

Vile Practices at Tulare County, CA Animal Shelter

I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and am familiar with Tulare County. That's why this action alert from the Animal Legal Defense Fund strikes a cord with me.

From the ALDF blog....

Arrested in June 2007, Michael J. Sargeant, William R. Harmon, and Ron C. Cookson were accused of participating in an “off the books” arrangement wherein Harmon and Cookson carried out unauthorized mass euthanasias at the Tulare County, California shelter – reportedly using nonstandard and painful methods – by falsifying records to cover their actions.

Sargeant, doing business as Sargeant’s Wholesale Biologicals, buys carcasses from animal shelters and sells them to research facilities such as UC Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine. According to an investigative report by the Sheriff’s Office, Sargeant admitted that he had not had an official contract with Tulare County Animal Control since 2002 and that contract had allowed him to take only feline carcasses, yet he had continued to acquire dog and cat carcasses frequently from the shelter whenever Harmon called to tell him that euthanized animals were ready for pick up. The report further stated that Sargeant’s company purchased $1000 worth of gift certificates to a fancy restaurant and gave them to Harmon in 2005. He used a company check to purchase another $1,000 gift certificate, which he gave to Harmon in 2006.

Michael Sargeant was originally charged with two felony bribery charges, but on May 13, 2009, he pled no contest to one misdemeanor count of engaging in anti-competitive practices. He was sentenced to two days in jail (already served), three years of formal probation and a $150 fine. That's all.

ALDF is asking that you send a letter to the USDA asking that Sargeant's Class B license-which allows him to round up dogs and cats from animal shelters, auctions, private individuals and other "random sources," and then sell them for experimentation-be revoked.

Shelter Strays Used as Lab Animals

I thought it was an urban myth that animal shelters would actually turn over unwanted animals to laboratories for research, but apparently not.

Montcalm County has taken a step towards ending its relationship with an animal research facility.

The county has a contract with R&R Research in Howard City to euthanize the county's unwanted animals. In return, the company can use some of the unwanted dogs for animal research.

The animal shelter committee voted to end the contract, but it goes before the County commissioners in April.

King County Animal Shelters Still in Trouble

After all the brewhaha about improving the conditions at the King County animal shelters in Washington State (where we live), I'm still seeing this kind of stuff.

A group of veterinarians that volunteered this year to treat sick animals at King County's two animal shelters has quit, citing a lack of accountability and a reluctance from shelter staff to fix a broken system.

In a searing letter to the county last month, one veterinarian stated that "pervasive negativity" and an unwillingness to change led the vets to stop offering their services at the Kent and Bellevue shelters.....

The vet setback is the latest for King County Animal Care and Control, which has come under fire in the past year for running understaffed, overcapacity shelters with high euthanasia rates.

Two reports, one from a citizens committee in 2007 and a follow-up from a group of veterinarians at the University of California, Davis, called conditions at the Kent shelter deplorable, and pointed to poor sanitation, outbreaks of canine parvovirus and feline upper-respiratory infections, failure to vaccinate some animals and no place to isolate sick dogs.

When is King County going to clean up its act? What is up with this "progressive" county government?

Top 10 Reasons Dogs and Cats Are Left At Shelters

Thanks to the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy for these two lists.

First, top ten reasons dogs are left at shelters.

1. Moving
2. Landlord issues
3. Cost of pet maintenance
4. No time for pet
5. Inadequate facilities
6. Too many pets in home
7. Pet illness (es)
8. Personal problems
9. Biting
10. No homes for littermates

Next, top ten reasons cats are left at shelters.

1. Too many in house
2. Allergies
3. Moving
4. Cost of pet maintenance
5. Landlord issues
6. No homes for littermates
7. House soiling
8. Personal problems
9. Inadequate facilities
10. Doesn't get along with other pets

King County, WA Shelter Accused of Neglect

We live in Seattle which is part of King County, WA. For a long time, we've been aware of the rumors that King County animal shelters were poorly run. A very sad testimonial for 1) a pretty rich county and 2) a progressive County Executive named Ron Sims. Well, since September 2007, actual reports are showing that the rumors are quite true. And the King County Council needs to enact some change.

In September 2007, a citizens advisory committee thoroughly reviewed the county's animal shelter program. (Thanks to Councilmember Julia Patterson who spearheaded this effort.) They said that conditions were "deplorable," pointing to poor sanitation, outbreaks of canine parvovirus and feline upper-respiratory infections, a veterinary staff too small to do its job well, failure to vaccinate some animals and no place to isolate sick dogs.

An outside consultant's report was issued this past week. It gets worse!

Cats and dogs are locked in filthy cages without food or water in King County animal shelters, and nothing short of a thorough overhaul of the county's apathetic animal-control operation can turn it into the model program the County Council wants it to be, a consultant told the council Monday.

Other findings....

• Logs in the cat infirmary and other areas wrongly indicated that cages had been cleaned and animals had been given food and water.

• Some cats have been cleared for adoption but haven't been moved into a room where people interested in adopting can find them. One-third of the cages in the cat-adoption room were empty.

• Not all animals coming into the shelter are being vaccinated against diseases common in kennels.

• Disease rates are high, and deaths in kennels "have skyrocketed."

• Two dogs impounded last August as part of an animal-cruelty investigation are still being held as evidence — "even though there's no case pending."

• Five managers, most without shelter backgrounds, have run animal programs in the last seven years. The previous manager, Walt Washington, was sometimes pulled off the job to help with election operations.

The consultant is Nathan Winograd, a former operations director at the San Francisco SPCA and a national advocate for reducing animal euthanasia.

Here's another article about the mess. And here's the consultant's Powerpoint presentation.

Photo by nanadebmomstretch.