How To Help Save Lives by Ed Boks

Everyday people ask me how they can help LA Animal Services achieve its No-Kill Goal. The key to achieving this goal is funding life saving programs, programs we may not be able to afford through our budget. Animal Services has many life saving programs and giving opportunities. And now, making a donation to one of our life saving programs has never been easier.

TO MAKE A DONATION all you have to do is click Here

The two main funds that LA Animal Services accepts donations through. They are:

The Animal Welfare Trust Fund
The Animal Sterilization Trust Fund

Funds may also be donated for specific programs and services and shelter operations.

LA Animal Services has developed and will continue to develop programs designed to reduce LA’s euthanasia rate as we increase our live animal placement rate through adoptions, our New Hope program, returning lost pets to their frantic owners, and by humanely reducing feral cat populations in our neighborhoods.

If you would like to help join Animal Services war on pet euthanasia, please send a tax deductible financial gift to:

LA Animal Services
221 N. Figueroa Street Suite 500
Los Angeles, CA 90012

You can designate your gift to the general Animal Welfare Fund or to any one or more of the specific programs described below:

Big Fix sponsors low/no cost spay/neutering services for pets in low-income households.

New Hope is a network of over 70 of LA’s pet rescue, support and adoption agencies in Southern California who work with LA Animal Services in the process of locating permenant loving homes for the animals Animal Services rescue.

Safety Net helps pets and their families stay together through difficult financial times or relocations.

STAR (Special Treatment And Recovery) program provides medical treatment to severely injured, abused, and neglected animals rescued by Animal Services.

TLC (Teach Love and Compassion) provides at-risk youth with the employment training in animal care. This is an intergenerational program in which our community’s elders work with our youth teach love and compassion through the care and love of animals.

Volunteer Dog Training Program trains Animal Services volunteers to improve the quality of life and adoption rate of sheltered dogs through behavior training provided by our community’s most reputable volunteer dog trainers.

FELIX (Feral Education and Love Instead of X-terminations)provides low or no cost spay/neuter service to feral cats managed by a trained feral cat colony manager trained by one of Animal Services feral cat partner organizations.

Foster Program trains volunteers to provide temporary homes for special needs animals until they are healthy enough for adoption.

If you would like your donations to be used for specific programs and services, please specify.

Please make your check or money order payable to:

Department of Animal Services
221 N. Figueroa Street, 5th floor
LA, CA 90012
Your donations are tax deductible and your generosity will be acknowledged.
Even if you cannot make a financial contribution today, there are other ways you can help. Our Animal Care Centers always need blankets, newspaper, and other items. For more details, take a look at our six Animal Care Centers to understand their specific needs. And of course we always need volunteers.
By working together, we can make LA the safest City in the United States for our pets! Thank you for your support and gifts!

More on Safe Sex For Animals by Ed Boks

An organization called the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs (ACC&D) has funded a study for a promising non-surgical sterilant. Work on the product is still in the early phases, and this grant will make it possible to take the next step in determining the potential for its use in female dogs and cats.

A non-surgical sterilant is the “Holy Grail” of the animal welfare/no-kill movement. If this is a topic that intersts you consider attending ACC&D’s Third International Symposium in November to learn more about progress in the field and about how you can help reach our shared goals.

The greatest obstacle to the development of these tools over the past several decades has been a lack of focus and a lack of funding. ACC&D is the only organization solely dedicated to getting these new tools developed and brought to market where they can start saving lives. But they can’t do it alone! Please consider making a donation to ACC&D today. Your tax- deductible contribution makes it possible to advance development of these life saving tools.

ACC&D Gives First Grant
Excerpt from the article:
…ACC&D hopes the grant will help accelerate development of an affordable, non-surgical form of sterilization. “In the long run, we believe this technology could have a profound impact on controlling dog and cat overpopulation around the world and provide a safe alternative to surgical sterilizations,” says Briggs. “Overpopulation results in the death of more dogs and cats than any other disease. We want to help ‘man’s best friends’ by identifying and supporting studies that can help end this suffering.”…

Can Pets Ever Practice Safe Sex?

Overpopulation is the leading cause of death for dogs and cats around the world. Help save lives by developing better ways to sterilize dogs and cats, improve their lives, and prevent the birth of unwanted litters.

The link below is to an important petition. This petition is designed to influence pharmaceutical companies, funders, and regulatory agencies to ask for (or press for) support or advancement of non-surgical spay/neuter solutions.

Because pharmaceutical companies do not see a demand for these products they are in no hurry to produce them. That same perceived lack of urgency and demand has kept funding low. This petition will demonstrate the critical need and the public demand that will help expedite development of these products. Please click on the site below to sign this petitions and help develop these important no-kill solutions:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/509465576

If you want more information on this important project, please visit the attached website below:

http://network.bestfriends.org/Blogs/Detail.aspx?b=574

For more information on the important work Los Angeles Animal Services is doing to help LA become No-Kill visist:www.laanimalservices.com

Working together we can make LA and the nation safe for all our pets!

Honoring Dr. W. Marvin Mackie, D.V.M. by Ed Boks

Ed Boks and Dr. Mackey
Dr. W. Marvin Mackie, DVM.

This past Friday morning, June 9th, the Los Angeles City Council honored a true animal welfare hero, Dr. W. Marvin Mackie, DVM. What follows are the comments I made at this prestigious event:

“Mr. President, members of the Council, I have been involved in animal welfare for nearly 25 years, and for as long as I can remember, every time the name “Dr. Mackie” was ever mentioned, no matter the setting or the audience, it always evoked a sense of reverence and respect.

Every meaningful movement in history has been led by transformational leaders, leaders like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Caesar Chavez. Inspirational leaders have always challenged us to not only change the way we view ourselves as a society but to change how we behave as a civilized community.

We in the animal welfare arena have such transformational leaders too; they are our own heroes, people like Henry Bergh, Albert Schweitzer, and Gretchen Wyler. Today we are honoring another such hero: Dr. W. Marvin Mackie. Dr. Mackie was, and continues to be, an instrumental force in transforming not just our local LA community, but the entire nation and other parts of the world from out dated catch-and-kill animal control methodologies to humane, non-lethal, no-kill animal care strategies and programs.

While a few self-described “revolutionaries” and so-called “activists” do little more than rattle off hate-filled emails from the comfort of their living rooms and occasionally get off the couch to harass and terrorize public servants under cover of night and ski masks, this giant, Dr. Mackie has openly and courageously transformed an entire generation by being the change he wanted to see in the world. Dr. Mackie is responsible for surgically altering hundreds of thousands of animals in the LA area; he has taught hundreds of veterinarians how to perform high volume and prepubescent surgery safely and humanely in communities around the world, and he taught many hardheaded animal control directors like my self that there is a better way.

We in Los Angeles have perhaps benefited most from the fact that Dr. Mackie is an Angelino, hailing from San Pedro. As a result of his inspirational leadership, over the course of his career, the number of animals needing to be rescued annually from the streets of LA by Animal Services has declined by 40,000. More significantly the number of animals killed in our local shelters has fallen from 60,000 per year to 19,000 and continues to decline significantly every year.

Consider this, 40% of the animals euthanized this past month were orphaned neonate puppies and kittens. What fact better demonstrates the tremendous need that we as a community must continue Dr. Mackie’s legacy until there are no more unwanted pets being born only to die?

The no-kill initiative that has taken hold in LA is beginning to take root in communities all across the United States thanks to Dr. Mackie and others. Imagine how far we have come in Los Angeles in the three decades since Dr. Mackie began to live his dream. Today his dream is embraced by the Mayor of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles City Council, the Los Angeles Animal Services Commission and the Los Angeles General Manager and staff. Los Angeles has risen up together to accept the fact that Dr. Mackie’s no-kill vision is an achievable goal! No small accomplishment for one man.

When you consider what this one man has accomplished imagine what we could do if we all worked together! Thank you Dr. Mackie for being such an inspiration to all of us!

The Case For Mandatory Spay/Neuter by Ed Boks

The month of May 2006 came in like a lamb but went out like hundreds of sick and dying neonate kittens. I doubt any stronger case can be made for mandatory spay/neuter than what you are about to read.

North Central Animal Care Center experienced an unprecedented number of neonate euthanasias during the last week of May. This was due to an unusually high number of orphaned neonates presenting clinical symptoms suggestive of infectious diseases such as Notedris cati, chylmydia, panleukopenia, and corona virus etc. Diagnostics were performed through blood work and complete dermatology exams for infectious skin diseases confirming these diseases.

254 orphaned neonates were euthanized in the month of May in North Central with well over 100 in the last week. South LA Animal Care Center euthanized 247 neonates in the month of May, and the entire LAAS organization euthanized a total of 823 orphaned neonates of the 2,035 dogs and cats euthanized.

That represents 40% of the May euthanasia rate!

This situation points out three critical needs:

1) the need for more foster homes to care for neonates in our Bottle Baby Program,

2) the need for broader implementation of our Safety Net Program to help support people relinquishing neonates with the resources they need to bring them through the weaning process, and

3) more aggressive Big Fix Spay Neuter Programs throughout the City especially during the winter months. LAAS is working on approaches to address all three of these needs and will report on our progress in future reports.

As a result of this unfortunate and tragic anomaly in the North Central Animal Care Center, the overall organizational month of May euthanasia rate increased 12% compared to May ‘05, but decreased 10% compared to May 04.

East Valley showed a 17% decrease in euthanasia.
Harbor showed a 29% decrease.
South LA had a 1% increase.
West LA had a 2.5% decrease.
West Valley had a .05% increase.

North Central was on track to show a decrease in euthanasia in May until the Center was literally inundated with sick and dying neonates during the last week of May. Rescue efforts were complicated by that being a Holiday weekend and by a shortage of qualified Bottle Baby Foster Care Givers.

The month of May Cat Euthanasia rate is up 19% compared to May 05 but down 6% compared to May 04.

The month of May Dog Euthanasia rate is down 2% compared to May 05 and down 13.5% compared to May 04.

If there is a silver lining to any of this news, it is that the Calendar 06 Year To Date Euthanasia rate for dogs and cats is down nearly 17% compared to the same time period in 05 and down 29.5% compared to the same time period in 04.

Calendar Year 06 Cat Euthanasia is down 7.6% compared to the same time frame in 05, and down 24% compared to the same time frame in 04.

Calendar Year 06 Dog Euthanasia is down 26% compared to the same time frame in 05, and down 35% compared to the same time frame in 04.

Of the 2,020 dogs rescued by LAAS in the month of May, 68 were either dead on arrival or died of natural causes. Four dogs were stolen for a remainder of 1,948. 731 were adopted, 333 were New Hoped, 299 were returned to their owners, 16 are in foster for a total of 1,379 live releases. That is an extraordinary 70% live release rate for dogs! Only 20 neonate dogs were euthanized.

Of the 2,646 cats rescued by LAAS in the month of May, 81 were either dead on arrival or died of natural causes. Six cats escaped and nine were stolen for a remainder of 2,560. 508 were adopted, 355 were New Hoped, 21 were returned to their owners, 55 are in foster for a total of 939 live releases. That is a dismal 37% live release rate for cats. 803 neonate cats were euthanized. Neonate cats represent 55% of the cat euthanasia rate. Clearly we can see where we as a community must focus our efforts to end the killing! We must turn the faucet off on the sheer number of unwanted cats being born in our community.

May 06 Dog and Cat Adoptions combined were up 7.25% compared to May 05 and up 6.25% compared to May 04.

May 06 Cat Adoptions were down 2.5% compared to May 05 but up 10% compared to May 04.

May 06 Dog Adoptions were up 15.5% compared to May 05 and up 3.5% compared to May 04.

The Calendar 06 Year to Date Dog and Cat Adoptions are up nearly 8% compared to the same time period last year and up 9.6% compared to the same time period in 04.

May 06 Dog and Cat New Hope Placements were down 10% compared to May 05 but up 22.5% compared to May 04.

May 06 Cat New Hope Placements are down 26% compared to May 05 but up 10.25% compared to May 04.

May 06 Dog New Hope Placements are up 18.5% compared to May 05 and up 39% compared to May 04. This is a welcome increase in the New Hope trend for dogs this year and coincides with the final stages of implementing the New Hope program.

The Calendar 06 Year to Date Dog and Cat New Hope Placements are down 16% compared to the same time period in 05 and down 7.5% compared to the same time period in 04.

(For all of these statistical categories, raw numbers are available in the statistical reports posted on the LAAS websitewww.laanimalservices.com.)

It is our sincere hope and expectation that with the community’s continued help the Bottle Baby, Foster, Safety Net, and New Hope Programs will help right this temporary reversal in our continued progress towards lowering the kill rate. Other efforts are underway with the help of various community partners to help get the word out to help LAAS in its lifesaving mission. Clearly, we will never adopt our way out of this crisis. It is time for all Angelinos to get serious about spaying and neutering their animals.

Rescue organizations too must be held accountable. No rescue organization should adopt an animal out that is not spayed or neutered. If such an adoption does occur the rescue organization must follow up until the sterilization has been confirmed. This holds true for LAAS as well. We will be monitoring every intact animal released to any rescue group or individual for medical reasons to ensure the animal is altered as soon as it is healthy enough.

In order for LA City to achieve its No-Kill goal we must add a No-Birth initiative to our strategic plan as exemplified by LA County’s recent spay/neuter law, even if it is for a limited number of years, long enough to get a handle on this problem. At some point we have to turn the faucet off. There are simply too many unwanted kittens being born.

We must also bolster our Operation FELIX (Feral Education and Love Instead of X-termination) Trap/Neuter/Return Program and our Big Fixspay/neuter efforts for cats. It is my hope that all Angelinos will support any responsible initiative that will help us as a community to end the killing.

I understand very well that this is a controversial issue for some, but I hope we can all agree that the misguided accidental and deliberate backyard and puppy/kitten mill breeding must be stopped if we ever expect to end the killing.

(The May LAAS GM Report is now available on-line.)