Category: animal welfare

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Year to Date and April 2007 Numbers and Where We Go From Here by Ed Boks

Year To Date Numbers:
Despite a 3.45% increase in the number of dogs and cats rescued by LA Animal Services in the first four months of calendar year 2007 (from 11,532 to 11,930), the City’s euthanasia rate continues to decrease!

The euthanasia rate for Calendar Year to Date compared to the first four months of 2006 shows a 13.25% decrease (from 3198 to 2774)! Keep in mind that 2006 was a historic record year for euthanizing the fewest number of animals and now 2007 appears to be on track to be another record year!

Adoptions Year to Date are up 2% (from 4349 to 4437) and New Hope placements are up 3.2% (from 1919 to 1982).

LA Animal Services continues to lead the nation in returning lost pets to their frantic and grateful owners with a 1.2% increase Year to Date over last year (from 1385 to 1402). This rate is four times higher than any other large municipal program.

April Numbers:
April 07 showed a 5.3% increase in the number of animals rescued by LA Animal Services (up from 3395 to 3577) compared to April 06. The continual increase in the number of animals coming into LA City Animal Care Centers demonstrates the need for widespread support of the California Healthy Pet Act (www.cahealthypets.com).

Despite this increase in numbers, LA’s April euthanasia rate is the lowest April ever recorded, down a whopping 22.7% (from 1099 to 849)! This follows March’s historic all time low euthanasia month!

Although Adoptions were down 5% (from 1102 to 1044) our New Hope partners picked up the slack and adopted 9.4% more animals this April than last April (from 622 to 681)!

Where We Go From Here:
While these numbers may appear to paint a rosey picture to some, I want to make sure we don’t fool ourselves with respect to the challenge before us.

LA Animal Services is criticized from both sides. When euthanasia is up we are criticized for being a “death camp”. When euthanasia is down we are criticized for being a “concentration camp”.

LA Animal Services walks a very difficult line – we must try to maintain a high quality of life for our sheltered animals while attempting to not unnecessarily sacrifice the life of any animals when we need more space for incoming animals.

To ensure LA Animal Services continues to trend towards No-Kill we have or are implementing the following strategies:

1. When an animal is healthy and has a good disposition, we hold that animal for at least 45 days to maximize our efforts to adopt it out. Most municipal shelters hold animals for a week or less. During those 45 days staff becomes well acquainted with each animal so as to better plead its case to both adopters and our New Hope partners. If after 45 days none of our 120 New Hope partners or anyone of our 4 million residents steps up to adopt an animal, we then stress the urgency for help with that animal by posting him/her on a seven day Red Alert on our website. This step provides anybody and everybody one last opportunity to save that animal.

Even then this is not an automatic death sentence. Staff can, and often do, take animals off the seven day Red Alert when they think that animal just needs a little more time. That is how and why we often have animals in our Centers for months at a time. I cannot find ANY municipal shelter in the world that DOES MORE to save lives than LA Animal Services!

2. LA Animal Services will continue to promote adoptions and will continue to find ways to maximize the resources of our New Hope Partners. Working with our New Hope Partners, LA Animal Services is placing nearly 21,000 dogs and cats every year. I cannot find ANY animal adoption program anywhere in the world placing more animals than LA Animal Services. And we are committed to doing better! In addition to that, we reunite over 4,000 lost pets with their owners each year!

Please help us promote our current Be Kind To Animals Week Adoptathon in which we offer half off adoption fees!

3. As many of you know, LA Animal Services is in the process of vacating our East Valley and West LA Animal Care Centers to move into our new facilities. Our new facilities will increase our holding capacity by over 400%!

So what to do with our old facilities? LA Animal Services is developing a Request for Qualifications to identify one or more animal welfare organizations willing and able to manage our old facilities in partnership with LA Animal Services and in support of our No-Kill goal.

4. LA Animal Services continues to provide more and more spay/neuter surgeries for the pets of our residents each year, nearly 40,000 pets in 2006 and we are on track to do 44,000 in 2007. I cannot find ANY municipal program ANYWHERE that is doing more to provide spay/neuter services to its residents.

Later this year we will be opening our Spay/Neuter Clinics in order to provide even more spay/neuter services to our residents. South LA’s Spay/Neuter Clinic is already operational and we hope to have North Central operational soon, with five additional clinics coming on line no later than next spring.

5. LA Animal Services is one of the original drafters and supporters of AB 1634. Now we have the support of the Mayor and the entire City Council! Our efforts on this state initiative laid the foundation for us implementing a City spay/neuter ordinance which is on a parallel track even now.

Never was more being done to end the senseless killing of lost and homeless animals in the City of LA! I want to thank every employee, volunteer, and partner in helping us achieve the remarkable numbers of the last five years. But we have a long way to go and we need your help. Please consider ways of helping support the above initiatives, and/or consider joining our Volunteer Program.

Its an old but true maxim, that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

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A Celebration of Compassion: Be Kind to Animals Week by Ed Boks

Be Kind to Animals Week was the first large-scale campaign to bring attention to animal welfare in the United States. The idea extended from “Mercy Sunday”, a partnership between American Humane and clergy in several states. But the need for a more cohesive, nationwide campaign was seen as a natural outgrowth of the association’s mission and its collaboration with humane societies throughout the country.

In 1914, plans were discussed to expand the movement to create a unified celebration on a national level. Dr. William O. Stillman, president of the American Humane, believed strongly in a systemic approach that would bring the “tenets of kindness to those who would not otherwise be brought under its influence.” The objectives were to heighten public awareness through humane education, highlight the work of humane societies, and again ask clergy to speak about child and animal welfare issues on what had been renamed “Humane Sunday.”

The inaugural Be Kind to Animals Week, May 17-23, 1915, was a revolutionary concept. With radio in its infancy, and long before television, American Humane effectively used the media of the day to promote the observance in 43 of 48 states. Posters and literature were distributed, and local newspapers helped publicize the events, resulting in a tremendous response.

Over the years, Be Kind to Animals Week has continued to grow and embed itself into the popular lexicon and the public’s consciousness. In 1973, the children’s TV show Romper Room promoted it, and in 1990, Congress passed a resolution declaring May 6-12 as Be Kind to Animals Week and National Pet Week. It also has been featured in thousands of news stories and even in comic strips, including Dennis the Menace and Mutts.

In 2007, the 93-year tradition continues with a weeklong celebration of kindness and compassion May 6-12. [From Spring Issue of “The National Humane Review” pg. 5]

LA Animal Services is celebrating Be Kind To Animals Week with a week-long Adoption Promotion to encourage Angelenos to do the kindest thing of all – provide a loving home to a homeless pet. From May 6 through May 13, all adoption fees will be reduced by 50%!

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Humane Index Released – LA Ranks #6

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has released its Humane Index which is the first-ever attempt to determine the overall humaneness of America’s largest metro areas. The HSUS ranked the 25 largest metropolitan areas according to criteria such as the number of vegetarian restaurants per capita and Congressional leadership on animal issues.

Los Angeles ranked #6 behind San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Washington D.C., and San Diego.

By measuring a wide range of humane and inhumane conduct, HSUS hopes to inspire individuals and entire communities to strive to do better to make the world a more merciful place for animals.

The Humane Index is comprised of a dozen factors selected to provide a basis for comparing the relative humaneness of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. The index includes topics related to pets, farm animals, wildlife, animals in entertainment and advocacy for animals. The Humane Index demonstrates that Americans extend their compassion beyond the millions of pets who share our homes.

West Coast cities generally performed better than other areas of the country. In addition to San Francisco and Seattle, Portland ranked fourth and San Diego fifth. Los Angeles ranked sixth. On the East Coast, Washington, Boston and Baltimore ranked in the top ten metro areas.

The full detailed results are available online at www.humaneindex.org. The interactive website allows visitors to view the details on each index item. See how various cities rank, compare two cities, and learn how they can take action to make their city more humane.

The following is a synopsis of LA’s ranking in each of HSUS’ 12 categories:

LA ranked #2 in the Bird Shooters category. Four California cities top the Index for celebrating wildlife by shooting them with cameras instead of a lethal approach. Californians are seven times more likely than Texans to sport binoculars over shotguns. The ratio in every Humane Index city favors wildlife watching. There are 20.9 wildlife watchers to every one hunter in California. Across the nation, Americans are consistently celebrating the beauty and mystery of wildlife and prefer to mount their photos rather than their heads or hides.

While across the country there is evidence that major newspaper coverage of animal issues is significant, LA sadly ranks 24 of 25 in this category. The LA Times featured 330 stories in 2006 compared to the Index average of 596.

LA ranks number 14 in the Fur Shame category with 45 fur retailers compared to the Index average of 29.

LA is in 5th place for putting the chicken before the egg. LA has at least 91 cage free locations compared to the Index average of 19. Every Humane Index city has at least one place where you can support a company with a stance against cruel confinement of laying hens in barren wire cages.

LA ranks six in the Captive Entertainers category. LA has 19 locations where captive animals are used for entertainment compared to the Index average of 18 locations.

LA is ranked #17 in citizen advocacy but it is unclear from the HSUS website if this category is merely a ranking of HSUS membership in the Index cities. If that is the case this would not be a valid means for determining advocacy. LA is well known throughout the nation for its strong animal advocacy efforts as demonstrated most recently by our Mayor and City Council’s support of Assemblyman Levine’s AB 1634.

LA ranks number 20 in the Pet Shop Puppy Suffering category. There are too many puppies in pet shops. Across Humane Index cities one in three pet stores sell puppies creating the demand for puppy mills and the misery they breed. Four of the five worst metro areas are warm belt cities like Tampa (#22), Miami (#23), Houston (#24) and Phoenix (#25). San Francisco, New York and Pittsburg take top spots in avoiding the cruelty of puppy mills with only 15% of pet stores selling puppies. 45% of all LA pet stores sell puppies compared to the Index average of 34%. With so many great dogs adoptable from animal shelters we would like to see an end to selling puppies in pet shops in LA.

HSUS uses the term “wildlife whisperers” and it is not clear if they are referring to wildlife rehabilitation organizations or individual licensed rehabilitators. Whatever the criteria used to evaluate this category, LA was ranked 19 with 28 “wildlife whisperers” to the Index average of 21.

If you want to shun the animal cruelty inherent in animal circus acts, California is the place you want to be according to HSUS. Three of the top Humane Index cities in this category – Riverside (#1), San Francisco (#2) and Los Angeles (#5) – are in the Golden State.

If you’re looking for fine vegetarian fare, you can’t lose on the West Coast, home to all of this category’s top five Humane Index cities. Up and down the coast – from Seattle (#2) to San Diego (#5) and in between (San Francisco #1, LA #3, and Portland #4) – you will find an average of 44 vegetarian restaurants in each of these towns (112 in LA).

LA ranked number 6 in the Congressional Compassion category. In general, Humane Index cities can thank themselves for electing humane legislators with Congressional Compassion running higher on average in Index metros than in other areas. But there is a coastal effect – lower Congressional Compassion emanates from inland areas. With average scores on the Humane Society Legislative Fund’s Humane Scorecard for the 109th Congress ranging from 26.6 (Dallas) to 90.8 (Philadelphia). It is worth noting that 18 of the 25 Humane Index cities have scores exceeding 50. LA is at 64.9.

LA ranked #7 in registering disapproval of Canada’s seal hunt. From Portland (#1) to Atlanta (#2), Tampa (#3) and Miami (#4) many Humane Index cities are protesting Canada’s barbaric clubbing of baby seals for fur by boycotting Canadian seafood. With nearly 1,208 participating establishments, there are an average of 50 in each Humane Index city. There are 183 locations in LA.

LA Animal Services is asking HSUS to consider ranking municipal animal shelters as part of its Humane Index in future Indexes.

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Assembly Bill 1634 – A Bill Whose Time Has Come by Ed Boks

I want to thank the City Council for its unanimous support of Assembly Bill 1634 – The California Healthy Pet Bill – legislation designed to end the incalculable suffering of unwanted homeless and lost dogs and cats in the State of California. This April 17 vote places the City of Los Angeles officially on record in support of the legislation and could be a difference-maker in the contentious debate up in Sacramento.

This bill is particularly important to the City of Los Angeles and, in fact, was originally given birth by the staff of LA Animal Services working closely with legal experts, animal control professionals and key activists from all over the state.

Over the past several months, with the extraordinary help of California Healthy Pets Coalition director (and volunteer) Judie Mancuso and many others, this bill has taken shape and garnered the support of the California Veterinary Medical Association, the California Association of Animal Control Directors (representing over 100 animal control agencies across the state of California), the State Humane Association of California, the Humane Society of the United States, In Defense of Animals, The Animal Protection Institute, the SPCA-LA, the Rescue Humane Alliance LA (which represents 65 LA animal welfare organizations), thousands of activists and organizations, and dozens of other animal welfare and control organizations in LA and across California.

AB 1634 is a bill whose time has come. Several years ago, the City of Los Angeles became a national humane leader by committing itself to ending euthanasia as a methodology for controlling pet overpopulation. This commitment was built upon the resounding voter approval of nearly $160 million to construct seven animal shelters to manage the crushing number of lost and homeless animals taken in by LA Animal Services every year (over 50,000 animals in some years). Over the past six years the City Council had to increase Animal Services’ budget by 36%, with a 28% increase in the current fiscal year alone, even in the face of an extremely tight City budget.

In the hardball world of politics, numbers such as these can be important. Other important numbers in the AB 1634 debate include the $240 million a year in taxpayer dollars it cost the state’s public animal control agencies to care for, then kill approximately 430,000 animals last year. Then there’s the $120 million the state government has had to pay local agencies to fund the extra days of animal care required by the “Hayden Bill,” approved in 1997. This reimbursable mandate is growing at a rate of $30 million annually.

Numbers like these remind us that trying to solve the pet overpopulation problem from the back end is expensive. It is like trying to mop up a flooded basement without first turning the water off.

Over the last few years, we’ve made some progress in Los Angeles, using licensing incentives, stepped-up adoption programs and alliances with the rescue community to bring down our kill rate by about 20% since 2000 to around 40%. We’ve also reduced the number of impounds by a similar percentage by employing aggressive voluntary spay/neuter programs. But many jurisdictions around the state aren’t doing nearly as well, with kill rates ranging from 50% to as high as 90%.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. AB 1634 provides us with an elegant, but simple tool for ending the insanity of escalating budgets and body counts. Combined with public awareness education and outreach and even more spay/neuter services, this legislation can help other animal control agencies get a handle on the problem for the very first time, while agencies like Animal Services can use it to strive for the even lower euthanasia rates our animals deserve and our constituents demand.

On behalf of the nearly 400 employees of Animal Services and the hundreds of volunteers and partners we have throughout Los Angeles who feel the brunt of pet overpopulation everyday I want to thank everyone who made this vote possible.

Mahatma Gandhi told us that the best way to evaluate the morality of a community is to look at how we treat our animals. Our City Council has risen to the occasion again by accepting our collective responsibility for a tenacious problem while at the same time helping to save the lives and end the suffering of countless generations of unwanted animals. They did that by supporting AB 1634, the fiscally prudent and humane solution to LA’s, and California’s, pet overpopulation problems. It is my hope that all our representatives on both sides of the aisle in Sacramento will be just as fiscally prudent and humane as the bill continues its journey toward passage and Governor Schwarzenegger’s signature. This one’s for the animals!

For more information on this life saving public health and safety initiative visit http://www.cahealthypets.com/

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March 2007 – A No-Kill Month! by Ed Boks

March 2007 is the lowest monthly euthanasia rate since LA Animal Services began collecting this data! Not only were no healthy dogs or cats killed in the month of March, but also only nine treatable animals were euthanized and only after three regimens of treatment failed to produce any improvement in the health of the animals.

March 2007 Dog and Cat Numbers:

March 2007 Euthanasia Rate is down 29% compared to March 2006 (540 to 782 respectively) and down 54% compared to March 2005 (1166). The March Euthanasia Rate has decreased each of the past six years and is down 69% since March 2002 (1727).

267 dogs and 273 cats were euthanized in March 2007. 25% of the cats were orphaned neonate kittens (68). Thanks to LA Animal Services’ Baby Bottle Foster Parents and many New Hope Partners 204 neonates were safely placed in loving homes in March 2007 and were spared euthanasia. (Orphaned neonates are kittens too young to survive on their own and require round the clock foster care until they are weaned at eight weeks of age.)

39% of the 267 dogs euthanized were pit bull/pit bull mixes (104). This was despite a 22% increase in pit bull adoptions (129 to 157), a 32% increase in pit bull New Hope placements (40 to 53), and a 41% decrease in the pit bull euthanasia rate (176 to 104) in March 07 compared to March 06.

March 2007 Adoptions are steady compared to March 2006 (1141 to 1139 respectively) and are up 15.5% compared to March 2005 (988) and up 24% compared to 2004 (921).

March 2007 New Hope Placements are up 9% compared to 2006 (577 to 529 respectively). New Hope Placements don’t show a consistent trend but over the past six years have averaged 540 placements in the month of March. March 2007 New Hope placements are 7% higher than this average.

March 2007 Intakes are up 2.5% compared to 2006 (3075 to 2986 respectively), but are down 10% compared to 2005 (3420) and down 23% compared to 2002 (3817).

2007 1st Quarter Dog and Cat Numbers: 

2007 1st Q Euthanasia Rate is down 8.4% compared to 1st Q 2006 (1922 to 2099 respectively) and down 35% compared to 1st Q 2005 (2967) and down 63% compared to 1st Q 2002.

2007 1st Q Adoptions are up 8% compared to 1st Q 2006 (3396 to 3147 respectively) and up 16% compared to 1st Q 2005 (2925).

2007 1st Q New Hopes are relatively stable at just under 1300 in 2007 and 2006. Similar to the month of March, there is no consistent trend in New Hope placements during calendar year 1st Q’s. However, the 1st Q average over the past six years is 1318 placements. 1st Q 2007 is 2.4% lower.

2007 1st Q Intakes tracked the same as the month of March numbers with a 2.5% increase in 1st Q 2007 compared to 2006 (8338 to 8137 respectively) and a 10% decrease compared to 1st Q 2005 (9258) and a 23% decrease compared to 1st Q 2002 (10851).

All of these numbers and much more can be found in easy to read six year rolling calendar reports that show the City of Los Angeles’ multi-year trend to No-Kill. Just visit LA Animal Services website (www.laanimalservices.com) and click on “About Us – Statistics”.

These results clearly demonstrate the City of Los Angeles is on the road to No-Kill. But these results are not good enough for LA Animal Services’ amazing employees, volunteers, and partners who are committed to saving lives and further restricting euthanasia to its rightful place as a last result for ending irremediable suffering.

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Time for the Heavy Lifting… by Ed Boks

LA Animal Services has been striving to achieve No-Kill for several years. Over the past five years LA Animal Services has reduced dog and cat euthanasia by 50%. This reduction represents the fastest progress towards no-kill in the nation. Los Angeles joins all Southern California in the steepest decreases in shelter killing nationwide since 2001 according to Animal People magazine.

Cat euthanasia has decreased nearly 19% and dog euthanasia has decreased 68% over the past five years. There are many ways to evaluate this progress. One method is to consider the “live release rate” another is to look at the per capita rate.

Live Release Rate:
Many communities squabble over defining “adoptable” and “un-adoptable”. LA Animal Services resists that debate. The more we focus on No-Kill the more we find the line defining “un-adoptable” moves in favor of every animal. Today many animals are placed into loving homes that only a few years ago would have been euthanized. Today, LA Animal Services looks only at the total number of animals taken in compared to the total number of animals killed.

Over the past twelve months 46,531 dogs and cats were taken in and 19,263 animals were killed. That is a 59% live release rate for dogs and cats combined. The live release rate for cats is 43% and the live release rate for dogs is 71%.

Per Capita Euthanasia Rate:
Many animal welfare professionals have long considered 5 killings per 1000 residents annually to be the threshold to achieving No-Kill. The national average for euthanizing animals reached an all time low in 2005 at 14.7 per 1000 residents annually. In the City of Los Angeles the per capita kill rate is 4.8.

Both these views suggest Los Angeles has reached the most challenging leg of its race to No-Kill. Adoptions are up 6.2% over the past twelve months, at 14,733. New Hope placements are down 8.5% – suggesting LA Animal Services is efficiently adopting out the most adoptable animals and our New Hope partners are helping many of the more difficult to place animals, nearly 6,000 in the last twelve months. This leaves what many might consider the most “un-adoptable” or unwanted animals.

Hitting the Wall: The Three Biggest Challenges to Achieving No-Kill

Orphaned Neonate Kittens: Of the 19,263 dogs and cats euthanized over the past twelve months 5,624 were orphaned neonate kittens, which is nearly 30% of the total number of animals killed. If we could prevent these animals from being born or could effectively care for them once they come to our Centers we would reduce the number of animals killed to 13,639 or 3.4 per 1000 residents.

Feral Cats: Cats represent 64% of all the dogs and cats euthanized. 12,279 cats were euthanized during the past twelve months. After accounting for the neonates, a remaining 6,655 cats were killed and of this number 35% or 2,329 are conservatively considered feral or un-adoptable because they were wild. If we were able to trap/neuter/return these animals to responsible feral cat colony managers we could further reduce our kill rate to 11,310 or 2.8 per 1000 residents.

Pit bulls/mixes: The second largest number of animals dying in our Centers after cats is pit bulls and pit bull mixes. Despite a nearly 42% increase in pit bull/mix adoptions and nearly an 89% increase in New Hope pit bull/mix placements over the past five years, pit bull/mix euthanasia accounts for nearly 41% of all dogs killed. Of the 6,984 dogs killed over the past twelve months 2,838 were pit bull/mixes. If we could fix our pit bull/mix overpopulation problem we could further reduce our kill rate to 8,472 or 2.1 per 1000 residents.

Solutions
Three solutions are self-evident: Adoption, Spay/Neuter, and Pet Retention Programs. It is well understood that Los Angeles is not going to adopt its way out of the problems associated with pet overpopulation. Adoption and Pet Retention Programs are tactical solutions for the animals on the ground. LA Animal Services is opening six state of the art Animal Care Centers in 2007. These facilities will increase our holding capacity over 400% allowing us to hold animals for longer periods of time while finding loving homes for them. Safety Net is a program on the drawing board that will coordinate the resources available in LA to help keep pets and people together during times when they think relinquishment is their only alternative.

Clearly spay/neuter is the most strategic solution to end the killing. LA Animals Services provided nearly 40,000 spay/neuter surgeries to the pets of needy Angelenos in 2006 and expects to provide 45,000 in 2007. We are working on both a statewide and citywide spay/neuter law. We have accelerated the opening of six high volume spay/neuter clinics throughout the city to 2007. Each clinic is capable of doing between 15,000 and 20,000 surgeries annually. We are engaged in developing a citywide feral cat TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return) program.

LA Animal Services is also working on a number of human/animal bond programs designed to encourage pet retention and adoption, not the least of which is the Humane LA program that maximizes the resources of over twenty City Departments to help promote and protect the health, safety, and welfare of pets and people in the City of Los Angeles.

LA Animal Services is doing its part. Pet overpopulation is a community problem requiring community support. Making LA Animal Services the enemy, as some armchair activists do, is like holding Doctors Without Borders responsible for third world disease. The vile discourse common among a small number of self professed animal welfare proponents in LA serves only to make the final mile of the race to No-Kill more difficult, not less. While I am loathe calling attention to this faction because it only gives them the attention they crave, it is important to understand the damage they do to the cause of animal welfare in Los Angeles.

For over one year I have asked the community to come together to help achieve No-Kill once and for all. Some have responded, and I thank you. Today I challenge everyone – from the ADL to the AKC, republicans, democrats, and independents – anyone who claims to love animals to demonstrate your love by helping to end the killing – rather than hindering the actual achievement of the No-Kill goal.

Please consider signing up for our Volunteer Program or our Foster Baby Program. Kitten season is fast upon us. Fostering a litter of baby kittens is a great project for a family, a class, or a senior center. There is so much we can accomplish together.

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Rumor Control and No-Kill Update… by Ed Boks

Before the rumor mill has a chance to start churning with the latest misinformation spreading via the Internet, Animal Services wants to set the record straight. Here is the truth about some criticisms already circulating regarding the newly re-designed and, we believe, improved LA Animal Services website.

Rumor: There will be no 2006 annual report.

Nowhere on our website does it say there will be no Annual Report, nor have we said that anywhere else. We are working on the 2006 Annual Report now and fully expect to have it available and on-line in April.

Rumor: They took down the January 2007 stats that were so bad for the department.

Good catch. That was a mistake made in the transition to the new website design. The numbers are back up now. Animal Services received national recognition in 2006 for our extensive public release of statistics and we will continue to make them available.

Rumor: Many of the Commissioners pictures have come down.

Photos of only two of the current Commissioners have been made available to us for use on our website. Those pictures are still posted. As new Commissioners are appointed and confirmed, we expect to be adding their photos. We hope to eventually have photos of all five Commissioners posted.

Rumor: The minutes of past meetings–even those approved–are missing.

Not exactly correct. Most of the minutes from 2005 and 2006 are posted but during the migration to the new site the minutes from December 11, 2006, January 23, 2006, May 8, 2006, July 18, 2006, November 27, 2006, November 14, 2005 did not make the transition. Two of these meetings were cancelled and there are no minutes and one meeting was a closed session and we cannot post the minutes. The minutes we can post are up as of today (February 23, 2006). We will continue to post minutes, agendas and board reports on agenda items for all Commission meetings.

Rumor: Animal Services is promoting pit bull breeders.

This of course is nonsense. A link to a pit bull breeder was mistakenly included on our new pit bull page. This link was immediately removed as soon as it was brought to our attention.

I want to thank everyone who has brought these issues to our attention so we could address or correct them in a timely fashion. 

I also want to take a moment to update everyone on our recent “No-Kill Weekend.” The response of Angelenos has been so great that Animal Services has been able to extend the No-Kill Moratorium. As of today, no healthy dog or cat has been euthanized since Thursday, February 8th.

I want to thank everyone in LA and the surrounding areas for your continued support in helping our City achieve No-Kill, even if it’s only for a short time! The push toward No-Kill will continue and, with your help and support, we will continue to work hard to save the lives of the animals in our charge and make No-Kill a sustained reality.

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Operation FELIX – Feral Education and Love Instead of X-termination by Ed Boks

Ed Boks and feral catsOne of the biggest challenges to achieving No-Kill in the City of Los Angeles or, for that matter, in any community, is implementing a program to effectively reduce the number of feral cats in our neighborhoods without having to resort to euthanasia or killing. Estimates on the feral cat population in LA are difficult to make, but they range from the tens to the hundreds of thousands.

Feral cats are cats that are born in or have reverted to a wild state. They are born from tame unaltered cats that owners abandon or allow to run loose. These cats mate with other free roaming cats, and their offspring, raised without human compassion, are wild (or feral). These cats then grow up and breed with other feral and free roaming cats and the cat population explodes exponentially.

Communities employ one of three methodologies to deal with feral cats: 1) Do nothing, 2) Eradication, or 3) Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR).

While it is easy to understand why doing nothing has little effect on reducing the population (and, in fact, allows it to grow), it may not be as easy to understand why eradication does not work.

Although many communities employ eradication (“catch and kill”) as a remedy to this vexing problem, decades of “catch and kill” in communities across the United States have irrefutably demonstrated that this methodology does not work. There are two very real biological reasons why “catch and kill” fails.

Wild animals tend to have strong biological survival mechanisms. Feral cats, which are wild animals, typically live in colonies of six to twenty cats. You often never see all the cats in a colony and it is easy to underestimate the size of a feral cat problem in a neighborhood. When individuals or authorities try to catch cats for extermination this heightens the biological stress on the colony.

This stress triggers two survival mechanisms causing the cats to 1) over breed, and 2) over produce. That is, rather than having one litter per year of two to three kittens, a stressed female could have two or three litters per year of six to nine kittens each.

Even if a community was successful in catching and removing all the feral cats from a neighborhood, a phenomenon called “the vacuum effect” would be created.

When some or all the cats in a colony are removed, cats in surrounding neighborhoods gravitate toward the ecological niche left behind. When a colony is removed but the natural conditions (including food sources) remain, the natural deterrents offered by an existing colony of territorial cats evaporate and the neighboring cats quickly enter the newly open territory, bringing with them all the associated annoying behaviors.

As we’ve seen time after time in location after location all over the country, the end result of the “catch and kill” methodology is always the same: The vacated neighborhood quickly finds itself overrun again with feral cats fighting and caterwauling for mates, over breeding, and spraying to mark their territory. Thus, “catch and kill” is not a solution at all.

Albert Einstein defined “insanity” as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. That is why so many communities are abandoning “catch and kill” in favor of trying the newest, and only humane, non-lethal alternative: TNR.

TNR is being practiced in more and more communities across the United States and around the world with amazing results.

While I was in Maricopa County, TNR was so successful that the County Board of Supervisors enacted a resolution declaring TNR the only viable methodology they would approve for addressing the feral cat problem in this community of 24 cities and towns (including Phoenix) spread out across nearly 1,000 square miles.

While in New York City, we observed a 73% reduction in the number of stray cats impounded in a targeted zip code on the Upper West Side of Manhattan over a 42-month period of practicing TNR. TNR, correctly administered, is the only methodology that guarantees a reduction of the feral cat population in a community.

When TNR is employed effectively, all the feral cats in a neighborhood are trapped, sterilized, and returned to the area where they were trapped. They are returned under the care of a Colony Manager. The Colony Manager is a trained volunteer in the neighborhood willing to feed, water, and care for the colony and watch for any new cats. Once the colony cats are all neutered, new cats tend to be recently abandoned domestics that can be captured and placed for adoption.

There are many benefits to TNR. 1) TNR prevents the vacuum effect from occurring. 2) Altered cats display none of the troubling behaviors of intact cats: fighting and caterwauling for mates, and spraying for territory. 3) The cats continue to provide rat abatement, a service many neighborhoods value, and 4) because feral cats tend to only live three to five years the problem literally solves itself through attrition, provided TNR is implemented community wide.

TNR also addresses the concern that feral cats tend to create a public nuisance on campuses and in parks. There is an old adage that claims you can’t herd cats. In fact, you can herd neutered cats because they tend to hang around the food bowl. Because neutered cats no longer have the urge to breed and prey, they tend to follow the food bowl wherever the Colony Manager takes it. Feral cats can be trained to congregate in campus or park areas out of the way of the public or other wildlife.

As we review our 2006 numbers it is clear that free-roaming cats represent our biggest challenge to achieving No-Kill in Los Angeles. With a clear understanding that moving away from “catch and kill” as a way to manage feral cats was necessary, the Board of Animal Services Commissioners adopted TNR as the official policy of the department. We are now working on an implementation program called Operation FELIX (Feral Education and Love Instead of X-termination). Operation FELIX will make it easier for responsible Colony Managers to help us substantially reduce the feral cat population without resorting to euthanasia. Progress on the program has been delayed by local environmental groups concerned for the welfare of bird populations.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires that a variety of environmental issues – including the potential impact on wildlife – be taken into consideration whenever a jurisdiction approves a project, program or other action. Animal Services is reviewing these issues relative to TNR and is complying with state law by preparing a study covering all relevant issues. When completed, we are confident this study will be the most extensive non-academic review of this subject matter ever done in the United States and will show that TNR can be implemented with minimal negative impact on the environment.

As the aim of local environmental groups is to reduce the feral cat population so song bird and other wild life populations are able to thrive, it is my hope they will support the only effective methodology demonstrated to accomplish their objective, TNR.

In the meantime Animal Services is requesting all cat owners to spay or neuter their cats, and if possible, keep your cats indoors. Indoor cats live three times longer than outdoor cats. And although your kitty may try to convince you that he or she wants to go outside, nothing could be further from the truth. Cats prefer to be with you and will only be stressed by the threats and dangers of the outside world, living a shorter life as a result.

If you love your cat, keep your cat indoors. If you let your cat roam outdoors, please spay or neuter and microchip him or her so you are not contributing to LA’s cat overpopulation problems. Microchipping is the best way to give us a fighting chance of returning your lost cat to you when he or she turns up in one of our six Animal Care Centers.

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Wile E. Neighbors by Ed Boks

Ed Boks and coyoteWildlife experts commend the city of Los Angeles’ No-kill policies, stating such policies are rare among animal-control agencies in the United States. No-Kill policies typically apply only to dogs and cats. But LA Animal Services is applying its “reverence for life – No-Kill” philosophy to all animals: companion pets, wildlife, farm animals, and exotics. All of which LA Animal Services rescues in large numbers every year.

“Los Angeles is typically one of the more progressive agencies,” said John Hadidian, director of the Humane Society’s urban wildlife program. “I consider… [No-Kill for Wildlife] a welcome sign that others might follow soon.”

Today, the LA Times ran an op-ed piece to explain our wildlife policy, especially as it relates to coyotes:http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-boks25jan25,0,786755.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

Wile E. neighbors
Killing off coyotes and other L.A. fauna could actually make life worse for humans.
By Ed Boks, ED BOKS is the general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services

January 25, 2007
HUMANS NEARLY exterminated the wolf in the last century, but coyotes have proved to be real survivors. They’re now the principal wild canine in California, despite man’s best efforts — trapping, shooting, poisoning — for 150 years. Harried, dislocated and hunted, coyotes nonetheless flourish. And now, like a couple of L.A. hipsters, a pair of urban coyotes have started prowling the neighborhoods around trendy Melrose Avenue, 3rd Street and the Grove.

The locals are alarmed, dialing up animal control and their city councilman to report the sightings and ask, worriedly, are these animals a threat? Can’t something be done to move them?

In many parts of the city, a coyote sighting doesn’t rate a turned head, let alone a call to the City Council. But they aren’t typically spotted in this densely developed part of town. So how’d they get there? One theory is that a good samaritan found them injured and nursed them back to health before they escaped. Another is that they came in unaware in the back of a truck. It is also possible that they simply walked there looking for water. After all, under all this concrete, L.A. is still a desert that many forms of wildlife call home. Clever coyotes might be able to walk the mile or two from the Hollywood Hills, crossing the boulevards under the cover of darkness.

Some people, who believe we can isolate ourselves from our wild surroundings, find such wildlife a nuisance that should be removed. But it’s not that easy. California regulations say a trapped coyote must be either euthanized or immediately released on site. Remarkably, the rules allow sick or injured coyotes to be taken for rehabilitation, but healthy ones must be killed if not released then and there.

Given the unusual circumstances of our midtown coyotes, Los Angeles Animal Services has asked the California Department of Fish and Game for a special dispensation to allow us to attempt to trap this pair and release them back into the wild.

Animal Services has a unique no-kill policy toward wildlife, including coyotes, and for good reason. Killing coyotes has the unintended consequence of producing more coyotes, not fewer. Mother Nature provided them with a powerful survival mechanism: Smaller social group size increases the food-per-coyote ratio, and this food surplus biologically triggers larger litters and higher litter survival rates.

Even if we wanted to trap or kill all the coyotes in a designated area, history shows the vacancy won’t last. Coyotes, like the rest of nature, abhor a vacuum. Larger litters rebuild the population and, with no rivals to keep them at bay, coyotes from the surrounding areas move right in. The end result of these futile eradication efforts is always the same: The area is quickly overrun with new, and often more, coyotes.

Coyotes — once largely confined to the northwestern corner of the continental U.S. — can now be found in L.A.’s Griffith Park and New York’s Central Park, in snowy Alaska and sultry Florida. Threatened by human expansion, they find new homes wherever it is convenient.

Because our expanding cities keep eating up habitat, we’re destined to live with the urban (or suburban) coyote. But that shouldn’t be too much trouble. Coyotes are afraid of humans and almost never attack them. The most reliable estimates assert that there have been fewer than 300 recorded coyote attacks that resulted in human injuries, most involving small children. There are about 3 million children bitten by dogs every year, so a child is considerably more likely to be hurt by the family pet.

That family pet might also lure coyotes — either as prey or as a mate. Unspayed female dogs in heat will attract male coyotes, and likewise unneutered male dogs can be lured by the scent of a female coyote. There have been cases of such a lothario being killed by males in the coyote pack. Fixing your dog fixes this part of the problem. But small dogs and cats are particularly vulnerable to attacks by hungry coyotes and should be kept indoors whenever feasible.

Coyotes are smart, fast and agile — they can sprint up to 40 mph and have been known to scale chain-link fences. They will take what they can get — pet food, garbage, even fruit that’s fallen off trees — day or night.

If you don’t like your local coyotes, remember this: An area with coyotes is never overrun with rodents — a lesson learned by Klamath County, Ore., in 1947. After attempting to eradicate their coyote population, they soon found themselves infested by rodents, experiencing the poetic truth that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

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If You Meet Buddha On The Road… by Ed Boks

There is a book entitled, “If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him.” This adage applies to all the gurus in animal welfare. Without question, we need to learn everything we can from every available source. However, real problems begin when we start to blindly follow the gurus and stop thinking for ourselves. Fortunately, and curiously, this tendency seems to be occurring with only a few of the most militant members of the animal rights community in LA.

(And for their sake, I should add that the author does not mean we should actually kill anyone. He means that there comes a time when we have to decide for ourselves how to achieve our goals instead of blindly following someone else’s opinion.)

I receive an email or two each week telling me what guru a, b, or c has to say about running a large municipal animal welfare organization. None of these folks seem troubled by the fact that these gurus have no significant experience running an organization comparable to LA Animal Services in size and scope. The mere fact that these gurus are on the lecture circuit and charge for their advice is enough to allow them to be perceived as experts.

I’ve learned there is no such thing as “guru osmosis.” There is no guarantee of success through anything but thoughtful preparation and hard work. I have been told by the very gurus that some think can easily solve the complicated issues facing LA that they would “never have” my job. Why not? If not them, who? Why do they not publicly offer to help? The door is open! And if they are not going to help (absent a hefty consulting fee), why do they lead people into thinking they are “waiting in the wings”? The animals don’t need experts in the wings; they need them on the front line!

Success in LA will never be determined by who we follow, or by what philosophy we promote, or by anything other than our own personal involvement in saving animals and solving problems both big and small in a systematic way. The reason we have progressed as far as we have in LA is because of the positive involvement of the employees, volunteers, and partners of Animal Services who refuse to get mired in the mud-slinging and focus on achieving the goal. And we are achieving that goal as we focus on one animal at a time, 125 animals a day, week in, week out, month after month!

Imagine what could be done if the entire humane community were pulling together to make good things happen instead of engaging in internecine warfare and doing everything possible to demean and demoralize those of us who are charged with turning the situation around. We’ll keep on pushing with or without their help, but more animals will live and the job will get done sooner WITH their help than without it. They must live with that reality!

I received a call from a volunteer today who was ecstatic over delivering one animal in need of fostering to one of our New Hope partners. To my mind this volunteer did more to help LA take another step toward No-Kill in this one act of selflessness than all of last weekend’s protestors in all their self-serving actions combined.

In the final analysis, we have to solve this problem ourselves: the only expert LA has, and needs, to solve local animal welfare issues is you. What are you doing to help? Pursuing ulterior motives or truly helping animals in need? You are the one who determines success or failure. The buck does not stop with LA Animal Services, the buck stops with each one of us.

We can and we will achieve No-Kill when we stop being led around by the nose and agree to work together. By doing so we can and we will make LA the safest City in the nation for our pets!