LA COUNTY PLEASE DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR ANIMAL CARE! The shelters are overflowing and the rescues are overwhelmed. Animal lovers are praying, spending money, and opening their homes to more dogs than they ever thought they could accommodate. Meanwhile, the County has the ability to make IMMEDIATE changes to address the problem!! However, the county’s current resources, including the animal care and control agency, are not sufficient to serve our community and its animals. We ask that a state of emergency be declared so that resources can be made available to accomplish the following:
- Expand opening hours for all shelters - perhaps from noon until 7 on weekends or even daily to allow community members to come in to visit and adopt animals. And STOP turning away adopters as much as 30 minutes before closing time because staff can’t work overtime. Shelter management should ensure staffing is adequate to get animals adopted!!
- Expedite volunteer training and increase volunteers at all shelters. And work collaboratively with your existing volunteers versus alienating them with harsh directives to fill gaps due to staffing shortages.
- Expedite hiring to fill open positions at the shelters via a proactive approach to identify and hire talent quickly - currently hiring can take up to a year.
- Make budgets and actual spending on shelter operations transparent - in Marcia Mayeda’s 3/16 report she asked for an additional $44 million over four years with detail by care center, but the actual financial reporting provided by the county is very high level and consolidated and the county claims they have no ability to report at a detailed level, which is concerning. The total annual 2023 budget for all care centers is $47 million for context.
- PROVIDE FREE/REDUCED COST SPAY/NEUTER THAT IS ACCESSIBLE! Too many programs are unfunded or impossible to book. Free spay/neuter clinics should be held throughout the city multiple times a week until this crisis is brought under control! And start campaigns with volunteer ambassadors going into all communities to spread the word at churches, community events, schools, city council meetings, summer festivals, etc etc.
- No dog or cat should be able to leave the shelter to the general public without being spayed or neutered, without a strict clawback that ENSURES the animal will be altered in a reasonable amount of time (NOT a $50 fee).
- Stop turning animals away from the shelter and if there is truly no room, at least ensure the animal is altered before going back into their home!
- CRACK DOWN ON BACKYARD BREEDERS - This is a huge problem in LA and we need REAL enforcement, similar to what Las Vegas recently passed into law. We need a task force and an anonymous tip line for people to report breeders and put them out of business immediately! Las Vegas Cracks Down on Backyard Breeders!
- Temporarily reduce breeder licenses for overpopulated breeds like shepherds and huskies and malinois. Everything has to be considered! We have to turn off the tap in order to humanely care for our communities’ animals!
- Hire an Independent auditor to review the LA County and City Shelter systems and report back on longer-term solutions. Allowing Marcia Mayeda to "audit" herself is completely inappropriate and unprofessional (and it has been ineffective)
- Make the "promises" made in the March 16 report realities - I know of no adopters at Carson who have received offers of free training! I also know of no situations where pet owners received the type of coaching described in this document. Provide monthly reporting on the efficacy and implementation of all of the programs laid out on pages 31-34 of this report such as: How many adopters have engaged with GoodPup or Home-to-Home or the Good Family Partnership? How much has the county budgeted for these programs and what success stories are available to show their effectiveness?
- Send sick animals home with a prescription or medication. Animals leave the Carson shelter with URIs on a regular basis but the shelter says it is not allowed to provide medication or even a prescription. Often adopters can’t get into a vet timely to continue their medication.
What other ideas do you have? Please add them!! PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE THIS PETITION WIDELY!! WE NEED REAL SOLUTIONS QUICKLY TO ADDRESS THE INCREASING NUMBERS OF ANIMALS LOOKING FOR HOMES. This problem isn’t going to get better unless we implement SOLUTIONS! And as many more people suffer from economic challenges and housing insecurity, having to give up pets becomes increasingly a reality! This isn’t just an LA problem - I have called shelters up and down the West Coast and heard reports back from New York, Idaho and beyond, where pet owners are struggling. Thank you for helping with your signature, comments and sharing!
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