LAAS Slashes Graveyard Shift; Impact on Safety Expected
by Elisha Lockhart
The consequence of doing so will impact the life of approximately 1,500 animals residing at LAAS and Los Angeles public safety. During those six hours, there will be two Animal Control Officers on duty for the entire city of Los Angeles. Given that the two Officers will be manning the entire city, they will be out working in the field for a good portion of most nights. Therefore, the 1,500 will be in the shelter with no human supervision. Additionally, any incoming animals will either need to be tied to a pole or otherwise left alone in the front of the shelter, with no food, no water, and no medical attention. The hit-by-car animals will have to be left in a box if they are lucky otherwise lying on cold concrete in front of the shelter in bloody agony with crushed bones until the first LAAS employee arrives at 6 am.
Inside the shelter, according to Barnette's claims, we do not need to worry about dog fights with, as she calls them, "dangerous dogs like pit bulls" (see http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22793409/los-angeles-animal-shelters-lose-nighttime-staff) because they will be housed separately. What she fails to mention is that many of the fights that end up with severe injuries are in the overcrowded dog kennels housing the cute little small to medium size dogs (those Brenda would put in the non-dangerous category). So when Snoopy and Poochie get in a fight, and there is no staff to separate them most probably at least one of them will sustains severe injuries, the injured dog will end up lying in their own pool of blood until the 6 am staff members arrive to clean the shelter, and will probably go unnoticed until the full staff arrives for the 8 am opening and find Snoopy and Poochie dying or dead in their cage. And with lucky, no other dogs in the same run will jump into the ring with them.
And should you be coming out of a party or out of a movie one night and an aggressive dog tries to bite or does bite you or your child, good luck getting help. If you call the shelter for help, you will most likely get no answer because the total of two ACOs on staff will most likely be out in the field with no one to answer the phone to summon them to your emergency. In other words, your public safety and the public safety of others are jeopardized by Barnette's decision as well. Even though public safety is a core mission of LAAS.
For those people turning in animals they do not want, if they do not tie them up outside the shelter when they discover "no one is home" at LAAS, they will likely dump the animals at the side of a road or elsewhere. Now these animals can cause traffic accidents, be picked up for dangerous use, procreate and add to the pet overpopulation, get struck by a car as they try to find their way home, or get sick, injured or starve to death.
What is Barnette's excuse for this?
Barnette blames the new South LA shelter opening, claiming she now has so many cages that she does not have enough staff to man the graveyard shift. Yet even though Barnette already moved staff from East Valley and West LA shelters to man the expanded South LA shelter, all of the shelters, although somewhat understaffed, are still completing their work.
Remember, if the staff is not working during the graveyard shift, then the paperwork and animal care work they did not do will need to be done by staff in the morning -- for a net staff savings of none.
What is Barnette's real reason for doing this?
It is telling that Barnette is lying and claiming that she told and got the approval of New Hope Partners to this change. Yet the majority of New Hope Partners, if not all of them, were never told about this change. Now you know and if you are as outraged as I am about the lives of the voiceless souls of our city shelters and the safety of our city then I urge you to speak up and make as much noise as possible.
Labels: brenda barnette, elisha lockhart, LA Animal Services, la city budget cuts
Posted by Anonymous @ 3/16/2013 11:48:00 AM
11 Comments:
Why are you publishing this liberal nonsense? You might as well let Mary Cummins write for Mayor Sam.
Why? How about because even if you don't care about the humane treatment of these animals under the care of the City, there are many people who actually do. The city has a responsibility to handle these animals professionally and humanely. Obviously something you don't care about. I would as that you try not jumping to the conclusion that because you don't care, everyone shares your opinion, jackass.
LAKjun,
Pay no mind to Phil.
Phil is uniquely self-centered and angry. With no discernible career, he is a law school dropout whose only apparent endeavor is being a poseur. He is a wannabe-somebody, and his only outlet as a 40-something is to lash out, rather than engage. And those who lash out lack the ability to engage.
Don't get angry with Phil. Pity him for being so thirsty for attention, rather than being productive about whatever he believes in.
Anger does that to you when you're out of ideas.
The City of LA euthanizes about 30K to 50K animals a year. The writer of this piece is upset that animals will be left unattended for 6 hours. Yes... I think it is ridiculous.
Phil, you are once again a provable blowhard who is too lazy to research.
The city of LA kills about 18,000 to 20,000 per year. All you had to do was do a few clicks to be ACCURATE.
Instead, you're just a blowhard who makes up stats. This is yet another reason why you'll never be elected to anything. You pined for a debate with Adam Schiff, and acknowledged that you didn't even know some of the legislation that would be discussed.
You blew your own chance by failing to work. The same goes with that stat.
If you had made any effort to be informed, it still is has nothing to do with the issue that there needs to be at least one person on staff, if for nothing else to prevent against break-ins or call the fire dept if there's a fire.
But congrats again for being a blowhard who refuses to do any research.
Phil J,
I am calling you out on your false claim. The stats going back years are posted at www.laanimalservices.com.
I challenge you to find ANY year where 30,000 animals were killed, let alone 30,000-50,000.
Your credibility is at-stake. This will show that you are a complete blowhard who is too lazy to research things.
Come on, blowhard. Back it up.
Nothing against Phil, but he's making things up as he goes along.
I have been following LAAS for about 13 years, and for all its problems, I can't recall any one year when they came close to killing 30k.
Please sign this petition if you disagree with this move!
http://www.change.org/petitions/los-angeles-animal-services-brenda-barnette-stop-the-implementation-of-no-night-care-for-animals-in-city-shelters
http://www.change.org/petitions/los-angeles-animal-services-brenda-barnette-stop-the-implementation-of-no-night-care-for-animals-in-city-shelters
Please sign if you disagree with this move!
For the whole story on Barnette all you need do is go to the following website. It is THE best and most informative website when it comes to Barnette's real agenda here in L.A.
http://www.savelaanimalservices.com/
Eliminating the graveyard shift at our animal shelters is just one small step in a much bigger plan.
To discover that plan and Barnette's REAL agenda here in L.A., all you need do is go to the following website.
It's your "one-stop-shop" when it comes to everything about Brenda Barnette. Go to:
http://www.savelaanimalservices.com/
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