Some stories are hard to cover because there's lack of information. No one wants to talk to you, you can't get any details and piecing together a scenario with gaping holes doesn't necessarily make for compelling journalism. This story is for the most part, anything but. In fact, there's so much information, so many angles, so much to write about that narrowing down the story is proving to be the major challenge.
From criticism of the 2008 mandatory spay and neuter laws and subsequent low-cost spay/neuter vouchers, to the passion and drama involved in L.A.'s very own troop of rescues, to a previous administration that ended with more animals being euthanized in the city's shelter than when it started, the story has no end, but for my intents and purposes here on Spot.us, it must have an end, at least a temporary one anyway.
As the days wind down to my deadline, I have interviewed sources ranging from Brenda Barnette, the new general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services, to Nathan Winograd, considered to be a pioneer of the "No-KIll Movement" and sources involved in rescuing dogs and cats across the city.
Tomorrow, I will be visiting two shelters - the East Valley Animal Shelter in Van Nuys (which you can read about in my previous blog post, The Saddest Place on Earth) and another shelter located in Los Angeles County.
Thank you to the 28+ people have donated, there's only $63 left. The Spot.us process is always exciting, but I do have one favor to ask - I am looking for a source who has not spayed or neutered their dog becase they can't afford it. I believe this will be an important part to my story, so if you know anyone who is in this predicament, please do let me know at lianaaghajanian@yahoo.com. Until next time...
Posted by Liana Aghajanian on 10/24/10
"This is the saddest place on Earth.” Those are the first words I heard when I opened the doors to the East Valley Animal Shelter in Van Nuys. The man who said it, while visibly upset, was hurrying out to his car. Before I could stop him and ask why, an unfolding scene caught my eye.
Two women were dragging a beige and white Staffordshire Terrier mix that was whimpering to the front of the counter. His name was Charlie, with amber eyes and floppy ears. They began to explain the situation to Rebecca Summers, the animal care technician who greeted them. What situation? I moved in closer.
They were turning him in.
They said he was aggressive and had fought with other dogs, but when told that his chances of making out alive were slim, they changed Charlie’s conviction to “hyper.”
He was found as a puppy in a park when he was three months old, they said. But like all big breeds, he had grown in size and they decided they could no longer keep him. It was made clear that he could be put down if he did show aggression.
But their minds were already made up. Charlie would be calling the East Valley Animal Shelter his new home, at least for a short while, with the other 432 animals, including 244 dogs and 166 cats that were there as of Sunday, Oct. 17.
Summers was trying to get her camera to work so she could take a photo of Charlie for his ID card when I caught up with her. He seemed really sweet, she said, but she couldn’t tell what he was like yet.
Around the back, dogs and cats waited in the damp Los Angeles weather in their kennels and crates for someone, anyone, to take them home.
With the smell of urine and rain in the air and an orchestra of wails and barks, I walked down the corridors of metal cages and concrete grounds. The last time I felt that somber was during an early morning trip to Alcatraz Island, where strangely enough, the jail cells were almost exactly the same size.
A few families had come to find a potential pet. Volunteers were periodically taking dogs on walks. One couldn’t even be persuaded back in its kennel with a treat, dragging its body across the floor until another volunteer placed it back in. Another had climbed half way up its kennel door, oblivious of course, that he had already been adopted out and would be going to a new home any day now.
The East Valley Animal Shelter has a high euthanasia rate, but also a high adoption rate, according to shelter workers. For as many that get adopted, more come in.
Many of the shelter’s dogs have “stray” listed as their status, which makes you wonder how they ended up on the streets in the first place. Were they left somewhere by people who decided they didn’t want a dog anymore? Are they the result of a litter born to a backyard breeder? Did they escape? Are they lost? Their stories are unclear, and the only thing declaring their existence fits on a 6 x8 card attached to the metal wires of their cages.
The stray status however, might be deceiving. Many who turn animals claim they’re stray to perhaps alleviate the guilt associated with an unwanted animal.
“They tell you its stray, but you know it’s their pet,” Summers said.
The clear divide down the center brings up an issue deeper than euthanasia rates or budget woes within LAAS, one reflected in the residents of the East Valley Animal Shelter: responsible pet ownership and what exactly it means take care of and be morally held accountable for the life of an animal. In Los Angeles, residents pamper and indulge in their pets, with high-end pet boutiques and designer breeds on sale for thousands across the city that are potentially churned out as fast as Happy Meals from puppy mills, but also turn dogs like Charlie into already crowded shelters because they get too big.
(Photo: an East Valley Animal Shelter dog on Sunday, Oct. 17/ by Liana Aghajanian)
There has been no animal that defines the face of Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS) in the last five years better than Stu, a Lab/Staffie mix that has been essentially sitting in "dog jail" since he was impounded in 2005 and deemed dangerous. Rescued off the streets of South Los Angeles by movie lighting technician Jeffrey de la Rosa while he was working on "Training Day," Stu was seized by LAAS in 2005 after biting de la Rosa’s now ex-assistant, who subsequently filed a bite report and sued him for $6 million, according to de la Rosa.
At his hearing, Stu was deemed “not dangerous” by an LAAS Hearing Examiner, but that was later overturned by then LAAS General Manager Guerdon Stuckey. Two years at a shelter, a short stint at a rescue, an examination by an Animal Behaviorist that deemed him “not dangerous,” appeals to commissioners and the L.A. Superior Court and even amendments to a dangerous dogs ordinance that could help Stu’s case, but De la Rosa has had no luck getting his dog back. He just found out last week that Stu has a tumor in his nasal passage, he said.
Over the years, Stu has in many ways, been a symbol of a department that has been falling apart at the seams, plagued by rising euthanasia rates egged on by budget cuts, hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursement to veterinarians for low cost vouchers for spay-neuter surgery (put in place by a mandatory ordinance that passed in 2008) that have gone unpaid and a now ex-General Manager named Ed Boks, ousted and vilified by both LAAS employees and the rescue community alike.
When I met de la Rosa to discuss Stu’s case, his involvement with LAAS and animal activism in the city, it was clear that the story of not only Stu, but of LAAS, as well as the rifts within the rescue community are deeper and more intricate than one can imagine. In fact, one article is not enough. There’s probably enough to write a two volume book, with enough characters, melodrama, rumors and climaxes for it to become a best-seller. Narrowing down the story and focus, without the extra details getting in the way will prove to be a major challenge.
Stu, now a 10-year-old senior who de la Rosa’s says is not the same dog he rescued in 2000, has a fate that has been remained unsealed for five years. He now resides at K9s Only, a boarding and training facility run by Bobby Dorafshar.
The future of LAAS and its no-kill or low-kill goals, slated to be accomplished by 2010 according to Boks, seems just as uncertain.
Daniel Guss, the founder of the STAND Foundation (Stop Torture, Abuse & Neglect of Dogs), dedicated to helping animals of the homeless, improving the living conditions of guard dogs and aiding rescuers among other things cites Boks’ tenure for worsening the problems of LAAS, and he’s not alone.
“Ed left things in such shambles, and Villaraigosa took so long to replace him, that nobody knows what’s going on, especially now that we have the downturn in the economy,” he said in a phone interview.
De la Rosa, who documents the Board of Commissioners of LAS in his blog, “Board Watch,” isn’t hopeful that the city will ever reach its no-kill goal. He might be right. While adopting out 20,434 animals in the last year, Los Angeles has also euthanized just over 20,000 dogs and cats, with the monthly average at 1697. And that’s not including the around 25 non-city shelters listed on the LAAS website.
In order for Los Angeles to come close to no-kill, the department needs a complete revamp, including animal care severing from animal control and branching off into its own agency, according to de la Rosa.
While LAAS stays as one entity for now, the department could make significant strides and repairs under the leadership of newly appointed general manager Brenda Barnette, who comes to L.A. with four years under her belt as Chief Executive Officer for the Humane Society for Seattle/King County in Washington. More on that in the near future.
Posted by Liana Aghajanian on 10/13/10
"5-year-old small Chow mix was surrendered to the shelter as her owner has health/cognitive issues and was forgetting to feed her. She is not doing well at the shelter - apparently starting to show aggression. She is now urgent."
"Phoenix is a victim of one of the crulest forms of torture still going on in the 21st century - dog fighting. Phoenix was found missing both ears, multiple scars around his face and chest as well as being extremely emanicipated. The veterinarian caring for him believes he was used as a "bait dog" for dog fights. These "bait dogs" have their ears cut off as well as their mouths tape shut and then thrown into a ring for other "fighting dogs" to practice on. Phoenix endured this for most of six years. This life is all he knew."
It was messages like these that regularly appeared on feeds for social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter as well as websites for rescue organizations that ultimately prompted me to create my second pitch on Spot.us centered around Los Angeles' efforts in becoming a No-Kill city.
Interestingly enough, where as my first pitch was centered around what happens after death ( see: Unclaimed Kin in Los Angeles Piling Up), this one is about preventing it from happening.
And while the second half of my proposed story will be focusing on how social media has changed the fate of thousands of discarded pets in Los Angeles, I'd like to highlight it in my first blog post because it was what inspired me to post this pitch in the first place.
While we are most probably aware that pets are killed in shelters in L.A. and across the country, when you see them and their tragic stories spread out on your Facebook feed between what your friends ate for lunch and never ending celebrity gossip, it puts things into perspective.
The impound numbers become names. The names become faces. The faces tell stories of abandonment, abuse and neglect. Sometimes learning the backgrounds of these animals are so horrifying, it's hard to continue on with your day.
With dedicated volunteers in a race to save every dog, cat, bunny ( and sometimes even guinea pigs) that they can, the bigger picture fades in the background - will Los Angeles ever become a No-Kill city? What will it take to get there? How is the city working on implementing plans to reduce the 20,000 pets that are being killed annually? Is the mandatory spay and neuter law the biggest detriment the city has to achieving its No-Kill goals as some animal advocates claim or is it actually making a difference?
I am on a mission to find out.
Photo by superfem/Creative Commons
Posted by Liana Aghajanian on 09/23/10
