No easy solutions to L.A.’s animal shelter crisis

The Los Angeles city animal shelter system has been in crisis for many years with critics and animal advocates pointing the finger at poor management.

Two weeks ago, a small but vocal group rallied outside a Los Angeles City Council meeting calling for drastic changes, decrying what they describe as deplorable conditions and a lack of spay and neuter options, while also demanding more community outreach to encourage fostering and adoption.

Staycee Dains was appointed general manager of L.A.’s Animal Services department last summer with the tall order of reducing overcrowding, increasing staffing and, ultimately, saving the lives of healthy pets at the city’s six shelters.

Dains sat down with KTLA 5 News in September to insist progress was being made.

“In just a couple of months that I’ve been there, I’ve been completely focused on bringing in more staff … we are an understaffed organization … as well as bringing on more volunteers,” she told us at the time.

According to her staff, that focus is paying off.

The number of volunteers has increased from 560 individuals when Dains arrived to 953, all of whom have spent at least one hour at the shelter over the last 30 days. All 140 L.A. Animal Services staff positions are in the process of being filled, we’re told.

Now, with staffing shored up, Dains says a greater focus can be placed on the health and well-being of pets.

“A conversation that we’re having all the time with our staff, with our volunteers is the need for animals to leave our care. We have brought overpopulation down by 50%,” she recently told us.

Video recorded on March 19 and obtained by KTLA shows hallways are still lined with dogs at the South L.A. shelter. Many kennels are overcrowded and some cages are filthy, the video shows.

Volunteers say many dogs are only getting out of their cages once a day, and sometimes not at all.

Dains admits that there is much work ahead, but she believes she is already making a positive impact.

“I think one of our big successes is engagement. I think that that is improving and I think it needs to continue to improve,” she insists. “[We’ve made] really important clarifications for staff in terms of humane care and treatment for animals … and we are enforcing those guidelines and holding staff accountable.”

Volunteers, however, also point to some confusion under Dains’ leadership.

One example was a letter sent to volunteers by another manager who said all dogs would be categorized by their potential risk to humans or other pets, which they feared would lead to mass euthanization.

Dains responded with a letter later that day insisting that LAAS “will not euthanize healthy and friendly pets, ever.”

Dains says the department is attempting to stop the overcrowding problem at its source by working on a moratorium on selling breeding permits, increasing the amount for city spay and neuter vouchers to get more veterinarians involved in the program, and increasing collaboration with other animal organizations.

Activists like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have taken to posting signs around the city hoping to get Mayor Karen Bass’s attention.

Dains understands and accepts the public scrutiny, but insists she cannot solve the problem alone.

“My message to people who are concerned about what’s happening in our shelters is to come and volunteer to foster an animal, to adopt an animal, and to donate. That is the only way that we are going to be able to turn the tide in our shelters.”

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