LA Shelter Criticized For Euthanasia Policies and Firing Concerned Volunteers
By Alejandro Barlow
Random Lengths news highlighted in a previous edition a story of a husky named Tac. The family, who could no longer afford a pet, brought Tac to the shelter in hopes he would be adopted and cared for, later finding out the dog was euthanized.
Families who economically cannot care for an animal anymore resort to surrendering their animal to the shelter in hopes it goes to a different family. Months after surrendering Tac, the child from that family noticed a protest holding a photo of his dog. He said “Hey, That’s my dog!” with excitement, until he slowly realized the sign read in “memory of” and that protesters were talking about euthanizations. The child ran off crying, realizing the trust the family had in the city shelter was broken and they killed his dog in the name of saving space at the shelter.
For a child, having a dog and a best friend is like no other feeling in the world. Finding a dog in the shelter and taking it home the same day, or seeing a photo of an animal online and seeing it in person is like Christmas morning to animal lovers.
The Los Angeles Animal Society website lists 1,924 animals across six shelters. Nearly 16% of the animals are listed without a photo. These animals, without a photo, include ones that have been in the system for less than a month, and others that have been there as long as three years. This set of circumstances begs the question, what criteria are shelters using to decide which animals are euthanized if space is an issue?
Los Angeles Animal Society shelters are six city-run shelters consisting of East Valley, North Central, West Valley, Chesterfield Square/South Los Angeles, West Los Angeles and Harbor. These locations have been firing volunteers who have voiced dissatisfaction with how the animals are treated under the shelter’s care.
The shelters caught the attention of activists for euthanizing pets and firing volunteers for little to no reason. These activists have been protesting the euthanizations every Saturday at the Harbor location.
Volunteer Hell
The LA Animal Shelter’s literature uses the lack of funds and resources as an explanation for its euthanization policies. Yet there’s never a shortage of animal lovers wanting to become volunteers or others willing to donate feed, blankets and cuddle time with the animals.
Current and former volunteers spoke to Random Lengths News about conditions in the shelter for humans and animals. RLn is keeping their identities hidden because of concerns of retaliation from the shelter.
To become a volunteer, a lengthy application must first be completed, then an interview, then a long training process to have the opportunity to walk the dogs as a volunteer.
Sources say that it takes up to six months from the time you submit your application to when you go to the first orientation. After this period and orientation, the volunteers spend months doing hands off things with the animals such as reading to the animals, playing music for the animals or blowing bubbles into the kennels.
A source shared with Random Lengths News about the volunteer’s duties, as well as a list of things for the volunteers not to do. The not-to-do list is supposed to be done by the staff members only, but the source said it’s not done by the staff often enough.
The volunteer role at LAAS shelters includes “assisting the public and working with the staff in our animal shelters and at on-site and off-site adoption events. Animals need care, attention, walking, playing, socialization and engaging with people to help them find homes to go to. Volunteers are to assist with other important roles such as adoptions, kennels, greeting customers, photography, videography, playgroups, grooming, humane education, marketing and some office tasks” as revealed by our source.
Visiting the shelter, a volunteer would be the first person to greet and assist a guest. The staff members in the lobby may look up from their computers to say they are busy and instruct you to seek a volunteer who can help.
The volunteers help people with interacting with the animals, finding specific animals, finding animals that fit the family better, and other tasks that go along with a pet adoption. The volunteer cannot help the pet become adopted to a certain point staff members then take over and assist in the adoption process with all the paperwork.
Kennel Conditions Revealed
The source revealed, “For example, we were told by our volunteer liaison not to clean the kennels or do any of the tasks the shelter staff is paid to do. But yet volunteers clean feces out of kennels when they see that nobody else is going to do it.”
The kennels at the shelters are roughly 5.5 feet by 7.5 feet. The dogs in the kennels typically have a buddy in the kennel for company, although some dogs are by themselves. The kennels are full concrete floors and walls, and steel bars for the top foot of the kennel and door. The dogs have one bed in a section further back separated by a raising and lowering track known as the “guillotine” door.
The staff “clean the kennels” by hosing them with a pressurized watering hose to rid the kennels of the animal urine and feces. The kennels are supposed to be cleaned daily, but our sources say that’s not what’s happening. When the staff does clean the kennels, the dog is placed behind the kennel’s guillotine door, while the ground is hosed off without the benefit of disinfectant soap. Our sources say the ground is constantly wet and the walls splattered with feces and urine from the “cleaning” by the staff.
The staff are the ones who feed the animals, and volunteers are not able to feed animals except for treats during training. Agnes Sibal-von Debschitz, the public information director of LAAS, says the animals are fed twice a day. Random Lengths sources reveal that the animals are fed only once a day, usually at night around 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and are not fed at the same time each day. The food is not given out based on weight, and only given X amount per dog despite the sizes. Our sources stated that the shelter has run out of food and resorted to using donated food, leaving a majority of the dogs with diarrhea because of the food change.
Random Lengths News asked Sibal-von Debschitz how the kennels are cleaned and what the schedule is for cleaning kennels.
“Our department practice is that all kennels are cleaned daily with a mixture of water and ‘Rescue’, a chemical used for disease prevention and disinfection,” Sibal-von Debschitz said in an emailed reply. “Staff and volunteers also work to spot clean throughout the day. With current overcrowding, volunteers are needed now, more than ever, to ensure every pet has a clean kennel, daily enrichment, and the best chance for a live outcome through adoption, transfer to another agency, or reunification with their owner.”
Criteria for Euthanasia
Fecal smearing is a reason for euthanizing an animal, according to our sources and the euthanasia list. Fecal smearing in the kennel may look like a footprint in the feces or the animal having feces on its body from laying on it.
As of Nov. 1, there are three dogs on the euthanasia list from the Harbor shelter. Reasons for euthanasia include fear, anxiety and stress, vertical exercising, barking/panting/howling and not enough enrichment time (time out of the kennel). FAS is a natural reaction to being put in a cage for extended periods. Vertical exercising is when a dog jumps at the kennel door because they are excited to see someone come to or walk by the kennel, according to our sources.
An animal scheduled to be euthanized has a reason reading “Reason for euthanasia: Buddy is a big boy with lots of energy. In Play group he is rough and rowdy, high energy and ramps up the group. During a meet and greet he did growl and started to bit and leash climb when staff was putting him back. He needs more enrichment then can be given at the shelter.”
Other animals on the list authorizing the euthanasia and not providing an actual reason for euthanization. “Euthanasia Reason – Euthanasia is authorized for …” and other shelter locations provide reasons with date taken into shelter and how many times the animal was taken out of the kennel as well as reasonings for euthanasia. It seems as though there are no guidelines on what does or does not call for an animal to be euthanized or the way reasons should be listed or verified before put on the list.
Random Lengths News asked Sibal-von Debschitz how an animal is chosen to be put on the euthanization list, and what standardized reasons are put for the animals on the euthanization list.
“LA Animal Services’ euthanasia policies are guided by our focus on lifesaving while needing to ensure public safety and humane animal care, balancing overcrowding and fulfilling community needs. The department is currently reviewing and updating its euthanasia protocols to enhance safety, improve quality of life for sheltered animals, and reduce preventable euthanasia. In every open-admission animal shelter across the United States, dogs may face risk of euthanasia at any time if the shelter does not have the resources to care for them, or if the dog is suffering, becomes unsafe to handle, or shows aggression. LA Animal Services is no exception. Within our jurisdiction, we accept every animal in need that comes to us, including animals that are very sick, injured, or dangerous. In certain cases, humane euthanasia is the only appropriate or available option.” Sibal-von Debschitz answered in an email.
Our sources share that each dog has a behavior chart that can be added to by volunteers and staff. It was shared that an animal can have a long list of good behaviors and even show improvement on the behavior chart but can all be voided from one staff member’s note on chart from one interaction with the animal. Sources shared that this one note from staff can be the reason the animal is put on the euthanasia list despite all the good interactions with volunteers. The “bad behaviors” may include barking at the staff member or vertical exercising, both of which could be out of excitement.
Sibal-von Debschitz was asked about who in the shelter is authorized to euthanize animals and if there is a veterinarian in the shelter. When Random Lengths asked Harbor shelter if there was a veterinarian on staff, the shelter explained that there was no veterinarian on staff, but that the services provided by the CAMP building on the same property is limited to spay/neutering services.
“State registered and licensed medical staff perform any humane euthanasia procedures,” Sibal-von Debschitz explained in the email. “The Department employs five veterinarians on staff. We currently have openings for licensed veterinarians and veterinary technicians”
Pet Adoptions
Animal activist Ina Perry revealed to Random Lengths that the shelters do pop-up adoptions at different locations or events. The shelter will take multiple animals to these events in hopes of getting the animals adopted.
“I was told they didn’t go because they are too shy. Any dog too shy is given a rating and those never go to adoption events,” said Perry.
Our sources reveal that during the summer some dogs were kept in crates inside the breakroom. The summer had temperatures consistently in the high 90s (Fahrenheit) and the low 100s (Fahrenheit) indoors where the dogs in the crates were kept because of the broken air conditioning unit. Our sources say that the staff refused to purchase a new unit or put a work order in for the air conditioning unit to be fixed. The volunteers purchased a new unit after multiple days of the dogs in the 100-degree heat, according to our sources.
Multiple people come in during the winter months to donate towels and blankets for the animals in the kennels. Our sources say that there is a large pile of the donated blankets in a room that do not make it to the animals in the back. Some animals do have a blanket or towel but they quickly become wet and dirty and do not get swapped out. Our sources revealed that there are enough for each dog and for them to be swapped out with a new one when it gets dirty.
LAAS declined to have an interview with Random Lengths News but chose to reply to select questions through email.
