Animal groups join forces to curb L.B. shelter deaths

Sadly there is to many unwanted animals . You can helpby Spaying or Netuering your animal . Also be readry to keep your friend for 10 years . I have two recuses and yes I wish I could do more . One is a fral cat and should I have to move and be unable to find a home for him I will have to put him to sleep . He is Netured though as well as my other cat who I can take or place. Animals are not toys please donot adopt unless you are willing to Spay , Netuer and be pepared to keep Him / Her for at lest ten years . I have worked with rescuse groups and also trapped Ferals spayed / Netured Ferals and put them back to keep the population at bay .

It would seem to me that rather than worrying about the animal control officers so much, the coalition should be more focused on public education and doing what is possible to get the owners of pets to treat them better, and more carefully, so that the animals don't wind up in the shelter to begin with. If the coalition is going to be so closely concerned with the shelter, it should see to it that they have more volunteers on site working alongside the animal control officers, and helping to operate the shelter in a manner more in line with their desires. These volunteers are the ones who should be exercising the animals, or seeing to "socialization".

That LB Shelter is a joke. I took a feral kitten there that someone threw in my backyard. I live in Cypress..... 1 mile away and they wouldnt take the animal. Refused to take it ...because it wasnt in their area. So I said fine.... I really found it in Los Alamitos ....nope. Geez...any other person would have tossed the little darling out on the road at that point...or left it somewhere to starve...here I am trying to do the right thing...and I had to drive it clear down to the shelter in Orange. The poor thing was freaked out from the long ride. A helpless kitty or dog doesnt care what zip code they were found in...they need care and from the nearest facility. Wake up people!

No kill shelters just dump their problems on someone else. It is much better to accept all and humanely euthanize what you must.

Trap/Neuter/Reabandon (TNR) is cruel and is definately a form of animal abuse. These no kill shelters love this practice since it keeps more animals out of their shelters but the cats suffer in substandard colonies.

Cat advocates have one thing on their minds and that is cats. All other forms of life do not matter to these fanatics. What about all of the native wild creatures that these cats kill?

TNR colonies have no place in the natural environment. Feral cats must be enclosed in a sanctuary or humanely euthanized. We should NEVER abandon a domestic animal to live a horrible life outdoors!

I understand the need to care for the animals the best we can but it seems if all the adults don't
show kindness to each other, the animals are doomed.It seems the politics get in the way.

Nice story, Joe!

It is surprising to me that the City is claiming that only 57 adoptable animals were euthanized at the shelter last year. I'd like to know what evidence they can offer to support that. First of all, how do they define feral? Any cat that is in a shelter environment, even the most domesticated and placid of cats, will be crazed with fear and appear feral-like. The attitude that produces this kind of spin, which common sense tells us is patently not true, is troubling. Long Beach, and all municipalities that run "Kill" animal shelters need to experience a paradigm shift - the way that animals are treated currently in city animal shelters is not acceptable. Cities need to work to find more creative solutions to the animal overpopulation problem. Kudos to the Coalition for starting this process.

Anne wrote:

It is surprising to me that the City is claiming that only 57 adoptable animals were euthanized at the shelter last year. I'd like to know what evidence they can offer to support that. First of all, how do they define feral? Any cat that is in a shelter environment, even the most domesticated and placid of cats, will be crazed with fear and appear feral-like. The attitude that produces this kind of spin, which common sense tells us is patently not true, is troubling. Long Beach, and all municipalities that run "Kill" animal shelters need to experience a paradigm shift - the way that animals are treated currently in city animal shelters is not acceptable. Cities need to work to find more creative solutions to the animal overpopulation problem. Kudos to the Coalition for starting this process.

Anne, those figures need to be redone. Here is why. Most of the healthy wildlife that was euthanized should of been sent to rescue or relocated, most of the injured wildlife should of been sent to rescue where a VETERINARIAN would diagnose them to be suffering. Most the shelter animals that were euthanized for being sick or injured cannot be counted as sick or injured because they were not seen by a VETERINARIAN and diagnosed with a condition or injury. They could of been perfectly healthy for all we know. People that are making these decisions should not of been involved. So count all sick and injured animals as adoptable animals. Neither proper nor legal procedures were not used to determine the life or death. As for the 57 adoptable animals, you guessed it, that number is not correct either. The SPCA marks animals as "unadoptable" all the time for various bullsh** reasons which are medical or behavioral. Diagnoses and behavioral conditions are just some lame persons wild guess, boldface lie or just because they really don't know what the hell they are doing. A lot of time reasons are made up because they have to put something down as for why they are not taking the animal or else they would look bad. The SPCA employs the "Vet" and the "behaviorists" who come up the "reasons" these animals will die. Long Beach's euthanasia statistics are a joke and now they are being blamed for all the killings. You can't blame Long Beach for all the killings because the SPCA refuses 80% of the animals and they will not let Long Beach adopt out the animals that are not selected. Well then rescue should be called right? No, rescue organizations in a whole refuse to come into the shelter, they do not want to deal with the SPCA and Long Beach has trouble soliciting rescues because of this. Has all of this enlightened everyone? I really am sickened by the blame and ridicule that has been put on animal control, SPCA is the reason all of these shelter animals are killed. The proof is here. I you do not believe me, just wait and see. SPCA is not what they appear to be. This new activist group that is coming in to "revamp" Long Beach Animal Control really should go to the other side of the building were the real problem lies.

The Long Beach Animal Shelter is horrible to adopt from. They subject you to everything short of a DNA test. I understand screening and making sure an animal is placed in a good home but they make it impossible. They'd rather send the animals to their death then adopt them out. Since moving to the Spring location the LB shelter is impossible to adopt from. I'm not surprised by this report that they subjected many cats to death rather than take the time to adopt them out. They need to change their ways and policies. From now on I get my animals from Carson.

Tim, get your facts straight. I volunteer at a no kill shelter and the problems are dumped on US because people don't want to take their animals to the kill shelters.

I would just like to send props out to Mr Wesley Moore. You are a good man, and have been an amazing animal control employee all these years. Don't let people get you down. The people that have respected you for years got your back.

I volunteer at the spcaLA in Long Beach and that happenes to be one of the nicer shelters around. The dogs are fed well, it's clean, there are many volunteers who go there to walk & play with the animals, however I do not agree with all of the adoption rules, I have personally seen them turn away really great adopters that really wanted a dog and because they said the dog would be an "inside/outside" dog they were turned away, and guess what - that animal was put down for no reason. They are lazy when it comes to doing home checks, and need to ease up on their adoption rules. So what if a dog is an inside/outside dog, as long as the dog is loved, not left outside, is taken care of and part of the family isn't it better then having to live in the shelter runs 24-7? Give me a break spcaLA - you need to change your adoptions procedures- do more home checks, do a 6 month follow up - but don't turn away good families for these dogs then put them down later because their time is up and you need more room. And I believe they need MORE caring front desk administrators - Jo - is a joke and very rude and uncaring and needs to go.

I think the shelter could begin improvements by eliminating a few **** they have for employees. One bimbo comes to mind when I attempted to adopt a dog, a Lab/mix, several years ago. She refused me because I had a dog house. Can you believe that? I was trying to adopt a buddy for my other Lab/mix. I had been a dog owner for over thirty-four years. I have plenty of experience in taking care of my pets. My dogs sleep in at night. But if I'm away from the house and it begins to rain when they're ouside, it stands to reason they would need shelter. So I ultimately went online to Petfinder.com and got a wonderful female Lab/mix. She is a total delight and my two dogs get along beautifully.

Check the math:

"last year it euthanized 7,965 ... animals

88 percent of the euthanized animals were considered unsuitable for placement

Keisler said 12 percent, or 57 of the animals, should have been adopted"

7965 x .12 = 955.8

956 adoptable animals were euthanized by LBAC last year, not 57.

An honest mistake?

Lets build a power plant with doggie tread mills. The doggies will run on the tread mills and make electricity. It is a win-win. No brown-outs and the doggies get to live.

Mario wrote:

Check the math:
"last year it euthanized 7,965 ... animals
88 percent of the euthanized animals were considered unsuitable for placement
Keisler said 12 percent, or 57 of the animals, should have been adopted"
7965 x .12 = 955.8
956 adoptable animals were euthanized by LBAC last year, not 57.
An honest mistake?

And they were all refused by Spca-LA's untrained staff , not LBAC's fault. Spca's staff does not know how to communicate with animals to access them properly. Sure, they took classes to learn but the animals don 't trust them so they just get written off. LBAC staff is better at communicating and accessing the animals to see who is truly "adoptable".

This City currently has a wonderful opportunity to shift paradims in their animal control programs and methodology. Including this consortium of concerned animal lovers would be the epitome of a democratic process.

The time is right; the time is now!

A big part of the problem is that there is a lack of pet friendly housing and owners simply leave their cat or dog behind to fend for themselves add to the mix the foreclousre crisis and you have a perfect storm of homeless animals and add a bias regarding declawing/indoor/outdoor dogs and you have a potentially adoption down the drain
therefore we need to look at all aspects of the problem before a real solution can be achieved

Just like humans no one wants to curb the population on any living thing including humans... It should be birth control for humans
(especialy in L.A. county),and spay and neuter your pets.That could solve 2 BIG problems all at once... The result will be less Gang Members, and less killing of "innocent" animals.Of course the loss of the "Furry Ones" I am more interested in saving them..

Obviously, there are many aspects and guilty parties involved in this problem - so - let's fix it. Too simple, you might say. But it isn't really. We have to start somewhere. How about humane education programs in the schools to educate children about spaying, neutering and proper care of animals? How about free spay/neuter vans visiting neighborhoods and doing surgeries? How about education blitzes on billboards, television and radio?

We can effect a change if we work at it from every angle. And that means that individuals need take it on. Here are 5 ways you can make a difference TODAY:

1. Educate your neighborhood or one in need - make a spay/neuter flyer and distribute it in your neighborhood.

2. Donate books on humane education to your local library or elementary school. The Humane Society has a list of great books that teach kids to care: http://www.nahee.org/awards/2008_book_award.a...

3. Support local rescue groups - volunteer to help them foster animals or publicize events.

4. If you can't donate your time, donate funds to the Humane Society, local animal rescues,

5. Adopt an animal from a shelter and tell your friends to do it, too.

The people in this country are capable of doing great things - all of us can make a difference.