.
Boks says the live release rate is decreasing under his management, from 54% in fiscal 05-06, to 52% for 2006-2007. No-Kill gurus are supposed to increase the live release rate, especially with a hugely increasing budget and manpower.
He says the spay/neuter programs, vouchers, licensing are not decreasing impound levels. Therefore, he says, more of the same is required (Einstein’s definition of insanity is more of the same with no change in the results. Ed quotes him.): enforcement activity.
What he appears to be saying is that if we get more people out there checking for dog license scofflaws, the feral cat and kitten intake will decrease. (This is humor for those serious people out there.) Maybe he is saying if we catch more hoarders, and LAAS impounds their animals, then the intake will be less. I don’t know what he means by enforcement.
In any event, LAAS-subsidized spay/neuters have nearly doubled since 2003-2004, but the intake is going up.
I have been saying for some time that spay/neuter is not the only way, maybe not even the #1 way. Mackie’s opinion is that 70% of the cat and dog population have to be sterilized before impounds will stabilize.
On page 4 of the report, Boks says 72% of the dogs and 55% of the cats impounded were not altered. If that percentage is representative, and if there are 500,000 feral and roaming housed cats on the streets, then we will need to do 120,000 spay/neuters a year just to stabilize the cat impound numbers.
This leads me to believe that the biggest warehousing of animals is in the streets and that we are seeing only a small, small percentage of them leaking into the shelters where Boks warehouses them even more.
Unless we do basic science and have some grasp on the numbers of feral and homeless cats and dogs are out there, we will have no idea of how much spay/neutering we will need to do. As it is, Ed is poking around with a stick in the dark without a clue. Now he is saying what we are doing is not working, so let’s call out the doggie police, but the doggie impounds are declining, not the cat’s.
So, the big news is things are getting worse at LAAS and Ed doesn’t know what to do..
Boks should resign. He misrepresented himself. Now, we're in a state of emergency.
ReplyDeleteWe should bring in a trusted local that has no ulterior motives to lead LAAS. We should use a successful urban template, tailor it with our statistics, enhance it with our ideas and develop a plan.
I don't trust Boks to do this. He has proven that he is untrustworthy and has self-seeking motives. He's not going to change his stripes. Apparently, this is the third time he has failed. Three strikes and you're out.
The Mayor should let the humane community decide on another person as GM. The Mayor doesn't want to be bothered with this. If he lets us choose, then we can't blame him if we fail. That should appeal to him immensely. If we're successful, and we'll insist on being so because no one cares as much as we do, he'll get to take some of the credit for the success and he'll get lots of positive PR.
It's not LA's obligation to carry Boks and sacrifice the animals.
Boks is failing and doesn't know what to do. That is for sure. How can a nokill king come in, promise to make LA nokill, then actually do worse than his predecessors who had no experience? This is a fiasco.
ReplyDeleteThe unsterilized rate is alarming. We need a lot more spay neuter, and right now.
ReplyDeleteThis is a total fiasco! How could Boks do this to us, to the animals? He obviously doesn't care about the animals at all! I'm shocked. What went wrong? What did he do or not do to cause this?
ReplyDelete