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This newest lawsuit alleges the same sort of things alleged against LAAS and Bernstein, and even more. Maybe all shelter directors read from the same playbook. The allegations about euthanasia practices is most disturbing. Is Winograd a guiding hand here too?
D.E.L.T.A. Rescue v. Los Angeles County
D.E.L.T.A. Rescue filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, January 14, 2008 against Los Angeles County, Supervisor Gloria Molina, Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, Supervisor Don Knabe, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Department of Animal Care and Control Director Marcia Mayeda, CEO William T. Fujioka, and Auditor-Controller J. Tyler McCauley.
The 25 page complaint alleges the following:
During the past 36 months or more, Los Angeles County, Marcia Mayeda, and the Department of Animal Care and Control failed to obtain proper licenses and had and have failed and refused to maintain records for storing and dispensing controlled substances used by the Department of Animal Care and Control to euthanize and sedate animals. As a result, the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency has initiated an investigation into Los Angeles County and the Department of Animal Care and Controls euthanasia practices and has threatened the Department of Animal Care and Control and Los Angeles County with fines in the tens of millions of dollars.
In response to the Federal Drug Enforcement Agencies investigation and in response to requests made by the plaintiff to produce records under California's Public Record's Act, Marcia Mayeda and the Department of Animal Care and Control issued orders to fabricate records and destroy email and other "paper trails" concerning the Department of Animal Care and Control and Los Angeles County's non-compliance with federal and state euthanasia record keeping requirements.
The Department of Animal Care and Control does not have and is critically lacking in equipment for rendering proper medical diagnoses for animals under their care, possession, and control.
Los Angeles County and the Department of Animal Care and Control have not maintained a lawful and adequate medical treatment program.
The Department of Animal Care and Control, under the supervision of Marcia Mayeda, has engaged and continues to engage in unlawful and inhumane euthanasia practices. The Department of Animal Care and Control has sent animals to be disposed of to D & D Disposal and Rendering while they are still alive; animals are held down and stepped on while being euthanized; animals are often euthanized out in the open and in front of other animals; and tranquilizer medications are not made available to the Department of Animal Care and Control employees to administer as needed to animals before they are euthanized.
Animals with medical conditions that are easily detected with the correct type of medical equipment are being released to the public and rescue organizations undiagnosed.
The Department of Animal Care and Control routinely refuses to provide prompt and necessary veterinary care to animals as are in need of such care, refuses to undertake any reasonable efforts to make treatable animals adoptable, and refuses to allow the public or rescue organizations the opportunity to provide prompt and necessary veterinary care to such animals in need of such care.
The city of Beverly Hills, one of the cities that contracts to the Department of Animal Care and Control, has initiated an investigation thorough its code enforcement offices and conducted a surprise inspection of the Carson Animal Shelter.
A video exists which shows a shelter employee at the Baldwin Park Animal Shelter dragging a Rottweiler with a broken back across the grounds through puddles banding its head on the ground. The employee has not been terminated and/or disciplined.
An employee at the Carson Animal Shelter injected animals with cleaning solution and water in order to euthanize them. The employee ("whistleblower") who reported this was terminated and Marcia Mayeda authorized the termination.
Animals are wrongfully euthanized because the Department of Animal Care and Control employees fail to check records to indicate the correct animals are being euthanized. In addition, animals are wrongfully euthanized because employees do not scan for microchips before euthanasia.
D.E.L.T.A. Rescue has complained to the Board of Supervisors for years. Their concerns have been validated and conditions have worsened. Los Angeles County, the Board of Supervisors, William T. Fujioka, and J. Tyler McCauley are not responding adequately and/or responsibly.
During the past 36 months, D.E.L.T.A. Rescue publicized the inhumane conditions at the Los Angeles County shelters and Los Angeles County's practice of supplying euthanized animals for the purpose of rendering them into animal feed and other commercial product. The Defendants, in turn, have targeted and retaliated against D.E.L.T.A. Rescue and its President, Leo Grillo.
Marcia Mayeda and the Department of Animal Care and Control have failed to conform with state and federal law while charging for services to the cities they contract with that are not actually provided. The Department of Animal Care and Control and Los Angeles County routinely overcharge and/or undercharge their contract cities.
Marcia Mayeda, the Department of Animal Care and Control, and its managers and other employees routinely destroy and/or fabricate records for the purpose of obstructing justice, depriving persons of their property, and/or for obtaining and spending public funds under false pretenses.
The amount of money represented by Marcia Mayeda and the Department of Animal Care and Control to the County, State, and contract cities that have been spent on the care and treatment of animals in the County's shelter on an annual basis is far in excess of the money actually spent on the animals and may have been overstated by millions of dollars. Los Angeles County, Marcia Mayeda, and the Department of Animal Care and Control routinely seek to redeem expenses from citizens of Los Angeles Counties whose animals have been impounded by the County and the Department which have not actually been incurred by the Department.
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5 comments:
This is literally nauseating. Time to get on the phones to Supervisors' offices.
Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up: Strangely enough, since there's been all this backlash in the rescue community about how the ACTF bullies Ron Mason to avoid going after dogfighters, there's this - http://cbs2.com/local/dog.fighting.pit.2.631632.html on the news today.
Of course they don't say when the bust took place, and true to ACTF form of not going after anyone TOO scary, the guy they busted is 55 years old. But other than that, and the fact that CBS news incorrectly says Staffordshires are the same as pit bulls -- clearly everyone's doing a great job.
Return to your homes, nothing further to see here...
There is a TON of dog fighting in this city. Most dog fighters also have guns and drugs. It's a pretty dangerous situation. The dog fighting bust wasn't a real dog "fighting" bust. They didn't break up an active dog fight. They busted them for having dogs with scars, medicine, dog fighting paraphernalia. It's safer and easier than busting an actual fight.
That makes sense. Hard to pictures Boswell and Ortega putting themselves in peril. Can't do your job and charge down a camera at the same time.
BTW guess where the misinformation about Staffordshires/pit bulls came from? Nowhere else than LAAS! Apparently kcbs.com was merely taking dictation from one of Boks' press releases -- and why would the head of L.A. Animal Services know the difference between a Staffordshire and a pit? Somebody better check to see these weren't poodles, for god's sake.
Boks may not know a damn thing about animals, but you know that press release got posted online THAT DAY. Boy, he sure showed us -- he sure does bust senior citizen dog fighters (not while the dogs are fighting though -- that would be scary). I wonder if we could find out how long ago they were first notified of fighting dogs at that address. I'll bet Boks kept that guy in his back pocket so when someone noticed that in all of big bad L.A. he couldn't find one dogfighter to bust he could nail him with one hand and hit "send" on the press release with the other.
Maybe it's a good thing Pit Bull Academy never happened -- it would have been embarrassing for Boks when the first graduating class consisted entirely of chihuahuas...
Why doesn't someone send this to Animal Planet? The cruelty in the LAAS has to be shown to the public so the indifferent people who continue to harm animals and make the policies will exposed. I believe many of them should be charged with criminal offences and be prosecuted. They have blatantly disregarded the law and have to be held accountable. Social institutions and laws are there to protect not murder the innocent.
Have you forgotten that the criminal actions of The L.A County is not only local goverment violations, but the U.S. Federal Government as well! Why is there not a National and International response to this inhumanity! Yes, I considered that a human being could be dragged through the mud just as a dog or cat is, and I, as a Christian still mourn the Holocausts now and most dramatically the Jewish communities of Europe, WW11.
This should be an Interreligious protest against the brutality of animals placed in shelters supported by tax payers who would not condone these inhumane practices to our animals, domestic and feral! In Thanksgiving to those, who offer sanctuary! God Bless you abundantly! From, Fraqnces Von Koenig
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