What is the Real Kill Rate in LA's Shelters, Part 2

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In the last post I showed that Animal Services killed 65% of Mason’s cats in an alleged “hoarder” raid. I said this is a sample of the real death rate in LA’s (Boks) shelters.

This is true only if the sample is representative. Boks will say it is not, that Mason’s cats were in much worse health than average, and that is why he killed almost 50% more.

We know that is crap.

So, let’s see how a real rescue organization handles an alleged hoarder situation.

Yesterday I go an email from Cristi Metropole’s Stray Cat Alliance.

http://www.straycatalliance.org/northridge.html

They went to a rescue on a call about a hoarder in Northridge—the same area Mason lives in--about a large number of ill and dying cats in a house owned by an ill 80 year old woman. There were over 41 cats there. One was found dead, one died during treatment on the spot.

The cats had not been fed in days nor given water. Naturally they did not receive medical care.

This is a far worse situation than with Mason where they were fed, given shelter and water and given some medical care—maybe not up to the high Fatal Plus care of Animal Services.

Apparently 40 plus cats were thus rescued alive. We will know after 4 days how many are still alive, whether it is Animal Services’ 35% or a much higher percentage, such as 85% from Stray Cat Alliance. This is a unique situation where we can compare Animal Services’ kill rate of killing “hoarder” animals with that of a compassionate private organization with compassionate volunteers.

This will be a true test of Animal Services’ competence and compassion.

Donation info is on the link above.

http://www.straycatalliance.org/northridge.html
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Animal Services went in, took Masons cats, killed most of them then had the nerve to say they saved the cats? The cats were fine at Mason's. The only ended up dead in the shelter. How is that improving things for the cats? Mason's cats were not locked in the house. If they didn't like it there, they could have just left. They chose to stay there. The cats weren't trying to kill themselves.

They need to do interventions with hoarders, not just go in and kill all the animals. That is not an improvement. That is not saving animals.

Anonymous said...

You don't solve a hoarding situation by killing the animals and arresting the person. That makes things worse. This new task force has an awful lot to learn. They only care about getting so many felony busts. They don't care if they kill animals and destroy people. That's why they go after poor loners in the hopes that they'll plead guilty to a felony. Then they don't even have to do an investigation or plead the case. It looks good on their record.