Boks Responds to My Post

Ed Boks responded to my post that cat and dog killing for the first 3 months of 2008 was 24% higher than 2007. By and large, his responses were good if true, but only explained half the situation.

First, Ed said that his statistics were accurate and LAAS has the best set of stats anywhere in the US.

He is absolutely right. No one comes near what LAAS provides, especially since he began publishing shelter by shelters stats.

His reasoning was that if he were fudging the stats, why would he make himself look bad?

On the other hand, there is still the possibility that if he had not “fixed” the stats, they would have been much worse. Brad Jensen and I now doubt he is fudging. The only reservation I have is the huge decrease in neonatal impounds from May through October last year, which was never explained, via “normalization,” or any other statement outside of it being an anomaly, meaning "I don't know." But Ed took full credit for the drop in killing that resulted.

It could also be—a speculation by a shelter worker—that lots of kittens went directly to bump rooms and never checked in. Had they been, LAAS’ stats would have been worse last year—much worse.

Foreclosures have caused an increase in impounds, but the rate of killing rose FASTER than the rate of increase of impounds. Impounds rose about 18% and killing by 24%.

Notable is that far fewer animals died in shelter during the first quarter. The most likely explanation is that the increased rate of killing was of the riskier impounds that had been held for a long while who otherwise would have died of disease or fighting, and just the decrease in crowding reduced stress resulting in better health.

In any event, I do not condemn "warehousing." As Boks said, there is a line between holding too long and holding just enough. Winograd said there should be few empty cages.

I agree. What is the point of having X cages if they are not filled during periods of high impounds, or kept filled to hold harder to place animals until they are adopted? You cannot give up on the hard to place animals just because they are old, sick or injured.

This strategy works if turnover happens fast enough, and turnover through adoptions works if marketing and PR are in place, which they are not at LAAS.

Nor do we know what percentage of the increased impoundment was due to foreclosures, as opposed to not spaying/neutering the animals that were turned away from the shelter or ferals that were not spayed. Last year Boks said we speutered 40,000. He told me, if I remember correctly, that in 2005-06, LAAS handed out 38,000 spay/neuter certificates. That is only a 2,000 increase. I think 40,000 speuters is a drop in the bucket of what needs to be done.

Hopefully adding spay/neuter clinics will add another 10,000 speuters if three new surgeries are added, but again, that is only a 25% increase and is probably still a drop in the bucket.

Also, adding surgeries may lead to fewer certificates for outside vets because of budget problems and we may actually end up with fewer speuters.

He did say that if you normalize the stats, killing only rose 1.5% compared to last year, and “normalization” was defined as comparing the killing to fluctuating intake levels. I wish he’d explain how killing went from a 24% increase to a 1.5% increase. I would be tempted to call this “bullshitinization.” He certainly did not use "normalization" to discount the decreased neonatal killing last year when intake dropped 30%. He took credit for every percentage of the drop in killing.

He then said there were reasons the killing is up that he cannot share, but he did not want to point finders.

In the next paragraph he began pointing fingers:

He said there was a major managerial shakeup during the past year as management got shuffled around and they still were trying to make sense of their new jobs. Of course, Ed did the shakeup, and so the buck stops at his desk. The transition should have been much smoother. I think there is a lot more he is not telling us about the shakeup.

Of course I have heard it far and wide that the employees are actively sabotaging everything he is trying to do because of his lack of management skills in bringing everyone together. Stuckey said the same thing. Sometimes the Mayor's office has the attitude that LAAS employees were an unruly mob best left alone.
I am not sure the shakeup was a good or bad thing. Will the shakeup help six months down the line? Was the shakeup Boks' idea, or was it thrust on him? Were the bad eggs put in positions where they can do less harm? Were good eggs given more responsibility? Is this why Boswell was moved to a new shelter where he may now be a janitor?

In item #5, he says the new shelter managers must walk the line between saving animals and warehousing them, and if there is a short-term impound increase, there will be more killing. Well duhh. Isn't this just saying when the shelter is full up, there is no more room for new cats and dogs unless the long timers are killed?

Item 8 seems right on and logical. LAAS needs a PR person, marketing expertise and the new AGM. They also need Oprah on full time as she increased adoptions 52% the week after her show. Of course many were returned the next week according to one employee.

In item #10, Ed says this is kitten season and that always brings a flood of neonates. True, but the 24% increase in killing during the first 3 months of this year was compared with same exact period last year. Besides, kitten season only begins in March, not January or February.

In fact, there were only an additional 25 neonatal impounded during the first three months this year compared to last. Only 25 more animals, which does not explain the hundreds more killed.

Ed is absolutely correct that the City’s (and his) drive to establish a TNR citywide policy has been stalled by threatened lawsuits by two environmental groups. This definitely is not his or the City’s fault. They have strived to make citywide TNR happen. But we already have an unofficial TNR program through certificates and refusal to take ferals. This is all to Boks’ good. I applaud him and the City here.

Finally Ed calls for community help. I wish the community could get behind him and LAAS, but it is kind of late in the day for that. He has lost our trust in his veracity, motivations and competence.
Still, we have to try as much as we can. Maybe we can do what LAAS has not been able to do without our help. There are a lot of sour grapes in the animal community, and dysfunctional rescuers (and bloggers for that matter), which matches or betters the incompetence and turpitude of some Animal Services' employees

We need to help as much as we can, but lack of a volunteer coordinator for well over a year is not the volunteers’ fault.

Oh yeah, Ed joked that he is searching through a list of City civil service hacks to fill new AGM, PR and Volunteer Manger position, but he hasn't been able to find any.

The hiring freeze is dooming Animal Services to more of the same. I hope he is suggesting that our idiot Mayor and Blackman allow him to search outside of City staff.
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