Boks Says Killing UP 31%!
Ed Boks has just told CNN that shelter killing is up 31%. Last month it was up 24%. Shelter killing is getting worse by the month.
He says there is no precedent for this "spike," then blames it on foreclosures and landlord problems.
But that does not explain the much larger increase in killing. Foreclosures and landlord-forced relinquishments have only gone up 21% by his own admission. Even then, owner turn-ins have always been less than 50% of total impounds, with the largest category being strays.
Ed did not release the numbers for impound reasons, such as stray, owner-relinquished, etc., so we don't know either. LAAS only releases outcome statistics.
If killing stays at this higher rate or increases, we may see much higher kill rates than before Boks came to LA.
Others have speculated that the real cause of the spike in intakes, is Boks refusing to take in kittens and ferals last year. These animals were never sterilized and are now reproducing.
CNN Interview:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/06/11/natpkg.pet.economy.cnn?iref=videosearch
I think Boks needs to get intake information from Mayeda and Bernstein to see if their shelter intakes are up 31% also, and if their kill rates are also up 31%. If not, Boks is in trouble.
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10 comments:
But Boks was given more money, a higher salary, more employees, bigger shelters than any previous director? How could euthanasia go up? We've had economic downturns before and never has intake and euth gone up. Something is wrong here.
Foreclosures are up in New York yet intake is up only 1% while euthanasia is down. They have small old shelters and a lot less money.
I take that back. Euth is down in New York. Queens has one of the worst foreclosure rates in the nation and their intake and euth is down.
Euthanasia Reduced
Reduced 7.74% vs 07 and is the lowest euthanasia rate in May EVER
Reduced Year to date 8.9 % vs 07
Well, I'm just thinking the annual "spike" arrived a little earlier this year than last. Last year it seems to have started in the month of May where live cat and dog intakes totaled 4,263 with 1,331 of those animals killed. Compare that to April of this year where the live cat and dog intakes totaled 4,201 with 1,257 of those animals killed. Also, an almost identical pattern of monthly totals for cats and dogs entering LAAS shelters occurred back in 2004-2005 (compare live intakes from August through April of the two periods and you'll see what I mean). Perhaps an anomaly occurred back then too? But hey, what do I know.
Brad Jensen
Cypress, CA
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It should also be noted that LA's Mandatory Spay/Neuter inforcement began last year on June 3. Because MSN gives animal control a reason to confiscate otherwise healthy animals, it wouldn't be a big surprise at all that their intake numbers grew significantly.
In Kansas city, our intake/euth numbers skyrocketed the month prior to MSN taking effect -- as many owners didn't have the money to comply with the ordinance, they just surrendered their pets to avoid paying the fines.
There may be more to it in LA (there are always other factors), but these are the results we've consistently seen when MSN has been passed.
Brad,
We don't know if the extra animals coming in now are babies or adults, owner surrender or strays. Maybe there were just more babies this year. Maybe it's because of the economy and people are dumping their animals even if they aren't losing their homes. Maybe it's foreclosures. Not all people foreclosed upon dump their pets. Not only that but the people who buy the foreclosed home may finally get a dog, hopefully from the shelter.
We don't know what's really happening. The public is forced to believe whatever Boks says.
Let's start an office pool on how long it takes Boks to refer to this stat as an "anomaly"!
I got ten seconds. I can hear his little fingers typing out the press release right now....
On the serious -- you all should check out Ed Boks' press releases, if you haven't already: http://www.laanimalservices.com/news_pressrelease.htm
I particularly like the one where he's "grateful" for the Laura Chick audit, because he's "been asking for an audit for two years" neatly sidestepping (in his own mind) his personal responsibility as the ever-more-highly-paid GM. But let's let Ed Boks tell it, shall we?
“Over the past two and a half years, my management team has been systematically identifying and working to correct many deeply entrenched practices, some of which have been identified by this audit."
Good job correcting them, Ed, after two and a half years. But then again, in the world of L.A. City/County, where Marcia Mayeda is still ramping up to learn how to do her job after seven years, Ed Boks is still practically at his job interview -- you know, the one where he didn't bring a resume and Villaraigosa didn't Google Boks' name...
Then there's the press release that tells the heartrending tale of the nursing mother dog with the bullet who needs costly surgery...and ends with a shill for donations to STAR -- the fund that doesn't exist, that LAAS veterinarians never heard of, where money you are told goes towards a specific dog (with a bullet in her) actually goes into Boks' little slush fund. Surely this can't be legal, but Mr. Boks never lets laws, ethics or the truth deter him from trying to con the people who pay his salary.
But the hands-down highlight of the page is the TWO press release that respectively tell us that L.A. is in a CAT-TASTROPHE and a CAT-ACLYSM.
Seriously. We're paying this guy 165K PLUS perks, and he's either angling for or already gotten a 20K raise on top of THAT, and that's what we get.
I'm CAT-atonic...
He already did use the word anomaly in his CNN interview. I just didn't post it.
Poster 7,
Boks sent that email out about the poor mommy dog with the bullet lodged in her back. Please, give money to help her. Then he says they won't be removing the bullet because of where it's positioned. So why is he asking for money if they aren't even treating her?
Boks did not ask for that audit. He asked Chick to audit his nokill efforts. She said no. Then she audit his finances. He didn't want her to audit his finances. He wanted her to audit nokill because he was juggling the books to make things look better. He wanted her to say "he's making LA nokill." I know Chick sees right through the guy.
Brent,
Animal Control hasn't and won't be confiscating any healthy animals because of mandatory spay/neuter. And if someone goes all the way to the shelter to surrender their animal because of mandatory spay/neuter, than maybe it'd be better for them to just pick up a spay/neuter voucher while they're there instead of dumping their animal off, and hopefully this would be suggested to them by the shelter staff.
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