ALF Putting Winograd Behind Eight Ball?

Generally I do not criticize ADL or ALF, but I think they may be doing irreparable damage to the cause of getting LAAS to go No Kill.

By going after a Mayor's staff family member and at the same time demanding that Winograd come and consult, could be a grave mistake. It links Winograd to what many even in the animal community consider out of bounds behaviors by the "radical" animal element and makes it appear he may be behind all this.

Nathan needs to disavow any connection with these acts. The ALF direct challenge to power engenders only a heightened resistance to reform and the media focus goes from the animals to what ALF is doing.

True, the media has never accurately covered what is happening at the shelters, mainly that there has been no sustained improvement at all since Ed Boks came while other cities are improving dramatically. The only negative article that came out were by Dana Bartholomew regarding the increased died in the shelter.

ALF's action hasn't changed anything. The media still isn't covering what is happening in the shelters, only that ALF is victimizing a bureaucrat's family.

Of course, this is only my opinion and I have been wrong many times before.

The ALF Press Office is absolutely correct though, no matter how much LAAS mismanagement and failures are exposed, no matter how many pickets, emails and letters to the editor are written, no matter how many commission meetings there are, or Councilmenbers made angry, nothing seems to change. The kill numbers are going up.

Therefore, I can understand the rage many feel towards Boks, Villaraigosa and those associated with them. But, we need smarter ways to effect change. I just don't know them; I wish I did. No one in the leadership of the LA animal community has made much of a mark. We ALL recognize this as our community's greatest weakness.

From my own view, I can see only money and numbers helping. We need an activist coordinating membership group that can hire organizers and media people full time. But that kind of money is out of reach for us now.

Here is what the AF Press Office sent out. It literally links ADL with ALF.

Family of LA Mayor's Deputy Visited by Animal Liberation Front Jimmy Blackman Urged by Underground Group to Implement No Kill Policies

Los Angeles - In an anonymous communique received by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office (NAALPO), underground activists have again taken the struggle against the killing of adoptable companion animals to Los Angeles city officials, this time involving Jimmy Blackman. Blackman is deputy to Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and is one of the mayor's officials overseeing the six Los Angeles Animal Shelters.

The communiques reads:"On Dec. 30th we decorated Jimmy Blackmans parents front porch at 7851 Kenyon Avenue in LA with red paint and glued their locks. This action was done to bring attention to the blood being spilled because of their son Jimmy.

Obviously Samuel and Jing Ying haven't taught their son anything about accountability and consequenses; so we thought we would. As long as Mr Boks is head of the shelters, its not safe to be an animal at the shelters and its not safe to be Jimmy or his family members. --ALF"

Since 2004 local activists in LA have been focused on exposing the mismanaged and corrupt department of Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS). Activists complain that the Mayor's office refuses to hire experts to evaluate the shelter system and implement No-Kill policies, programs, and protocols proven to stop the killing of thousands of healthy, treatable animals as is being done in other municipal shelters throughout the nation.

Pamelyn Ferdin, an activist with Animal Defense League-LA, one of the groups involved with the campaign to stop the killing, explains: "Mayor Villaraigosa and his staff appointed Ed Boks to be general manager of the Department of Los Angeles Animal services; he is an incompetent man who was not only asked to leave as director of the shelter system in Arizona but then was fired from the New York City shelter system.

Animals in our city are being killed needlessly because the Mayor and his staff refuse to hire individuals with the skills and knowledge to implement the No Kill Equation here in Los Angeles. I think the humane community seem to be saying, 'Enough is enough; we're not going to take it anymore.' It’s too bad it takes illegal direct action by groups such as the ALF to get the media to take notice of the senseless slaughter going on inside the six city animal Death Camps under the corrupt leadership of Ed Boks. ”

For more information visit, http://www.animalliberationpressoffice.org/.Press Contact: Lindy Greene: (818) 445-6711Animal Liberation Press Office6320 Canoga Avenue #1500Woodland Hills, CA 91367

However,