LA Animal Watch: Kathy Davis Official Word on Kitten Rescue Fees

I was confused by the various pricing scenarios sent out by the Department regarding cats and neonates fees for rescuers, and by what I have heard from actual rescuers, so that I asked Kathy Davis specifically:

How much would a rescuer have to pay for a mom cat and five neonatal kittens?

This is her third clarifying email. Print it out and take it with you any time you go to any shelter. Inform staff this is the official charges from their boss.

--- On Fri, 5/15/09, Kathy Davis <Kathy.Davis@lacity.org> wrote:

From: Kathy Davis
Subject: Re:
To: "Edward Muzika" <edwardmuzika@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Friday, May 15, 2009, 1:54 PM

Ed:

They CAN adopt the mom and 5 kittens. (There are 3 options for neonates.) The $40 charge is ONLY if the surgery is deferred due to age or illness. The $40 pays for their postponed s/n surgery, and we throw in free microchip and vac. They also get a $12 refund per pet ($12 X 6=$72).

Bottom line in your scenario is they only pay $28 (after the refund) for each kitten and mom - and for that $28 fee each kitten and cat gets s/n (for no additional money), plus a microchip and vac.

Total cost (after refund) for mom and 5 kittens, all s/n, all with a microchip and all get vacs. = $168.

If they adopt, pay the $40 and take the mom and kittens to their own vet for s/n, they get the entire $40 refunded to them. So they pay us $0 for each mom and kitten.

Again, further questions, happy to field them.

Thanks,

Kathy

3 comments:

Anonymous17 May, 2009
Under Greenwalt Rescue Partners aka New Hope partners were able to adopt an entire litter plus mom for $75. We just had to show proof of sterilization when they were sterilized. If one died, we didn't get a refund if we bought the litter. If you adopted a solo kitten that died quickly, you could go get another animal in exchange if you saved the dead body. Be sure to bag them and put them in the freezer when they die so you can exchange them. Pretty gross.
Anonymous18 May, 2009
What are your "further questions" for Kathy Davis?

What do you want her to do? Do you have any concrete, constructive suggestions? If you want her to spend more money, please suggest how she can stretch the budget.
Ed Muzika18 May, 2009
I don't have any further questions for Kathy. She asked whether I had any.

What I'd like to see is a big increase in kitten fosters. The successful cities have a huge foster base and save 90% or better of the neonates. Neonates are the biggest single source of euth deaths.

Then build much bigger volunteer base, give them real jobs with real semi-autonomy. Successful programs have 3-4 times as many active volunteers than employees.

Decrease fees on mom and litter rescue to the Greenwalt rates of $75 for mom and litter.

Use volunteers for more offsite adoption events. This is not quite so important for LA because of all the news shelters we have compared to Cleveland or Chicago.

Develop better stats so that we know which shelters have what problems and coordinate use of department and private resources there.

For example, the number of spay/neuter certificates has dramatically increase since 2003, but cat impound rates have remained steady instead of going down. Why? Boks refused to do this research and include private resources in an overall partnership with LAAS.

Of course Naysayers will say this can't be done because of a lack of budget. That is always the answer for more killing.

But the most important aspect is having a GM that motivates people and leads change.

Lastly, do what it takes to get rid of the bad eggs by involving the union if possible.

Why ask me, I did not apply for the job? I am not an expert. I don't know all of the departments assets and what employees are good at what. I don't know the details of policies, procedures, budget funds and all that, so I am not in the best position to make recommendations.

But it sounds like you are committed to failure saying LAAS is doing everything possible yet the kill rates are going up.

This is an acceptance of failure.