Request for Public Records

August and September are still high kill months for cats. Last month cats were being redlisted within a day of being impounded due to overcrowding.

However, despite the high kill rate during these months, the Animal Cruelty Task Force is busy chasing neighbor complaints of people with too many cats. From the few examples still available on the department's website--there used to be more--AS ends up killing about 60% of the cats impounded for one reason or another, usually URI or being feral.

That is a high price cats have to pay for being seized because of violation of the Kennel Law.

(By the way, the cat limit in Beverly Hills is 5 and there is no limit in Santa Monica on cats, and a limit of 4 for dogs--at least when I moved in 2002.)

How many New Hope Partners are violating the Kennel Law? How many have animals with URI, mange, or other medical condition when rescued from an Animal Service shelter or rescued off the street? 80%? 90%.

All rescuers know of this danger, yet the law has not been changed.

Here is the really bad news: Ron Mason has been visited again by the ACTF. He was not home. They left a card with a demand to phone them immediately.

Hence, my Request for Public Records. I'd like to know what percentage of time is spent by LAAS and the ACTF regarding neighbor complaints of too many cats, or of a feral cat colony, which one ACTF Officer deemed at the Task Force's biggest problems.

REQUEST FOR PUBLIC RECORDS
August 21, 2009


Carol Aborn
Kathy Davis
Ross Pool

Dear Above Mentioned,

This request is being made subject to the California Public Records Act: Government Code §6250-6268. Under this statute you have 10 calendar days from the date of receipt of this request to respond as to whether you will release the records requested as detailed below. It is preferred your response be made in writing to either the street address or email above.

During a conversation with officer Muniz of the ACTF about a year ago, he made the statement that people with too many cats or people that fed large feral colonies with the Task Force’s “biggest problem.” He stated, “How would you like to live next door to someone with too many cats, coming into your yard….?”

It seems that he considers neighbor dispute and nuisance resolution the ACTF’s biggest problem. I wonder, if in fact, the ACTF is spending far too much time “busting” people violating the Kennel law, because it is easy to find them due to neighbor complaints, as opposed to investigating complaints of cats being poisoned, or animal abuse.

For that reason, I am requesting the following public records:

Information Requested

1. For the years 2006-June 2009, how many investigations were carried out by either the ACTF or the LAAS regarding allegations of persons having too many cats?
2. How many investigations were conducted re allegations of persons who alleged their own cats or dogs were being poisoned?
3. How many raids were conducted by either agency regarding either alleged animal neglect, abuse due to having too many cats or dogs, or simply a violation of the Kennel law, LAMC 53.50?
4. How many arrests were made of people during 2006-June 2009 for alleged animal abuse, cruelty, neglect or violation of 53.50 for having too many cats or dogs?
5. How many convictions were there regarding persons arrested who had more than three cats or dogs, and what were the charges?
6. How many animals were seized on each occasion, and how many were killed?
7. On October 4, 2006, 18 cats were seized and 14 were killed for one reason or another, such as an alleged failure of the resolution of URI. On October 11, 2007, AS killed 26 of Ron Mason’s seized cats. Therefore, just these two occasions resulted in a 58% kill rate. Is that what AS and the ACTF means by rescue, seize and kill?
8. What was the total number of investigations, arrests and convictions of the ACTF during this time?

Form of Information Requested
The requested information should be provided as an standard wordprocessing file, PDF file, Tiff file, JPEG file, and can be electronically transferred to the email address shown below. Should there be file size limitations on what you are permitted to send outside of your internal network, please contact me so that other arrangements for data transfer can be made. In lieu of electronic conveyance, please supply a hardcopy of the requested documents.

Denial and Redaction
Should you choose to deny this request, as required by law, please indicate the exact reason for denial and the person and title of the person who made such decision. Should information be redacted from the files, statute requires that you list for EACH record the reason for redaction and type of information redacted.

Fees
I am willing to pay reasonable copying fees, as defined under law, not to exceed $25.00. Should fees run higher, please contact me.

Should you have any questions regarding this request, please contact me immediately.