LAAS had the highest live-save rate ever last month, 83.75%!
This marks a good improvement over all previous performances, and in many people eyes would border on No-Kill if the results held for the entire year. Of course January is one of the three lowest impound months of the year and cannot be taken as representative.
One other problem is that a month in isolation doesn't tell the whole story.
For example, if I run the numbers for dogs and cats independently, and check against the "dogs and cats" combined outcomes, I get slightly different numbers.
For January, the live save rate for dogs alone was 80.2%, and cats was 82.9%. However, when I used the dogs and cats charts, the live save rate was 83.75%, which means there were some number problems coordinating the three sets of numbers.
Also, the number of "cats" outcomes for January was significantly higher than the number of impounds. For example, cat impounds were listed as 682 for January, but there were 856 listed outcomes, or 174 more cats left the shelter in January than were impounded that month, meaning the January numbers are not totally representative because they include cats impounded in previous months.
Indeed, 224 cats were euthanized in January, and another 29 died during care, for a total of 253 animals that were not live releases. If we compare that number to the number impounded in January, we get a live release rate of only 63%. However, if we compare that death rate with the total outcomes for January adjusted for DOA impounds, or 819 cats, the live save rate is 69%, still lower than the 82.9% total obtained when calculating using the lower real January impound number.
In any event, LAAS did very well in January compared to previous years.
Winograd and Metropole File Appeal of Ruling Against the Longcore Lawsuit
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Mayor Wants More Feedback and Help on GM Selection
Dear Friend of L.A.s Companion Animals:
The City of Los Angeles soon will be interviewing candidates for the position of General Manager of the Department of Animal Services. I take this process very seriously and have worked to involve interested members of the public in the process since its inception last fall.
Now, I would like to ask you to suggest questions you think the candidates should be asked during the semi-final and final interviews that will take place in the coming weeks. Your suggested questions will be considered for use in the final rounds of interviews.
There are several categories of inquiry the interviews will cover:
1. Philosophy: Regarding organizational management as well as animal issues.
2. Administrative Operations: Approaches to dealing with the departments administrative functions and challenges, including human resources, budgeting, revenue generation, accounting, staff management, the volunteer program, public relations, community relations and education, legislative activities, etc.
3. Shelter and Field Operations: Approaches to dealing with what happens in the Animal Care Centers, including animal care, law enforcement, adoption programs, population management, medical care, etc.
4. Problem Solving/Meeting Challenges: Could be about any aspect of running the department, but should focus on presenting a plausible problem or issue and asking how it can best be resolved.
When you submit your questions, please include the number of the category your question covers. There is no limit on the number of questions you can submit or how many times you can submit questions. I ask you to be thoughtful, creative and respectful in how you approach this undertaking.
Questions should be submitted by e-mail
per.execsearch@lacity.org
Please type LAAS GM Questions in the subject line and submit your questions by 5 p.m., Monday, March 1, 2010.
Very Truly Yours,
Antonio R. Villaraigosa
Mayor
The City of Los Angeles soon will be interviewing candidates for the position of General Manager of the Department of Animal Services. I take this process very seriously and have worked to involve interested members of the public in the process since its inception last fall.
Now, I would like to ask you to suggest questions you think the candidates should be asked during the semi-final and final interviews that will take place in the coming weeks. Your suggested questions will be considered for use in the final rounds of interviews.
There are several categories of inquiry the interviews will cover:
1. Philosophy: Regarding organizational management as well as animal issues.
2. Administrative Operations: Approaches to dealing with the departments administrative functions and challenges, including human resources, budgeting, revenue generation, accounting, staff management, the volunteer program, public relations, community relations and education, legislative activities, etc.
3. Shelter and Field Operations: Approaches to dealing with what happens in the Animal Care Centers, including animal care, law enforcement, adoption programs, population management, medical care, etc.
4. Problem Solving/Meeting Challenges: Could be about any aspect of running the department, but should focus on presenting a plausible problem or issue and asking how it can best be resolved.
When you submit your questions, please include the number of the category your question covers. There is no limit on the number of questions you can submit or how many times you can submit questions. I ask you to be thoughtful, creative and respectful in how you approach this undertaking.
Questions should be submitted by e-mail
per.execsearch@lacity.org
Please type LAAS GM Questions in the subject line and submit your questions by 5 p.m., Monday, March 1, 2010.
Very Truly Yours,
Antonio R. Villaraigosa
Mayor
City Pulls Pet Press From Shelters Due to Loncore's Lawsuit
From Lori Golden:
I just found out on Saturday that the City was directed to pull all copies of The Pet Press from the shelters, because of the info I include about feral cats and TNR.
I do not blame Kathy Davis or the shelters themselves. In fact, they are quite upset about this.
Attached is the TNR judgment from Judge Thomas J. McKnew, Jr - Kathy directed
me to page 4 which deals directly with this issue.
All these years the shelters are not supposed to promote private businesses either - yet my paper is filled with ads for them and the shelters give them out.
Please spread the word thru your blog that if people would like to get stacks of the latest issue of The Pet Press, to feel free to go to their nearest shelter and ask for a stack of them.
I don't think the shelters have thrown the papers out.
Thanks, Ed.
Lori
FROM PAGE 4 of the judgement:
3. Defendants City of Los Angeles et al. are specifically PROHIBITED from undertaking the following actions:
Promoting TNR for feral cats and encouraging or assisting third parties to carry out a TNR program by doing any of the following:
Assist or provide incentives for, or otherwise facilitate the capture, sterilization and release of feral cat;
Provide discounts or discount vouchers for spay or neuter surgeries for feral cats;
Release feral cats from shelters to TNR groups or individuals;
Provide information about or cyberlinks to feral cat groups, programs, seminars or workshops on
Develop or distribute literature on the TNR program or by conducting public outreach on TNR
Waiving cat trap rental fees or security deposits for TNR groups or individuals pursuant to Los Angeles Municipal
Interfering with or discouraging any City officials or land managers' attempt to enforce any laws or regulations that
Refusing to issue traps for capturing nuisance feral cats,
Referring complaints about feral cats to TNR groups or individuals.
Refusing to accept trapped feral cats.
Notice the City is not allowing any feral cats to be pulled from the shelters by TNR groups or individuals.
TNR people have been telling me they no longer have vouchers. They can get vouchers from friends, but the vouchers have to describe the cats as to sex, age and color, name them and attach an owners name and they have a time limit of 45 days.
So, a manager must trap a cat and hold onto it until a friend can get a voucher for said described cat, then make an appointment for S/N surgery, then hold onto and release the cat a few days later. This is far more difficult than the mass trapping and S/N operations of most TNR groups, which means they can't be nearly as effective.
How many cats has Travis Longcore killed so far?
CALL TRAVIS DIRECTLY. TELL HIM WHAT YOU THINK OF HIM:
(310) 247-9719
I just found out on Saturday that the City was directed to pull all copies of The Pet Press from the shelters, because of the info I include about feral cats and TNR.
I do not blame Kathy Davis or the shelters themselves. In fact, they are quite upset about this.
Attached is the TNR judgment from Judge Thomas J. McKnew, Jr - Kathy directed
me to page 4 which deals directly with this issue.
All these years the shelters are not supposed to promote private businesses either - yet my paper is filled with ads for them and the shelters give them out.
Please spread the word thru your blog that if people would like to get stacks of the latest issue of The Pet Press, to feel free to go to their nearest shelter and ask for a stack of them.
I don't think the shelters have thrown the papers out.
Thanks, Ed.
Lori
FROM PAGE 4 of the judgement:
3. Defendants City of Los Angeles et al. are specifically PROHIBITED from undertaking the following actions:
Promoting TNR for feral cats and encouraging or assisting third parties to carry out a TNR program by doing any of the following:
Assist or provide incentives for, or otherwise facilitate the capture, sterilization and release of feral cat;
Provide discounts or discount vouchers for spay or neuter surgeries for feral cats;
Release feral cats from shelters to TNR groups or individuals;
Provide information about or cyberlinks to feral cat groups, programs, seminars or workshops on
Los Angeles City website(s);
Develop or distribute literature on the TNR program or by conducting public outreach on TNR
using press releases, fliers or other media except in conjunction with the proposed CEQA process;
Waiving cat trap rental fees or security deposits for TNR groups or individuals pursuant to Los Angeles Municipal
Interfering with or discouraging any City officials or land managers' attempt to enforce any laws or regulations that
relate to feral cats and feral cat colonies.
Refusing to issue traps for capturing nuisance feral cats,
Referring complaints about feral cats to TNR groups or individuals.
Refusing to accept trapped feral cats.
Notice the City is not allowing any feral cats to be pulled from the shelters by TNR groups or individuals.
TNR people have been telling me they no longer have vouchers. They can get vouchers from friends, but the vouchers have to describe the cats as to sex, age and color, name them and attach an owners name and they have a time limit of 45 days.
So, a manager must trap a cat and hold onto it until a friend can get a voucher for said described cat, then make an appointment for S/N surgery, then hold onto and release the cat a few days later. This is far more difficult than the mass trapping and S/N operations of most TNR groups, which means they can't be nearly as effective.
How many cats has Travis Longcore killed so far?
CALL TRAVIS DIRECTLY. TELL HIM WHAT YOU THINK OF HIM:
(310) 247-9719
TO ME:
REPEAT) Dear Ed,
Some months ago I found your writings. After reading your experiences with awakening in the shower, I went to the shower and experienced a huge opening. However, it did not persist more than an hour. Whenever I read your writings, my attention is moved to truth, but it always returns to the false (so far).
So, there is a desire to anchor this awareness in Truth. Only in this way can I serve the whole. Perhaps the awakening is coming to all of humanity and there is nothing to “do”, perhaps not. Whatever, I feel inclined to give full attention to that which is important which is to focus on Truth and live from what I “know” myself to be. However, it feels like I need assistance to move in this way. There are deep psychological patterns which limit love expression.
Is it possible to work with you? If so, how do you see it taking place?
With deep gratitude,
T.
A few days later:
Dear Ed,
I know that I need to be still and silent...for this, I need to act, which means it (Truth of being) MUST be more important than giving attention to the mind agendas. It means dropping attention to habitual mind activities, which means constant watching and choosing truth.
Thank you for itisnotreal.com I am finding many gems there.
I real-eyes that I have been somewhat regressing (attention back to old ego-mind patterns) since my first awakening years ago. It feels like this has happened due to an absence of practice, which came about by the mind grabbing the 'nothing to do' belief of others to whom I listened. Also, I moved to Costa Rica where I have not had the benefits of all the sanghas and satsangs I enjoyed in the US...slowly this attention moved from what is real to the unreal. Life will not allow me to dabble much more in the unreal...
In deep gratitude for your sharing the truth...
T.
RESPONSE:
You have to start all over I am afraid. You know where you are going, but you need the spiritual energy back.
This means using the Nisargadattta Gita and begin all over again, isolating the sense of I, and meditating on it. It will bring happiness, then bliss, and then grace takes over.
But you do need the effort.
Ed
TO ME:
I know...
Thanks for the re-minders...guidance
There is openness to drop beliefs, even those Advaitic beliefs, which I guess were a form of worship...
I have listened to Adyashanti for years, but without practice...
Namaste
T.
REPEAT) Dear Ed,
Some months ago I found your writings. After reading your experiences with awakening in the shower, I went to the shower and experienced a huge opening. However, it did not persist more than an hour. Whenever I read your writings, my attention is moved to truth, but it always returns to the false (so far).
So, there is a desire to anchor this awareness in Truth. Only in this way can I serve the whole. Perhaps the awakening is coming to all of humanity and there is nothing to “do”, perhaps not. Whatever, I feel inclined to give full attention to that which is important which is to focus on Truth and live from what I “know” myself to be. However, it feels like I need assistance to move in this way. There are deep psychological patterns which limit love expression.
Is it possible to work with you? If so, how do you see it taking place?
With deep gratitude,
T.
A few days later:
Dear Ed,
I know that I need to be still and silent...for this, I need to act, which means it (Truth of being) MUST be more important than giving attention to the mind agendas. It means dropping attention to habitual mind activities, which means constant watching and choosing truth.
Thank you for itisnotreal.com I am finding many gems there.
I real-eyes that I have been somewhat regressing (attention back to old ego-mind patterns) since my first awakening years ago. It feels like this has happened due to an absence of practice, which came about by the mind grabbing the 'nothing to do' belief of others to whom I listened. Also, I moved to Costa Rica where I have not had the benefits of all the sanghas and satsangs I enjoyed in the US...slowly this attention moved from what is real to the unreal. Life will not allow me to dabble much more in the unreal...
In deep gratitude for your sharing the truth...
T.
RESPONSE:
You have to start all over I am afraid. You know where you are going, but you need the spiritual energy back.
This means using the Nisargadattta Gita and begin all over again, isolating the sense of I, and meditating on it. It will bring happiness, then bliss, and then grace takes over.
But you do need the effort.
Ed
TO ME:
I know...
Thanks for the re-minders...guidance
There is openness to drop beliefs, even those Advaitic beliefs, which I guess were a form of worship...
I have listened to Adyashanti for years, but without practice...
Namaste
T.
Jimmy to Move in Five Months
In order to avoid a trial, Jimmy signed papers with the court agreeing to moving from his bridge behind Bed Bath and Beyond in Northridge by June.
Part of the problem he is sick of living in a tent under harassment from the courts. The other problem is the crappy weather in Northridge, 106 to sometimes 112 degrees in the summer, and down to 30 degrees in the Winter. AND, his cats keep getting killed. There is a lot of emotional trauma dealing with feral cats. They get sick and die and they get run over or killed by dogs and coyotes. Jimmy is burnt out.
Also, the people that have been giving Jimmy food for the 34 cats he tends, also have burnt out. They aren't coming much anymore, and the burden on me has been increasing enormously lately.
Jimmy can really, really use food for his cats. If you can help, drop some off by his tent behind BBB in Northridge, near Tampa and Nordhoff. I usually give him 100 cans and 2-3 bags of dry food a month, but that is a drop in the bucket compared to his needs.
Part of the problem he is sick of living in a tent under harassment from the courts. The other problem is the crappy weather in Northridge, 106 to sometimes 112 degrees in the summer, and down to 30 degrees in the Winter. AND, his cats keep getting killed. There is a lot of emotional trauma dealing with feral cats. They get sick and die and they get run over or killed by dogs and coyotes. Jimmy is burnt out.
Also, the people that have been giving Jimmy food for the 34 cats he tends, also have burnt out. They aren't coming much anymore, and the burden on me has been increasing enormously lately.
Jimmy can really, really use food for his cats. If you can help, drop some off by his tent behind BBB in Northridge, near Tampa and Nordhoff. I usually give him 100 cans and 2-3 bags of dry food a month, but that is a drop in the bucket compared to his needs.
Next Tuesday Council Opens Discussion on Privatizing Shelters
http://ens.lacity.org/clk/councilagendas/clkcouncilagendas364838_02092010.pdf
Item 31. It looks like this will be a request for staff to look into the requisites to privatize one or more shelters. This could be the best thing to happen to LAAS in many years according to Nathan Winograd. It certainly would take the employees out of civil service and City Personnel protection, but would not remove the unions. But this would be a big step.
Imagine if Bonnie Brown or a local rescue organization with sheltering experience took over, let us say, East LA, and turned it around. Then the City would privatize the others.
Of course, it could turn out to be a disaster.
Item 31. It looks like this will be a request for staff to look into the requisites to privatize one or more shelters. This could be the best thing to happen to LAAS in many years according to Nathan Winograd. It certainly would take the employees out of civil service and City Personnel protection, but would not remove the unions. But this would be a big step.
Imagine if Bonnie Brown or a local rescue organization with sheltering experience took over, let us say, East LA, and turned it around. Then the City would privatize the others.
Of course, it could turn out to be a disaster.
Indybay Article on Killer Tainted Formula From Petag
FDA finds Petag responsible in tainted infant formula
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just found Petag responsible for the tainted formula that sickened and killed infant animals. An independent lab analysis of the product showed insufficient nutrition, extreme levels of fiber and toxic levels of heavy metal copper.
puppykitten.jpgJanuary 29, 2010 the FDA finished their investigation into Petag. Petag is the number one manufacturer of kitten and puppy milk in the world as per the company's website. Their formulas KMR and Esbilac sickened and killed many animals in 2009. These formulas are also used for orphaned wildlife such as cheetahs, raccoons, squirrels and opossums who also died.
Only after the FDA began their investigation did Petag publicly admit on their website that their KMR kitten formula was bad and should not be used. This was after months of reports of kittens and other animals who got diarrhea and died. Even though the company admitted on their website that they received multiple complaints CEO and co-owner George Gill told the FDA that they only received one complaint.
COO and company owner Darlene Frudakis admitted in a December 17, 2009 radio interview on "Where the fur flies" that their KMR formula was spoiled from heat and should not be used. Unfortunately Frudakis did not alert consumers or distributors of the problems with the product. She merely posted a small note on the company website. The tainted product is still on store shelves. The FDA does not have the power to force recalls on pet food items. The company must initiate their own recalls. Petag has not done this.
When informed about the spoiled formula from consumers Pet Sense pet stores removed all of the product from their 31 stores nationwide. One manager of one Petco store removed the tainted product after consumer complaints. It is not known at this time if Petco or PetSmart removed all of the tainted formula from all of their stores nationwide. The tainted KMR smells rancid and appears more yellow than white. Do not use this formula.
Animal Advocates in Los Angeles, California was the organization which made the initial report to the FDA. More information about the problems is available on the Animal Advocates website. http://www.AnimalAdvocates.us
Only after the FDA began their investigation did Petag publicly admit on their website that their KMR kitten formula was bad and should not be used. This was after months of reports of kittens and other animals who got diarrhea and died. Even though the company admitted on their website that they received multiple complaints CEO and co-owner George Gill told the FDA that they only received one complaint.
COO and company owner Darlene Frudakis admitted in a December 17, 2009 radio interview on "Where the fur flies" that their KMR formula was spoiled from heat and should not be used. Unfortunately Frudakis did not alert consumers or distributors of the problems with the product. She merely posted a small note on the company website. The tainted product is still on store shelves. The FDA does not have the power to force recalls on pet food items. The company must initiate their own recalls. Petag has not done this.
When informed about the spoiled formula from consumers Pet Sense pet stores removed all of the product from their 31 stores nationwide. One manager of one Petco store removed the tainted product after consumer complaints. It is not known at this time if Petco or PetSmart removed all of the tainted formula from all of their stores nationwide. The tainted KMR smells rancid and appears more yellow than white. Do not use this formula.
Animal Advocates in Los Angeles, California was the organization which made the initial report to the FDA. More information about the problems is available on the Animal Advocates website. http://www.AnimalAdvocates.us