Ed, Were You Lying Then Or Are You Lying Now?

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Ed Boks tends to lie a lot, or present an impossibly rosy present that is contradicted by fact.

From LAAS site, Fact vs. Rumor #6 posted by Boks a few days ago:

Boks then: The Daily News has printed a couple of ill-informed letters to the editor in recent months exaggerating the veterinarian shortage in LA Animal Services. A recent piece claimed LA Animal Services’ veterinary vacancy rate is at a “cruel 84 percent”.

A significant fact omitted from this dire description is that the twelve veterinarians budgeted are to staff our six new spay/neuter clinics, five of which are still under construction.


Council motion April 3, 2006 by Zine and Alarcon:

The Department of animal Services (DAS) is currently experiencing a severe shortage of veterinarians. Currently, 10 out of 12 veterinarian positions, including that of Chief Veterinarian, are vacant. These vacancies have resulted in only two veterinarians absorbing the responsibilities to oversee the City's six shelters which handle approximately 46,000 animals per year. Consequently, the two veterinarians have been forced to work overtime to ensure that the City's animal shelter needs are met. As a result, the veterinarians have become exhausted and less efficient.

The shortage of veterinarians has raised concerns about the Department's ability to provide adequate services in City shelters. It is urgent that the City implement the necessary steps to increase veterinarian hiring and retention. Immediate action is needed to ensure that the quality of animal care does not continue to suffer.


NOTICE THE COUNCIL MOTION IS TALKING ABOUT CURRENT NEEDS, NOT FUTURE NEEDS AS S/N CLINICS ARE BUILT.

From Fact vs. Rumor #6:

Boks then: A significant fact omitted from this dire description is that the twelve veterinarians budgeted are to staff our six new spay/neuter clinics, five of which are still under construction.

A seventh Spay/Neuter Clinic in South LA will soon be staffed. While we await the opening of our six additional clinics we now contract with over 25 local private veterinarians to provide this important service.

In addition to our staff veterinarians, LA Animal Services has over 20 medical staff members who are licensed veterinarians in other countries. This allows them to perform in LA as very highly skilled Registered Veterinary Technicians.
LA Animal Services has 149 private veterinarians available to provide care to animals in need. We routinely use 30 of these veterinarians as needed.


Which is it Ed, do we need 12 vets now because our current two vets are overwhelmed providing health care for animals currently in the shelters, or are the 12 vets needed in the future when the spay neuter clinics are opened?

According to Boks, LAAS has: 2 staff vets; 20 foreign trained vets; 25 private vets performing spay neuter, and 149 private vets on tap to provide health care, which total 194 veterinarians. Hell, I did not know there were that many veterinarians in LA (of course I did).

Boks states that the 12 vets are to be utilized to man six spay/neuter clinics, five under construction. Does this mean the actual vet diagnosis and treatment are left to 20 vet techs and 149 on-call private vets?

Is Boks saying that currently LAAS has no budgeted staff to handle the health needs of the animals in the shelters? The budget for 12 vets is for facilities that have not yet been built? Why are the two vets overloaded when they should be doing spay/neuters in clinics that have not been built?

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is from the LA Times article about the shortage of vets.

"The veterinarian shortage 'is our top problem,' said animal services Personnel Director Russ Core. 'Our two vets are just overtaxed.'
There should be two veterinarians assigned to each shelter, Boks said."

Here is a link to the article.

http://www.topix.net/content/trb/2487166124252619442742431574102916932591

Notice, LA County doesn't have this problem and they take in more animals and have a higher euthanasia rate. Why can't LA City get vets when LA County doesn't have a problem?

Anonymous said...

I couldn't help but think, doesn't this (below) belong in this section?

"When a company is failing, "in the red," if the CEO wants to keep his job or his company and he doesn't like losing money, a smart CEO will hire a specialized management consultant - a successful one, to provide an operational plan to get the company out of the trenches, and the Board of Directors and stockholders will insist on it. THERE'S NO SHAME IN THAT! But, that won't happen if there's no motivation to save the company or to increase profits. The other approach in that situation is to market that the business is much more successful and profitable than it actually is in order to raise the price of the stock or look for investors to invest in a poorly run business unbeknownst to the investors. However, the facade is not sustainable. So, the company may be sold while the facade is still strong. If not, it will begin to become public that it is a failing company."

Anonymous said...

Look at the animals that are now dying in the shelter.

Dogs dying in shelter in March
2007 42
2006 35
2005 29

Other dying in shelter in March
2007 166
2006 92
2005 18

The cat numbers aren't out yet. \

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

April 6, 2007

I think Boks has opted for option two, just try to cover things up. He'll be found out eventually, if he isn't already. He's currently juggling the animals just to improve his statistics. He held onto dogs as long as possible in March to try to better than statistics. I'm sure he'll release a "glowing" report saying "we'll be nokill by Tuesday!"

Anonymous said...

What gets me is his ability to tolerate cognitive dissonance. He can say there is no vet problem on the LAAS website, and then say there is a huge problem before Council.

So sharp is his ability to tolerate contradiction, he is not taking Fact Vs. Rumor #6 down. To make others buy this, he should write a rebuttal to Muzika's rebuttal of Ed's rebuttal to the Daily News Op Ed piece.

Anonymous said...

Boks has no problem making big whopper lies. That's the nature of sociopaths. They feel no remorse or guilt at all. They can use and destroy people and not think anything of it. Here is a page with a good description. Notice, they hold on to jobs for short terms until they are found out.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_know_if_someone_is_a_sociopath

Anonymous said...

Looks suspicious to me!

http://www.laanimalservices.com/PDF/info/rumor/rumor4.pdf
Page 11 (last page)

("Rumor")
"OWNER REQUESTED EUTHANASIA! Yep, he's NOW saying that 15% of those killed were owner requested. The problem with THAT excuse is that owner requested euthanasia is no longer allowed by law!"

("Response")
"LA Animal Services does not provide owner-requested euthanasia. I have never made this claim verbally or in writing. This claim cannot be found in any LA Animal Services documents anywhere."

http://www.laanimalservices.com/PDF/info/rumor/memo%20Euth%20under%204%20days.pdf
Page 2

Records of Cats
Summary of Findings

Number of Cats
2

Outcome Subtype
Behavior - Biting - Owner Surrendered and Requested Euthanasia

Comments
Euthanized same day