EXTERMINATION UNDER WAY!

HELP!!

Los Angeles County is rounding up and killing feral and stray cats in unincorporated areas as a defense against “terrorist attack.” Next they will move on to LA Cities, as in the past, such as Santa Monica and LA

I have dealt with Mr. Ramirez in the past with his kill-oriented psychopathological thinking, numerous times, as well as other members of County Vector Control. They are insistent on killing as their primary solution to all threats of vector borne diseases. They have repeatedly successfully demanded that the ground squirrels in Palisades Park in Santa Monica be killed every three years or so despite massive opposition by the public and by the city of Santa Monica. They do this all over the county, including incorporated cities within the County, such as Santa Monica or Los Angeles.

Joe and his boss Gail Van Gordon are kill crazy and feel they are on a mission from God to cleanse the world or urban wildlife and feral cats when there is, in their minds, even the slightest potential for disease spread to humans. Ramirez bragged to me that the reason there has been no human plague in Los Angeles County is because they so thoroughly kill ground squirrels throughout the County. They don't even pretend to present reasonable arguments to support the medical/scientific necessity of their killing. Ramirez told me in the past he wanted to kill feral cats because they can spread pneumonic vs. bubonic plague. Vector has been looking for an excuse to kill ferals, now its terrorists!

Trapping has already begun at DEL AIRE COUNTY PARK where a notice has been posted, that cats will be trapped and taken to the Carson shelter where they will be “adopted” out. Next in line for trapping is PECK PARK and THE HARBOR UCLA MEDICAL CENTER. That they will adopt them is a complete lie. Feral cats are not adoptable. The County as well as LA City kills them after a 3 day hold. In fact, LA County has a kill rate of almost 80% for all cats impounded, whether feral, tame or kittens.

It will be tough to stop them. They insulate themselves from scientific evidence and medical logic, and they are backed by Dr. Fielding, head of County Health.

The email I received:

The L. A. County Public Health, spearheaded by Joe Ramirez, Environmental Health Specialist, phone (626) 430-5468, has contracted the L. A. County Carson Animal Shelter to trap and euthanize all feral and stray cats within the park area and wherever there is ‘human interaction’. I spoke with him on two occasions trying to negotiate allowing rescue groups to handle a relocation and adoption effort.

But he is against relocation of any sort unless in a cat sanctuary or adoption. He feels that feral/stray cats have become a National Security problem because of the ‘potential’ of spreading deadly diseases, plagues, and biohazards. His mission is to go from park to park or wherever there are strays and ferals and euthanize them. He told me that Carson said they would euthanize the cats right away, but try and get them adopted. So, either he was lying to me or they were lying to him. Either way, it’s a death sentence for all the feral and stray cats in L.A. County and then maybe elsewhere.

Input with regard to scientific data to the contrary, MAY help, but probably not. They have shown over and over that they base their decisions on their “37 years of combined experience” rather than any scientific evidence presented to them, and Dr. Fielding backs them 100%. He ought to know better.

Phone Numbers of People to Call:

MOST IMPORTANT: Jonathan Fielding: Head of County Health,

jfielding@ladhs.org, jfieldin@ucla.edu; Phone: County Health: Direct Line-(213) 240-8117; UCLA: (310) 206-1141

Joe Ramirez, (626) 430-5468—In Charge of Cat Killing

Ramirez’s Boss: Gail Vangordon: gvangordon@ladhs.org

Phone (626) 430-5450. She considers scientific evidence from outsiders laughable.

The actual rounding up and killing would be done by County Animal Services, headed by Marcia Mayeda.

IMPORTANT: Marcia Mayeda: Phone (562) 728-4882; She does the killing. mmayeda@animalcare.lacounty.gov

MOST IMPORTANT: The Supervisors: These are the decision makers:

Gloria Molina: Phone (213) 974-4111

Zev Yaroslavsky: Phone (213) 974-3333

Michael Antonovich: Phone: (213) 974-5555

Mark Ridley-Thomas: Phone (213) 974-2222

Don Knabe: Phone: 213-974-4444

COUNTY HAS STARTED!

Click photos to enlarge

Trapping of feral cats has begun at DEL AIRE COUNTY PARK where a notice has been posted, that cats will be trapped and taken to the Carson shelter where they will be “adopted” out. Next in line for trapping is PECK PARK and THE HARBOR UCLA MEDICAL CENTER. Protests should be director to Dr. Fielding and the County Supervisors. That info is in my next post. Call Joe though and tell him how much we appreciate his lies about a national security risk and that the cats will be adopted.

The chart below shows that County killed 78% of all impounded cats, feral, friendly and kittens in 2006, with another 3-4% dying in the shelter (other). A feral cat has no chance at all. So Ramirez lies so no one will complain.

Notice that in 2006, 78% were killed at County and another 3-4% died in the shelter or were "lost." Of 35,817 cats impounded, only 5,508 wre adopted, or 15%. A feral cat has a 0% chance of being adopted.

No Kill in Europe--It can be done

In the US we consider No-Kill a distant goal, while in several European countries dogs and cats are not killed in public or private shelters. That is, No-Kill is a fact. However, I still have to research how they do it and whether "overpopulation" is not a problem there or how they deal with it. I got this email from an Italian academic whose article I read about successful TNR efforts in Rome led me to write her. I asked about kill rates in Rome, Italy and the rest of Europe. This is her response: From: Eugenia Natoli Subject: Cats of Rome To: "Edward Muzika" Date: Thursday, September 10, 2009, 12:40 PM Dear Dr. Muzika, I am sorry to know that there is such a high kill rate in many parts of U.S.A. It is funny that, in Italy, most of us are convinced that domestic dogs and cats are never killed abroad. Actually, the no-kill policy is enforced by law in all Italy, i.e. in Italy is forbidden to kill domestic cats and dogs, unless they are uncurable or dangerous. The public opinion is so strong that dogs are euthanised very rarely, even when they are clearly highly dangerous and they should be. In Europe there are only Austria and some regions of Spain where the no-kill policy is enforced by law, like in Italy. Unfortunately, I have no data on the kill rate in other European countries. My field is behaviour, so I have published mainly on it. I enclose a list of my publications. Let me know if you are interested in some of them, and I will send you them. Best regards Eugenia -- Eugenia Natoli Azienda USL Roma D Dipartimento Sanità Pubblica Veterinaria Ospedale Veterinario Via della Magliana, 856 00148 Roma Italia tel. +39 06 56487641 fax. +39 06 56487647 e-mail: enatoli@tiscali.it --

Study Finds Vast Majority of Pet Cats Sterilized

Eighty percent of cats in U.S. households are neutered, according to a new, nationally representative study conducted by Alley Cat Allies and published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Association, a leading peer-reviewed scientific journal. The study, “Population characteristics and neuter status of cats living in households in the United States,” found that family income was the single strongest predictor of whether pet cats living in households are neutered. Over 90% of cats in households earning $35,000 or more per year were neutered, compared to 51% of cats in households earning less than $35,000. These neuter rates are a cause for optimism: they indicate that neutering is an accepted, established practice among the large majority of Americans with pet cats. As a result, our nation’s pet cats are living healthier lives. Despite the disparity based on household income, it bears reemphasizing that the majority of pet cats living in households across all income levels are neutered. The study was based on data collected by Harris Interactive for Alley Cat Allies and then analyzed by Alley Cat Allies using a rigorous statistical approach, and is the first nationally representative study to document that household income is positively associated with a cat’s neuter status. Increasing Neuter Rates for Cats: Next Stop Stray and Feral Cats When looking at the neuter rates of cats in U.S. households, it is important to remember that pet cats represent only a part of the entire U.S. cat population. Scientists estimate that there may be as many stray and feral cats in the United States as there are cats living in people’s homes. In contrast to the high neuter rate of pet cats, the most comprehensive research to date indicates that less than 3% of stray and feral cats are neutered. The lives of all cats—pet, stray, and feral—are improved through neutering. This important new study underscores the need to recognize that most intact cats are stray and feral cats. And among lower income cat owners who responded to the study, cost was the most common reason cited for not neutering their pets. Expanding the accessibility and affordability of low-cost, high-volume spay and neuter programs is a critical step to increasing the neuter rate among both pet cats in lower income households as well as stray and feral cats.

Mayor gearing up for search for GM

My sources tell me the Mayor's Office is gearing up for a search for a new GM. If you know people who are interested, have them get their resume ready. Personally I suggest sending them directly to Jim Bickhart Jim.Bickhart@lacity.org.

The department's head of personnel if Russell Core. Russell.Core@lacity.org

Word About Pasadena Humane Spreading

Pasadena Humane uses fires & animals to con donors

by Pasadena Inhumane ( PasadenaInhumane [at] yahoo.com )
Tuesday Sep 8th, 2009 7:34 PM

Pasadena Humane Society used the recent fires to con people into donating. They kept the cash then threw away new pet carriers, towels, blankets and food donated by the public and other rescue groups. They stated they housed hundreds of evacuated pets when photos show only a few. They stated they took in wildlife injured by the fires when they took in none.

pasadenathrowsawaydonated...

On August 30, 2009 Pasadena Humane Society put out an emergency plea for pet products to help pets evacuated from the Los Angeles Station fire. They requested pet carriers, towels and pet food from the local animal rescue groups.

Mary Temple the supervisor at Pasadena Humane stated "Can any of you rescuers and animal lovers help PHS out by bringing crates to our shelter for the fire victims' animals and rescue some of ours?"

Animal rescue groups responded by donating pet carriers, towels, bedding, food and toys. They also went to the shelters and adopted over 30 dogs to make room for evacuated pets.

Then they sent out a wider plea to the general public. "Wildfires Causing an EMERGENCY Situation at Pasadena Humane Society!!! EMERGENCY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY!!! URGENT URGENT URGENT - shelter completely out of space! 70+ dogs alone taken in last night due to fires." They again asked for pet carriers, towels, bedding, food and money. They added a link to their donation page begging for money saying they could not afford to hold these evacuated pets. All of their supporters were posting the donation link on everyone's Facebook page and on craigslist.com.

Pasadena went on to request help with "wildlife injured from the fires." They stated "the Pasadena Humane Society is the only licensed wildlife center in the 30 mile radius of the wildfires. They are rapidly taking in displaced & injured wild animals, in addition to domestic animals & livestock."

There are actually quite a few licensed wildlife rehabilitators near the wildfire ares. One such local licensed wildlife rehabilitation organization heard their plea and instantly offered to take all wildlife from Pasadena Humane. Pasadena accepted their offer.

When the rehabilitator arrived at the shelter she was told that there were only 12 baby squirrels which arrived before the fires began. They said that was the only wildlife in the shelter. There were no "displaced & injured wild animals." The rehabilitator offered to take the baby squirrels in order to make room for pets evacuated because of the fires. She also offered to take any future wildlife that arrived at the shelter. She and her volunteers called daily and no wildlife injured from the fires ended up in the shelter.

While the rehabilitator was at the shelter she took photos of their evacuation area. The goal was to show that Pasadena had a huge almost empty banquet hall ready to take animals if needed. There were approximately ten dogs in the evac area even though the shelter said they received 70 evac dogs just that morning.

As the rehabilitator was leaving the shelter around 2:00 p.m. she passed by the dumpster in the alley. Inside and around the dumpster were pet carriers (see photo). Some were new with price tags still attached. There were bags of clean folded towels, blankets, pet toys and food. She asked two employees if this was indeed trash and if she could have it. They said yes. She filled her car full of new and almost new pet carriers. As she left she took a photo so she could tell other rescuers about all of these free pet carriers.

When she got home she noticed that three new pet carriers had the freshly printed name of a local dog rescue group. She decided to call the dog rescue group to see if they had other carriers they didn't want. The dog rescue group stated that they heard the plea earlier that day and had dropped off those new carriers to Pasadena to help out. They were very upset that their donation ended up thrown in the trash.

The rehabilitator returned the three crates to the dog rescue group. The dog rescue group contacted Pasadena Humane. Pasadena replied that they only threw away "rusted, broken" carriers. The dog rescue group then promised never to help Pasadena Humane ever again if they were throwing new carriers into the trash and lying about it.

The rehabilitator posted the photos of the trash and evac areas to her Facebook page. The caption on the photos stated that there were free pet carriers in the dumpster. It also stated that Pasadena was ready to accept evac animals if anyone needed a place for their pets. They had tons of room.

Most commenters were very upset that Pasadena begged for crates only to throw them in the trash, same with towels, bedding, food and toys. Fortunately other rescue groups went and took all the crates out of the trash. Some complained to Pasadena about the donations being trashed.

Pasadena responded on Facebook stating that the crates in the trash were "rusted," "broken" and "full of scorpions, ick!" The rehabilitator responded with larger photos of the crates stating that they were new, almost new or merely had "some dirt on the underside of the bottom of the carriers." They were clean crates with "no scorpions." She stated "what do they do when the crates they're using get dirty, just throw those out too?"

Since then other information about the practices of Pasadena Humane have come to light. Pasadena Humane states on their website that they place 94.3% of cats. Their statistics in their annual report show that they actually only place 35%. They euthanize 59% of all cats. They arrive at these numbers by deeming most animals as "unadoptable" then they didn't count them. They actually just deem any animal not adopted as "unadoptable."

They did the same funny math with dogs. They claimed they placed 97.6% of all dogs when they actually placed only 46%. This is much worse than even Los Angeles City shelters which place 74% of dogs. One would think a smaller shelter with more volunteers and money would be able to do better than the embattled Los Angeles shelter system.

One person commented on the Facebook thread that they took their euthanasia class at Pasadena. They had to kill three dogs for their final. These dogs were deemed "unadoptable." One was very frightened, the next slightly frightened, the last was a super sweet loving dog that was wagging her tail and kissing everyone up until the second before she was killed. The first two were deemed potential biters, the third was "food aggressive." Right before the students killed the last dog they gave her a muffin, then snatched it away. The dog was not food aggressive at all. In fact the shelter stated that this dog was offered up for adoption in the shelter for 30 days. She was merely deemed "unadoptable" because she was not adopted within 30 days.

Pasadena stated they are licensed to take in wildlife. In their annual report they state that they took in 1,387 birds. 72% of those birds died or were euthanized, 28% were transfered to licensed rehabilitators or released. They took in 964 mammals. 57% of those mammals died or were euthanized, 43% were transfered to licensed rehabilitators or released. 65% of all wildlife brought to the shelter died or was euthanized. Pasadena's statistics for died/euthanized for wildlife is much worse than the state average for rehabilitators. It's also interesting to note that they transfer most of the animals to other rehabbers who then care for them to release, another numbers game. They may take in 2,377 wild animals a year but they only cared for a few of them themselves.

For years people have stated that Pasadena fudges the numbers, deceives donors, and treats the public poorly. There are pages and pages of poor reviews by customers online. I guess it takes just one act to make people take a closer look at their numbers and actual practices. Do your research before you donate to any non-profit organization.

*Spay and neuter your pets. Don't buy a new pet, adopt one from your local shelter or rescue groups. If you find ill, injured or orphaned wildlife, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

Smith Not Running For Reelection in 2011

Greig Smith announced he is not running for reelection in the West Valley District 12. His very unhelpful assistant Englander announced he will run. Englander is another weekend warrior reserve, law and order, hate Jimmy on the bridge type of person. Anti feral cat I suppose too, but I'll check that.

Let's get Kathy Riordan to run and be the West Valley's Councilmember.

Kathy, run will you?

Recent Foster

Got her yesterday. One of four we are trying to rescue from a drainage ditch that is scheduled to be paved over in Van Nuys. About 6 weeks old. How is that for a relaxed feral kitten less than 3 days out of a ditch?

The other three are harder to get to because we need access and the contractor won't let people in to trap. This one was grabbed through a fence. There is one more adorable Calico, and two pale orange brothers.

Marsha Hall wrote:

The Jesusita Fire in Santa Barbara , CA this year caused these two to take shelter together. The fawn is about 3 days old and the bobcat about 3 weeks. They immediately bonded and snuggled together under a desk in the Santa Barbara County Dispatch Office for several hours.

Animal Planet is reporting the bobcat kitten was rescued near Arnold Schwarzenegger's ranch, where it was dehydrated and near death. They rescued the fawn during the wildfire. Although wild animals, especially of separate species, are never placed together due to regulations, in this emergency situation, they had no choice.

During the mayhem of the fire, they were forced to put animals anywhere they could, since they had run out of crates large enough for the fawn. The kitten ran to the fawn, and it was instant bonding.

Pasadena Humane Claims 94.38% Placement For Cats Even Though it killed 59%

Pasadena Humane is a typical "lying" shelter.

PH claims a “Placement rate for cats” of 94.38% on page 5 of their 2008 report. http://www.pasadenahumane.org/site/DocServer/PHS_Annual_2008.pdf?docID=361

This is an astounding claim since they took in 3,741 cats and killed 2,194 of them! Only 1,547 cats left the shelter alive! They killed 58.6% of all cats that came in yet astoundingly claim a placement rate for cats of over 94%.

Their kill figures are a little worse than LA City but not quite as bad as County where about 80% are killed.

So how do they get their 94.38% placement rate figure? They claim that of the 3,741 cats impounded, only 1,639 were “placeable," and of these 1,639, only 92 were killed for lack of space.

“In 2008, PHS cared for 1,639 placeable cats. Of these, 1,326 cats were adopted, 205 went to rescue organizations, and 16 were transferred to other shelters. 92 cats were euthanized for space reasons, 7 more than in 2007. Our placement rate for cats is 94.38%, down 0.22 % from 2007.”

They get their “fantastic” placement rate by defining the population of cats they adopted, transferred or had rescued as the placeable ones. It is purely a name game with them. Marcia Mayeda used to do the same, claiming an almost 89% adoption rate even though County killed 82% of the cats impounded.

They just defined the group of placeable or adoptable cats as being slightly greater than the total number of cats they actually adopted. Actually, if you are a really good liar, you can generate numbers where you saved or placed more animals than were placeable. You could even create a 110% placement figure while still killing more than half the cats brought in.

Compare Pasadena’s stats with Reno for example, where the live save rate for cats is over 80%, not 41% as in Pasadena.

The case with dogs is only a tiny bit better. Of 4,288 impounded dogs, 1974 made it out alive in 2008 according to their report. That is a live save rate of 46%. Yet, they claimed a 97.6% placement rate for dogs, because they only considered 2,024 of the nearly 4,300 dogs placeable.

This is far, far worse than Los Angeles Animal Services with a live save rate of 74% compared to Pasadena's 46%. I think even LA County has a better than 46% live save rate. Reno has a live save rate for dogs of over 90% and they handle more than twice as many cats and dogs as Pasadena.

There is one very unusual statistic. Pasadena claims 3,741 "live animal" impounds for cats out of a total cat impound figure of 4,760. They list 1,019 deceased cats also impounded. This is extrememly high compared to Los Angeles. Los angeles, for the same period had only 556 DOA cats, and yet LA impounded almost five times as many cats. That is, dead cats impounded was only 2% of LA's impounds, but was 21% of Pasadena's. It could be that Pasadena counts every dead cat impounded while LA doesn't, which is troubling if true, because in LA, once again we are missing an important piece of information regarding animals in the city.

Given the photos of the thrown away items, the lack of official response to the claims of not having over 300 evacuated animals, along with this blatant slanting of statistics beyond recognition, and you have an organization I certainly would not trust regarding anything.

Spokesperson for Pasadena Humane Says Whistleblowing Rescuer a Liar; Only Old Stuff Thrown Away

The below email was from Kay Thornberg stating Pasadena Humane's case. After that I posted a response from one of the rescuer witnesses. There is also a link to two new photos. However, if you click on the dumpster photo to enlarge it, you can plainly see the labels that come with new crates and that most of them look clean. There was no excuse to throw the stuff away. If they didn't need it, they could have stored it or given it back.

Dear All...I have looked into the PHS crate brouhaha and I want to offer some reassurance that these folks aren't all evil or sloppy. Here's what happened:

When they put out the call for crates for the animals threatened by the fire they were inundated with responses. A few crates were not usable because of rusted hardware, cracking and infestations of scorpions (ugh!) and spiders (ugh!). They made the decision that these items were unsafe and potentially unhealthy and those were the ones put in the dumpster. (Had they asked me personally they probably would have gotten the same kind of mess since my 4 crates sit in the garage, year-in, year-out, and do get rusty and dirty although not, I'm happy to report, infested with scorpions!!)

PHS people have stressed that they are grateful for all donations and could not have operated as professionally or efficiently as they did without them. Staff worked around the clock caring for 374 traumatized animals. They are upset at being vilified after protecting their animal charges from dirty/rusted crates. In an emergency like that one was/is it is often true that items can be 'brought back from the dead' but that takes hours of volunteer time and they did not have that time to spare in this instance. The rescue offered to replace any of the discarded crates if more were needed.

I also learned that the Facebook posting has been reported as fraudulent and, as of the arrival of that info yesterday there was a probability it (the posting) would be removed today.

Hope this info helps to clear up mis-information. 374 animals are happy about it.

Kay Tornborg

~

RESCUER:

They want to say my facebook posting is fraudulent? That's ridiculous! If they thought so, why didn't they contact me about it? Anyone can message or email me but no one has. If you read the caption you can see that I was merely sharing info on free carriers. I wasn't attacking Pasadena when I posted the pic.

I have some of those crates. I picked them up. Three were absolutely new. They were donated by Golden Retriever rescue. They put their phone number on them. They had new, clean pet beds inside of them. I called GR rescue and they told me they just bought those crates and donated them that morning. They also donated wire crates which Pasadena did use. I returned those three crates to GR rescue.

They were super mad that Pasadena threw them in the trash. They called up Pasadena who said they only threw away old, broken, dirty carriers. I will swear on a stack of bibles that the carriers were fine. There is one you can see in the pic that a puppy chewed on the corner of it. That's it. I would have taken that one if I could have fit it in my car. You can see a dog crate with a price tag on it. Some had a tiny bit of mud on the bottom on the underside from probably sitting outside. There were no scorpions! Plus, what's wrong with hosing, cleaning out the carriers? Do they throw away carriers after each use? If there were rust, it can be scrubbed off. There is no rust on the carriers I got.

There were bags full of clean, folded towels. I took those. There were new, clean blankets in there. I took those too. I asked people there if that was trash and I could take it and then said yes, so I took it.

Feel free to share my email. I can't believe they'd say my post was fraudulent and they're trying to get me in trouble with Facebook. What a load of horse shit.

I wasn't going to say anything about this but I'll mention it now. The baby squirrels I picked up from them were extremely dehydrated, emaciated and two were unconscious. They put 12 baby squirrels into a paper pet carrier. They told me they were all drinking Esbilac formula, another lie. They had dark poo which means mother's milk. Two had bad diarrhea. Four had not had anything to eat in days. If that's how they are going to treat wildlife, they should not take them in. I will now report them to Fish & Game. I'm also going to send them a cease and desist for sending this crap around calling me a liar.

ME:

After now years of dealing with self-serving shelters that lie about everything from stats, save rates, budget, rescue pertners, etc., I know who I believe. I know this rescuer, and the photo clearly speak for itself. The rescuer and friends have taken these discards and say they are from clean and excellent condition to new. Why can't Pasadena just admit an error? Will they allege the rescuer faked the photo?

For two additional photos showing only ten dogs when hundreds were claimed, look at:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3903875&id=733516211

I am amzed. I just checked my stats for this week. Almost 500 people visited this blog yesterday, and almost 400 already today regarding the Pasadena Humane posts.

Pasadena Humane Trashes Donations. Only 10 Dogs There, Not 150

Psadena Humane may be a Boks-Like scam. They put out a plea for help:

URGENT URGENT URGENT - shelter completely out of space! 70+ dogs alone taken in last night due to fires, bringing the total up to 150+ dogs. In addition they asked for money. Then they claimed they took in 300 animals.

CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTO

However, when a rescuer went today, he found:

1. "There were ten dogs, two kittens and a rabbit. Later someone said cats were upstairs and sent a pic. I believe there were some cats upstairs. Their pleas for help now are for money only as per their website. I saw huge donations of pallets of food, those new carriers. They put some food in the trash. Those are carriers, toys, clean towels and blankets in bags in the trash. I took them. I asked two people and they said it was trash. They have tons of storage room. They could have kept these things and given them to others."

"I walked around the shelter and their evac room had ten dogs in it. They said they had 100, nope. I took pics .They kept expensive wire dog crates which were donated but threw the plastic ones in the trash, even new ones. I took all the small and medium sized ones, told friends to take the dog crates, probably 20-30. When I got home I saw the name of a rescue group on three new medium sized carriers. I thought maybe I should call. They had just dropped off those new carriers that morning. They were so pissed Pasadena threw them in the trash. They called pasadena and they said they threw broken, torn carriers in the trash. These carriers had price tags still on them, new. I returned those three carriers to the rescue group but kept the rest. I also got new blankets, towels, dog food from the dumpster. Such a fucking waste! They had tons and tons of storage area. I had no idea they have huge banquet rooms in the shelter, huge huge storage areas, empty. They could have kept them and given them to other groups. That shelter could easily hold four times the number of animals. If you ever go, drive down the alley, park in back, wander through the shelter's back rooms."

Another rescuer wrote:

2. "They asked for donations of carriers, food, toys, money. They took the money but threw the rest in the trash. They sent out a plea saying they were overloaded with pets and wildlife. I didn't see any wildlife except one bobcat."

These emails are from very reliable sources. I have asked for more photos and will post when they arrive. I assume the dog photos are the only evacuated dogs.

WILDLIFE WAYSTATION EVACUATING!

WILDLIFE WAYSTATION NEEDS HELP EVACUATING ANIMALS!!!

LARGE ANIMAL CAGES STILL NEEDED. 14831 Little Tujunga Canyon Rd Sylmar, CA 91342 (818) 899-5021 -

Update: 6:24 pm.

WILDLIFE WAYSTATION HAS SO MANY VOLUNTEERS THEY ARE HAVING TO TURN PEOPLE AWAY!!!!!! THANKS TO ALL THOSE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO ARE HELPING THIS RESERVE IN CALIFORNIA!!!!

Boks "Fake" News Release?

Like I said before, I don't think Ed should run a shelter program anywhere. I think he'd make an excellent head of any organization where animals' lives were not at stake. I would even write a good letter of recommendation for such a job.

This photofile was sent to me. Apparently, according to the sender, the "press release" on the right is what he is showing people in Bellingham, while the one on the left was the one actually released by the Department on June 29. I called the phone number on the allegedly fake press release and the number has nothing to do with animal services. CLICK ON PRESS RELEASE TO ENLARGE.

Boks Close to Getting Bellingham Shelter Director Job

Boks supposedly is the top candidate so far. Several Bellignham residents oppose Boks and have solicited information about him from LA people. The City is not releasing lawsuit data for them to compare his self-written presss release against actual facts. The below is from a Bellingham newspaper.

Boks press release about sexual harassment lawsuit: https://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=123763e98f0c7958&mt=application/pdf&pli=1

Controversial candidate applies for top job at Whatcom Humane Society

ISABELLE DILLS; THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

Published: 09/01/09 12:07 am

Comments (5)

Recommend (0)

The man who recently resigned as head of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services following controversies there has been named as a candidate for the position of executive director at Whatcom Humane Society.

The job has been open since Penny Cistaro left in May to become manager of the Sacramento, Calif., animal control program. Laura Clark, the Whatcom society's community outreach director, is serving as interim executive director.

Finding a replacement has been a fractious process for the society's board of directors. Four of the 10 members, including president Andrea Clay, resigned within the last two months over community pressure that the board was considering outside candidates, according to board member Lisa Donaldson,

Clark and a "handful" of others also are candidates for the executive director position, Donaldson said. The board is not disclosing the salary range for the executive director.

Among the candidates is Ed Boks, who headed animal control agencies in New York and Los Angeles and faced legal issues in both places.

The Los Angeles City Council paid $130,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged Boks was inappropriate with an animal services worker, according to May 1, 2009, city council minutes. She claimed Boks made lewd comments, touched her inappropriately and went to her house uninvited while under the influence of alcohol, according to Los Angeles Superior Court documents. She also claimed her permit to work for animal services was not renewed because she rejected his advances.

Boks was at the center of another controversy this year after discontinuing a program to offer low-income pet owners vouchers for free spay-neuter services, according to the Los Angeles Times. The move, which Boks claimed was a last-ditch effort to make budget cuts, caused one city council member to suggest his resignation. Boks eventually reversed his decision and resumed the voucher program.

Prior to his work in Los Angeles, Boks was the executive director for the New York City Department of Animal Care and Control, where he was involved in a racial discrimination lawsuit. A black employee claimed Boks hired a white employee with no prior experience in animal care in a supervisory position, according to U.S. District Court documents from the Southern District of New York. The black employee alleged Boks fired him, claiming his position was being terminated, but the white employee took over his job responsibilities. The case was dismissed after it was settled out of court, according to the court record.

The Whatcom board continues to consider Boks because he has 20 years of experience in the animal welfare field, board member Donaldson said.

"We understand he's quite controversial, and we are certainly looking at that very carefully," Donaldson said.

Boks, who was in Whatcom County while interviewing for the position, did not return messages left at his Bellingham hotel seeking comment.

Whatcom County pays the nonprofit humane society about $505,000 yearly for animal control services around the county and its cities except in Lynden. About 40 staff members work at the two shelters to provide animal control and rescue services, animal adoptions and low-cost spay and neuter services.

The two people seeking more info about Boks are:

jkjacob123@yahoo.com, diannebass@hotmail.com