LA animal shelters change policies after dog attacks staff member

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles animal shelters are adjusting some policies after a longtime employee was severely mauled by a dog last month, the city’s animal services director said Tuesday.

The city will abandon its “red list” of animals at risk of euthanasia, Staycee Dains, general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services, told the LAAS board during its regular meeting on Tuesday.

The red list, which was used for animals that need to be adopted immediately because they are at risk of euthanasia, will be replaced by a “rescue need list” for animals that are at risk of euthanasia and are showing obvious suffering, Dains said.

The department will also maintain a euthanasia list for animals approved for the procedure. Only New Hope partners – rescue groups with an existing relationship with the city – will be allowed to accept animals on the euthanasia list.

Both lists will be publicly available on the LAAS website.

“Please understand that we are doing this in a time of crisis. This is not how we want to treat animals,” Dains told the board, adding that protocols could be changed in the future as the overcrowding crisis at the city’s six animal shelters subsides.

The shelters will also introduce a sponsorship system for volunteers and staff who deal with problem animals.

On May 31, kennel manager Leslie Corea, a long-time LAAS employee, was seriously injured by a dog at the Harbor Shelter in San Pedro.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Los Angeles animal shelter employee attacked by dog

Dains said Corea suffered a level 5 bite, the second most severe dog bite. “Level 6 is death,” she said.

Brie, the dog who bit Corea, had come to the shelter as a stray 62 days before the incident and was having trouble adjusting. She was on the euthanasia list but was scheduled to attend a private animal rescue group on the day of the attack.

Dains said Corea appears to be recovering and was in “great spirits” during her last visit. When asked by LAAS board chairman Larry Gross what the commission could do to help her, Dains said Corea would most like authorities to do everything possible to reduce overcrowding in shelters by promoting low-cost spay and neuter procedures and other helpful measures.

In her oral report to the board, Dains also said that LAAS staff found that there was no reason for approximately 3,000 animal surrenders to shelters. For the remaining surrenders, the four most common reasons were housing, medical costs, animal behavior and lack of education on proper pet care.

A group of shelter volunteers immediately criticized the changes in shelter policy and sent a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass requesting an emergency meeting.

“Typical of LAAS, none of these changes were communicated to volunteers in writing,” LA Animal Services volunteers wrote in the letter. “As usual, the new rules are unclear and arbitrarily enforced. The new policy essentially limits our access to many dogs with whom we have relationships and to new intakes who will clearly benefit from our work to enrich their stay with us. The result is an assembly line pace of killing happy, healthy dogs who are falsely classified as unadoptable.”

“Shelter staff currently arbitrarily assigns dogs ‘Rescue Only’ status, meaning they cannot be rescued by anyone other than the city’s few already overworked and at-capacity rescue partners. Volunteers are no longer permitted to take these dogs for any type of activity. There are no clear guidelines as to what behavior warrants ‘Rescue Only’ status.”

“…This ‘hands off’ policy is obviously a knee-jerk reaction by management to a tragic but RARE incident within the shelter system. The incident is being used as a bludgeon when nuanced decisions are most important,” the letter continues.

LAAS staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.