LA Animal Services is in crisis

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - City officials are tight-lipped Saturday about a crisis at the Los Angeles Animal Services department, where General Manager Staycee Dains is on an unexplained two-month leave of absence and the recently named president of the department's board has left his position after chairing just one meeting.

Annette Ramirez, who led the department on an interim basis for a year and a half before Mayor Karen Bass tapped Dains for the GM position last year, has taken the reins once again while Dains is on leave.

"I am writing today to share updates about our Department's leadership. General Manager Staycee Dains is currently on leave and in her absence, I will be serving as Acting General Manager," Ramirez wrote in a letter to staff on Friday. "You should know that our Department will continue operating at full capacity and serving all of its general functions. I have spoken with supervisors and team leaders and I feel confident that we will keep moving forward."

LAAS officials have not replied to questions about Dains' leave of absence, and it was not clear when or even if she would return. The Los Angeles Times reported that an "internal city document" said Dains' leave would last until mid-October.

The Mayor's Office referred questions about Dains' status to Ramirez's memo.

Dains, who formerly led Long Beach's animal services department, has not responded to attempts to reach her for a comment.

The Board of Animal Services Commissioners, which sets policy and conducts oversight of the city's six animal shelters, is dealing with its own major shakeup. The board's scheduled Aug. 13 meeting was canceled, and James Johnson, who was named to replace Larry Gross as board president in July, is now out, leaving two of the panel's five seats vacant.

The reason for Johnson's departure was not clear, though he told The Times, "The bottom line is that when you are a commissioner, you serve at the pleasure of the mayor. I am no longer a commissioner."

Johnson was appointed to the board by Bass in 2023, and was elected its president by the board July 9 after Gross announced his voluntary departure. The first meeting chaired by Johnson on July 23 was rocky, as Johnson clashed with a member of the public who criticized Dains, and made a failed attempt to pass a $25,000 contract for "safety and engagement" services, then offered to raise the funds himself after commissioners opposed the effort.

The next scheduled LAAS commissioners meeting is Aug. 27 at City Hall.

The shakeups come as the shelters continue to suffer a worsening overpopulation crisis, with too many unwanted animals and not enough space, staff members, volunteers or adopters. According to the LAAS website, 1,450 dogs were in the city's six shelters as of Saturday, far over the department's capacity of 737.

Officials have ramped up efforts to find adopters or fosters for the dogs, cats, rabbits and other animals in their care. The shelters were offering reduced adoption fees this weekend for dog, cats, puppies and kittens.

Even in the best of times, LA's shelters, like those in other communities, are burdened with a challenging number of unwanted animals, placing a strain on city budgets and staff morale.

Officials offer a variety of reasons for the influx over the last few years. Many people who adopted pets during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, when lockdowns were keeping people at home, surrendered those animals after the lockdowns were lifted and they returned to work or school.

Inflation and increased rent costs are also cited as barriers to pet ownership, while many in the animal rescue community also blame professional breeders for much of the problem, saying breeders often "dump" animals viewed as medically or aesthetically flawed into shelters.

In April, the Los Angeles City Council voted 13-0 to approve a temporary moratorium on dog breeding permits in the city to address the population crisis. The moratorium was backed by Dains and the LAAS commissioners.

The department frequently comes under criticism from public speakers at the commissioners meetings, who claim that conditions at the shelters are deplorable, that potential adopters must overcome too many hurdles and that volunteers are not always supported in their efforts to call out shortcomings.

Dains herself echoed some of those concerns last September, two months after assuming the GM post, telling the LAAS board that said each of six shelters were well over capacity to properly care for the animals housed there.

"Animals are suffering in our shelters, and so are those who care for them," Dains said at the time. "We keep animals in crates in hallways for days, weeks, or months at a time. Staff and volunteers are injured by animals subject to fear, anxiety, and stress. Our caregivers know that the animals receive substandard care, which harms their mental well-being. We cannot allow the suffering to continue."

In July and August, inspections at the city's South LA and East Valley shelters conducted by Best Friends Animal Society at the request of LAAS also found serious shortcomings, according to The Times.

The report found "a failure to incorporate no-kill policies and in some instances a failure to meet minimal humane standards of care," the newspaper reported, adding that inspectors witnessed staff being less than helpful to residents who expressed interest in adopting, fostering or volunteering.

"The staff's distrust of the residents was obvious and that distrust resulted in many people walking away when their offers of support were not accepted," the report found, according to The Times.

The inspectors also allegedly found that most dogs at the shelters only get out of their kennels every 10 to 14 days, and that kennels are cleaned with water hoses, but the dogs aren't removed during the process.

LAAS officials did not reply to a request for comment on the report.

Ramirez told staff members in her memo Friday that she was up to the many challenges faced at the shelters.

"I have had the privilege of serving this Department for the last 24 years. This includes three years as Assistant General Manager, and a previous period of a year and a half as Interim General Manager. ... I am very familiar with the challenges faced by the Department on a daily basis. My educational background is in Animal Science, and I have had the opportunity to work in all six shelters in the City system. I have dedicated my life to serving animals in our community, and the residents of the City of Los Angeles.
I have worked side by side with volunteers and New Hope partners, and I know the challenges faced by employees on a daily basis," she wrote.

"But I also know the successes that this Department is capable of and achieves every single day."

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