LAAS Adjusts Shelter Policies After Severe Dog Attack

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles animal shelters are adjusting some policies after a longtime staff member was seriously mauled by a dog last month, the city's animal services chief said Tuesday.

The city will retire its "red list" for animals in danger of euthanasia, Staycee Dains, general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services, told the LAAS board during its regular meeting Tuesday.

The red list -- which was used for animals who need immediate adoption as they are in danger of being euthanized -- will be replaced by a "Needs Rescue List" for animals who are at risk of euthanasia and are demonstrating that they are suffering, Dains said.

The department will also maintain a euthanasia list for animals that have been approved for the procedure. Only New Hope partners -- rescue groups with an ongoing relationship with the city -- will be allowed to take animals on the euthanasia list.

Both lists will be publicly available on the LAAS website.

"Please understand that we're doing this in a time of crisis. This is not how we want to manage animals," Dains told the board, adding that protocols may be changed in the future if the overcrowding crisis at the city's six shelters subsides.

The shelters will also institute a buddy system for volunteers or staff handling troubled animals.

On May 31, kennel supervisor Leslie Corea, a longtime LAAS employee, was severely injured by a dog at the Harbor Shelter in San Pedro.

Dains said Corea suffered a Level 5 bite, the second-most serious dog bite. "Level 6 is death," she said.

Brie, the dog who bit Corea, had entered the shelter 62 days prior to the incident as a stray and was struggling to adjust there. She was placed on the list for euthanasia, but was scheduled to see a private rescue group the day of the attack.

Corea told NBC4 last week that she was in the kennel with Brie when the dog "went immediately for my leg and started fighting me like crazy. And I'm screaming bloody murder. She jumped up and grabbed my chest near my left breast. I went to shut the door. And I fell, and she came ... came charging at me again, grabbed onto my left leg, punctured that, and then she went back to my right leg, my thigh, my thigh is -- half of it's gone."

Dains said Corea seems to be recovering and was in "excellent spirits" the last time she visited her. Asked by LAAS Board President Larry Gross what commissioners could do to help her, Dains said what Corea would want most is for officials to do everything they can to reduce overcrowding in the shelters, by promoting low-cost spay-and-neuter procedures and other helpful policies.

In her oral report to the board, Dains also said LAAS staff has determined that of all animal surrenders at the shelters, some 3,000 did not have a reason. Of the remaining surrenders, the top four reasons given were housing, medical costs, animal behavior and lack of education about proper care of pets.

The changes in shelter policy were immediately criticized by a group representing shelter volunteers, who sent a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass requesting an emergency meeting.

"Typical of LAAS, none of these changes has been communicated to volunteers in writing," LA Animal Services volunteers wrote in the letter. "As usual, the new rules are unclear and randomly enforced. The new policy essentially limits our access to many dogs we have relationships with and to new intakes who will clearly benefit from our working to enrich their stay with us. The result is a conveyor belt pace of killing happy, healthy dogs falsely labeled as unadoptable.

"Shelter staff are currently arbitrarily assigning dogs `rescue only' status meaning they are unable to be saved by anyone but the handful of already overburdened and full city rescue partners. Volunteers are no longer allowed to take these dogs out for any type of enrichment. There is no clear guideline as to what behavior warrants the `rescue only' status."

" ...This `hands off' policy is obviously a knee jerk reaction by management to what was a tragic, but RARE occurrence within the shelter system. The incident is being used as a cudgel when nuanced decision making is at its most critical," the letter continued.

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