Yes - a POEM - Happy Holidays and stay well!

 In animal shelters worldwide, providing solace to pets,

Are dogs, cats, pigs and more awaiting the BEST.

 They roll, high-five, and socialize,

Mani-pedis they endure,

All the while maintaining one beautiful eye on the door.

 Good listeners galore, companionship plus more,

Commiserations on any topic,

They will provide love where none can top it.

 Yet here they sit, play, and twirl awaiting the BEST.

The BEST news in the world – they are getting adopted,

With the BEST families, friends, food and toys allotted.

 They will love you the BEST – and if you love in return-

You will ace the mensch test and a good deed you will earn.

 I submit to you, loving a shelter pet is right.

Happy holidays to all –

Keep up the good fight.

Covid Detection Dogs Working in Finland Airport

 I have written before how dogs were being trained to detect Covid-19 in people - well check this out:

Finland has already begun a pilot program using Covid detection dogs at airports! Passengers are asked to wipe their skin with a cloth which is then placed in a jar. The jar is then brought to the dog (kept separate from the people) who sniffs and then alerts if specimen is positive. It takes less than a minute to get results.

I have been keeping an eye on this story. Though the pilot program is due to end later in December the results are promising. MedicalExpress.com is reporting that "Preliminary experiments in the first major wave of infections earlier in the year suggested the dogs can detect the virus with close to 100 percent accuracy, up to five days earlier than a PCR test." 

Many dogs that detect drugs, seizures, explosives, cancer and other things are very often found at shelters or through people who have enrolled in recreational training classes, such as Fun Nose, offered by spcaLA, and discover that they have a dog that is good at this. 

Keep in mind that animal shelters across the country are full of geniuses and gems. With their human companions - anything is possible.

Vote for YOU. Vote for US. Vote national, state, county and local!

 

I need your help tomorrow - not with donations - but with your vote.

True leadership, vision, collaboration and change start right here, at the local level.

That leadership is forged in every election, by you.

Consider the public-private partnership entered into twenty years ago between your spcaLA and the City of Long Beach - resulting in the spcaLA P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village & Education Center.

Partnerships like ours became the norm and the model not just in animal welfare, but right now in pandemic response. Chefs working with government to feed the hungry. The state of California working with private hotel chains. Public-private collaboration shows the best of America.

When you vote in every election, at the local level, you are voting for yourself. Your kids. Your parents. Your pets. Your businesses.

Whether your interest lies in protecting the environment, fostering animal welfare, increasing literacy, or providing comfort and housing to the homeless, to name a few, you must be vigilant in studying the candidates, their competencies and virtues and vote for the ones you would hire in your own businesses.

Conversely, we must fire the ones that don’t deliver. Don’t allow top leadership to abdicate and delegate policy and responsibility to loud, fact-challenged ideologues who holler at them during council meetings.

We small businesses, charities, and citizens must band together as “Davids” against the “Goliaths:” the governments, the public servants who would exploit us for their own benefit.

Vote every time, in every election, whether local, county, state or national.

Vote to keep your elected officials on their toes. Vote to insist they honor their promises. Vote to ensure your future.

Just vote.

Blink If You Love Me!

 It has always been a "trade secret" that you can communicate with your cat by blinking slowly. In fact,
veterinarians I know have use slow blinking to put stressed cats, and feral cats at ease before treatment. The first time I tried it with my cat, I was amazed at how the cat and I just took turns blinking and mirroring each others' blinks!

Recently, Science Reports has published a systematic investigative study "The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat–human communication" where they discuss their methodology and conclusion suggesting "that slow blink sequences may function as a form of positive emotional communication between cats and humans". It is further suggested that eye narrowing in cats is akin to a human smile versus the actual smile of Alice in Wonderlands' Cheshire cat.  

This information may, in the future, be a tool to inform people as to the emotional welfare of a cat in a variety of environments. 

Try it! You'll like it!

What do Gender Reveal parties, Labradoodles, and Cubicles have in Common?

We have now come to learn that some type of smoke bomb launched at a gender reveal party ignited a wildfire in Southern California - the second time a wildfire started this way. (There was a similar gender reveal fire in 2017 in Arizona.) The person credited with inventing the gender reveal occasion, Jenna Karvunidis, reportedly went on Facebook to denounce her creation as these events can get out of control and become very destructive,

I discussed in my book, Designer Dogs, how Wally Conron, the founder of the Labradoodle wished he never created that mixed breed as his "invention" sparked the very cruel and inhumane designer dog craze which continues to leave a trail of sick, broken, misshapen and discarded dogs all around the world.

An article in Business Insider  reports numerous other "creators" also regretting their creations. This group of "Frankensteins" includes Robert Propst, inventor of the office cubicle, an idea to stimulate collaboration, left workers in teeny tiny spaces with no privacy, the scientists that participated in the Manhattan Project, which developed the atom bomb, and Anna Jarvis, who created Mother's Day, who hated the commercialization of the holiday and was even arrested for protesting it!  Others include the single use K cup, (fills up landfills), pepper spray, (misused constantly, the double slash in URLs, pop-up ads and more!

What do we make of this? Here we are, in our cubicles, in the midst of a pandemic, surrounded by designer dogs, fires, hurricanes, and plague, wondering- how many good ideas, movements, or concepts gone wrong are we dealing with? Many ideas start as fun, a solution to a problem, a social cause, a thing that makes you laugh, but then mutates into something horrible or just simply clashes with another newly invented good idea.

Still, we would be nowhere without creativity, altruism and sparks of genius. Perhaps, someone can invent super-duper long term vision or get to work on a time machine....

             "Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you, and just before you realize what's wrong with it." - Unknown

Germany Proposes Law Mandating Dog Walking

unknown source

A new law proposed in Germany would mandate that dogs be "permitted to exercise outside of a kennel at least twice a day for a total of at least one hour," This can be accomplished by actually walking the dog or allowing him/her to run outside. Of course, this proposal, though well meaning, has been met with objections from "no nanny state", to it's up to the unique characteristics of the dog, to "right on".

It is interesting, though not clear who it actually applies to, private or commercial kennels, and how it could ever be enforced. 

As we exist in a COVID19 world, I have it on good authority that dogs are being walked - a lot!!!

Dogs May Be Good for Children's Psychological Development

First, I want to thank everyone for responding to the call to adopt and foster, as shelters all across the country were bracing for the COVID 19 pandemic. Your response allowed shelter personnel to function in a safer, socially distant mode that permitted the reducing, rotating, staggering of shifts while adding remote and virtual contact free services and programs. Your cooperation means everything to us and is certainly a double good deed!

Now that many of you have dogs, I thought you should see this New York Times Article  "Dogs May Be Good for Children’s Psychological Development" which posits that "Compared to young children without dogs, those who had them were less likely to have conduct problems or problems relating to peers."

Data was collected by Australian scientists from parents of 3-5 year old boys and girls from a variety of demographics, as well as details on dog walking and playing to reach the above conclusion. 

Of course, there is a lot more studying of this issue to do before establishing rock solid cause and effect evidence - but it is something to think about as you work as a family, to make the dog feel at home and build the human animal bond.

Please stay well.

covid-19 "Must Have" survival kit - a Dog and a Llama!

Courtesy of Wikimedia commons

It is possible that some day the COVID-19 "must have" survival kit will include one dog and one llama!

The dog will diagnose the disease, i.e. inform you if you have the virus, and the llama will provide the antibodies that can stop the virus.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School are working to train dogs to recognize the scent of the infection and to alert you, just as dogs can do with seizures, cancer, and a multitude of assorted odors.

Scientists are also working with a llama named Winter, in Belgium, to see if her special llama antibodies (recovered via blood draw) can immediately and temporarily block the corona virus cell from infecting people. Past uses of llama antibodies showed effectiveness in stopping both SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV viruses for a short period of time.

Problem solved!

No Swabs Necessary -Just Dogs

Texas dog no one wanted honored by spcaLA
as hero

We know dogs can be trained to detect seizures, glue, bombs, heart attacks, cancer and other interesting things due to their exceptional smell capabilities. In fact, in his book, Dr. Sleep, Stephen King wrote in a cat that could predict death the night before it happened.

Therefore, if a COVID-19 infection emits an odor, you can bet that a dog will be able to smell it and tell you about it. University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine is putting researchers on the case to do just that.

What you may not know is that many of these extraordinary dogs are found at shelters all across the country and trained for these "nose jobs". What we have found at spcaLA is that sometimes your untrained family pet has such a skill and displays it at the exact right time.

spcaLA has honored such dogs over the years.

You can do the same by adopting a shelter dog.

Help CLOSE Live Animal Markets in California

UPDATE:  Your spcaLA joined 37 other national and international animal and humane welfare organizations to urge California Governor Gavin Newsom and State Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris to ban the sale and importation of wildlife and non-native species for human consumption in the state.

Last week, spcaLA joined 68 members of the United States Congress in calling on the Director Generals of the World Health Organization and other global organizations to take aggressive actions for a global shut down of live wildlife markets.  In California, industries exploiting and trafficking wildlife as commodities for live food markets pose just as much a threat to public health and safety as do other wildlife farms and markets around the world.

As a member of PawPAC, a statewide committee that advocates for all nonhumans and their environment, to encourage transparency in the California State Legislature, spcaLA has engaged with California policy makers since 1993 on live food market issues in the state regarding the humane treatment of animals and the basis of health. Among other things, selling wild animals for consumption, creates higher potential for zoonotic disease transmission. It is believed that the 2003 SARS outbreak originated in this manner and may be the source of COVID-19.

Members of the public are urged to contact their U.S. Representatives and Senators and demand that action be taken. These practices are not only inhumane but are a threat to the safety and well-being of the community.

It seems that behind every pandemic there is a live animal market origin story. I bet many of you didn't know these markets, popular in Asia and in the news now, are alive and well in California, and, yes, in New York.

These markets are places where animals, including but not limited to, poultry, livestock, bats, pangolins, turtles and frogs, are held alive, often in crowded conditions, slaughtered and sold to customers all in the same spaces. These spaces are virtual petri dishes of viruses which travel from species to species, (including humans), all around the world thereby exposing unsuspecting populations to new germs and diseases. So one theory of the origin of the corona virus was that it was pangolins that passed the virus from bats to humans. But, specifically, what is the origin story behind COVID-19, a kind of corona virus.

This short and to the point video on CNN, entitled "Virus Hunters", (about 7 minutes long) discusses this problem.

Your spcaLA is working with experts, legislators and others to try and shut these markets down in California and New York for the health of humankind. Of course there are animal cruelty issues involved, (your spcaLA was instrumental in securing legislation dealing with that a decade ago), and basic public health issues around slaughter and food chain concerns, but, today, as we are in the throes of a global pandemic, these markets need to finally close for the benefit of all of us.

The U.S. Congress is also working on a bipartisan bill to close these markets. But, there are also bills being introduced in California and New York which will probably resolve faster and spark a national trend.

Stay tuned for ways you can help.

Tiger in Bronx Zoo Tests Positive for Covid-19

courtesy wikimedia commons

A tiger at the Bronx zoo tested positive for Covid-19. It is believed that one of the zookeepers transmitted the disease to the tiger. It is also being reported that the zookeeper was an asymptomatic carrier. Do not freak out. It is not a secret that animals can become infected with some human diseases. The issue is that there is no indication that a cat or dog can infect humans with Covid-19. The dog or cat, even if becoming infected appears to be a dead-end host.

Zoos all over are putting protocols in place, most of which echo those that your spcaLA has been sharing with you all along to keep yourselves and our pets safe. Additionally, spcaLA has been collaborating with veterinarians, infectious disease experts and representatives from around the world to share vital information and current best practices with our constituents and other shelter professionals.



It bears repeating here:

Guidance for Pet Owners

Pets are members of the family, and just like human family members, spcaLA urges pet owners to protect pets. If dog parks are still open in your area, spcaLA urges pet parents to avoid them.

• Maintain good hygiene practices by washing hands thoroughly with soap and water after touching pets, in keeping with CDC guidelines.
• Do not allow your dogs to play with other dogs or meet people during daily walks. Keep a six-foot distance between your dog and others, just as you would with other people.
• Curb your dog’s interest in sniffing excrement of other animals, or picking up refuse on the ground.
• Before you come inside from a walk, wipe your dog’s paws with a sudsy solution of pet shampoo and water. When finished, discard the wipe and thoroughly rinse your pet’s paws with water to remove soap residue. If you have them available, you may consider having your dog wear shoes, socks, or booties outdoors.
• Keep your cats and other pets safely indoors. If you are unable to confine your cat, follow the wipe down procedures indicated above.
• Do not use Lysol wipes, bleach, or other harsh chemicals on your pets. Ask your veterinarian for additional safe options to clean your pet’s paws.

Guidance for Animal Care Facilities

• Protect your staff and volunteers. Determine and implement your shelter’s intake procedures, which should apply to returning fosters and other clients, as well as stray and surrendered pets.
• Protect the community. Determine and implement your shelter’s procedures prior to placing animals in adoption, foster, or returning them to their owners.
• Pet boarding and daycare facilities, many of whom are open and caring for the pets of medical, grocery, sanitation, food delivery, and other essential workers, should take care to develop and implement intake and return procedures.
• Protocols for incoming and outgoing animals may include bathing (paying special attention to the areas most frequently petted by people), a period of isolation, and other actions. Further consideration should be made as to PPE for staff and procedures to accept or return animals to the public while maintaining safe social distance.

We will continue to monitor the science and refer you to reputable sites for information . Please see the Center for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization, American Veterinary Medical Association, and World Organization for Animal Health.

Please stay safe!

"Safe at Home" not so safe for Victims of Domestic Violence

Incidents of domestic violence rise significantly during times of stress. Unemployment, substance abuse, fear, boredom, frustration and feelings of worthlessness often manifest themselves as anger against one’s family and/or self, specifically, as suicidal or homicidal acts.  Being cooped up indefinitely exacerbates the situation. Significant others, children, elder citizens, and pets can find themselves in dire straits during the Covid-19 pandemic. Add, home schooling, layoffs, past due bills, a surge in gun purchases, and general angst to the mix, and you have a perfect storm for violent and abusive behavior.

In the late nineties, spcaLA, (not a chapter or part of any other SPCA), developed the Animal Safety Net program (ASN) which offers shelter and care to the pets of domestic violence victims at no cost, so they may flee a dangerous situation without fear for the safety of their animals. This program has provided refuge to dogs, cat, rabbits, rats, horses and a fish. Sadly, the domestic violence shelters that we deal with are reporting to us that they are already full. 

Both, the New York Times and CNN  are writing about this issue in the context of the pandemic. It is also important to state that anyone, men, women, children, elders, and pets can be a victim of this rage.

Please take care of yourselves and each other.

I have included below a resource list provided by CNN:

National Domestic Violence Hotline Call 1-800-799-7233 or text LOVEIS to 22522

Available 24/7. Can connect callers with local resources and immediate support. Also available through online chat tool.

National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673

Provided by RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). Available 24/7. Also available through online chat tool.

Crisis Text Line Text HOME to 741741

Available 24/7 for victims of abuse and any other type of crisis.

Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-422-4453

Available 24/7 in 170 different languages.

Office on Women's Health Helpline 1-800-994-9662

A resource provided by the US Department of Health & Human Services.

Find a list of resources organized by state here, provided by the Department of Health & Human Services' Office on Women's Health.

PETS and COVID-19

In light of recent reports that a dog in Hong Kong was found to have developed an immune response to the COVID-19 virus - antibodies were found in the blood – I want to reassure you and provide you with some tools to keep us all safe. 

Your spcaLA has been working around-the-clock with veterinary and public health officials nationwide to develop protocols to protect pets, animal care staff, and the public during this crisis.

Despite this result, Hong Kong officials stressed that these cases of infection in dogs appear to be infrequent. As of March 25, 2020, the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) has conducted tests on 17 dogs and eight cats from households with confirmed COVID-19 cases or persons in close contact with confirmed patients, and only two dogs had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. These findings indicate that dogs and cats are not infected easily with this virus, and there is no evidence that they play a role in the spread of the virus.

Veterinarians stress that it’s important to note that an infection, as was the case in these Hong Kong animals, does not mean the animal is infectious, and the best practices are focused on hygiene and social distancing.

Guidance for Pet Owners

Pets are members of the family, and just like human family members, spcaLA urges pet owners to protect pets. If dog parks are still open in your area, spcaLA urges pet parents to avoid them.

• Maintain good hygiene practices by washing hands thoroughly with soap and water after touching pets, in keeping with CDC guidelines.
• Do not allow your dogs to play with other dogs or meet people during daily walks. Keep a six-foot distance between your dog and others, just as you would with other people.
• Curb your dog’s interest in sniffing excrement of other animals, or picking up refuse on the ground.
• Before you come inside from a walk, wipe your dog’s paws with a sudsy solution of pet shampoo and water. When finished, discard the wipe and thoroughly rinse your pet’s paws with water to remove soap residue. If you have them available, you may consider having your dog wear shoes, socks, or booties outdoors.
• Keep your cats and other pets safely indoors. If you are unable to confine your cat, follow the wipe down procedures indicated above.
• Do not use Lysol wipes, bleach, or other harsh chemicals on your pets. Ask your veterinarian for additional safe options to clean your pet’s paws.

Guidance for Animal Care Facilities

• Protect your staff and volunteers. Determine and implement your shelter’s intake procedures, which should apply to returning fosters and other clients, as well as stray and surrendered pets.
• Protect the community. Determine and implement your shelter’s procedures prior to placing animals in adoption, foster, or returning them to their owners.
• Pet boarding and daycare facilities, many of whom are open and caring for the pets of medical, grocery, sanitation, food delivery, and other essential workers, should take care to develop and implement intake and return procedures.
• Protocols for incoming and outgoing animals may include bathing (paying special attention to the areas most frequently petted by people), a period of isolation, and other actions. Further consideration should be made as to PPE for staff and procedures to accept or return animals to the public while maintaining safe social distance. Animal care facilities can email info@spcaLA.com to obtain a sample copy of spcaLA’s protocol.

We will continue to monitor the situation, and will update protocols with any new information from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Furthermore, you are encouraged to stay informed by following these organizations’ websites: World Health Organization, American Veterinary Medical Association, and World Organization for Animal Health.

It’s our job to protect animals and that is what we intend to do. Right now, it’s important to keep a level head. Take care of your pets, and each other.

Convicted Glascow drug dealer sells designer dogs from Dubai

Since today is National Puppy Day, I would like to remind you to adopt a shelter dog rather than to buy a designer dog puppy from a puppy mill half way around the world. Like the drug trade, the designer dog trade is worldwide, lucrative, often criminal in nature, (notwithstanding animal cruelty,) deceptive, (a lot of bait and switch), appeals to those who lack empathy for the dogs and their customers, and subscribe to a business model that invests nothing in the "product" while gauging the highest prices from their buyers. Sometimes the dogs offered for sale are actually stolen.

I have been ranting about this for a while, and even wrote a book about it, as the trend to have a designer dog exploded exponentially, leaving customers brokenhearted and puppies broken bodied.  Here is an example that just came across my desk courtesy of the Scottish Sun: a convicted cocaine dealer was released from prison in Scotland, fled to Dubai, and uses his old drug network to sell and transport English and French Bulldogs!

The only way to stop puppy mills, Craig's list peddlers, and Instagram fakers, is to just not buy them. Don't create a demand for this "supply". This "supply" has feelings and feels pain.

So please, adopt a shelter dog. 

spcaLA and Safer at Home order

SAFE!

Last night, California leadership came together to issue the new Safer at Home order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The order seeks to help our community flatten the curve, and reduce the spread of the virus.

For many of us - me included - my first thought was of the pets. Will pets in the shelter be okay? Can staff come to care for them? And more personally, can I still walk my dogs?

The pets will be okay. spcaLA staff will continue to provide care for those in the shelter. And, you can continue to care for your own pets. Veterinary offices can continue offering services, pet supply retailers can continue to provide pet food and supplies.

In fact, caring for your pets is one of the very best things you can do. If you have a dog - or two - go for a walk. Just, maintain social distance from your neighbors and their dogs, in keeping with the Safer at Home order.

Cat person? Your indoor cat has been practicing isolation for some time - snuggle with your kitty and a good book by a sunny window. Take a nice long stretch. No pets at home? Take a gander at our live cat feed on Explore.org.

Tortoise person? Hibernate!!! 

Looking for ways to enrich your life, and those of your pets and kids? Follow spcaLA on social media, like Tik Tok, Facebook, and Instagram. We'll do our best to keep you informed, educated, and entertained.

If you are able to help, please consider making an online donation to help spcaLA continue to serve. Looking for other ways to help? Please use AmazonSmile when ordering supplies, vote for spcaLA on your TargetCircle app (until 3/31), and make spcaLA your charity of choice on your Ralphs account (NPO Number 82162).

I know these are uncertain, and frankly scary times. Together, we will come through this. 

Please, take care of yourselves, and each other.

Corona (Covid-19) - what about my pets?

I know that we are all worried and concerned for the people and pets we love. It does not help that this is also a situation that changes daily with new data and news. The important thing is to rely on facts from those sources who know the facts.  

I am sure that you heard that Hong Kong health authorities released information that a pet dog belonging to a person infected with the Covid-19 virus tested as a weak positive for this type of coronavirus. At this time there is uncertainty if this dog was actually infected by the owner, or if the weak positive test result was due to surface contamination from the dog picking up traces of the virus in its nose and mouth. The dog is currently under quarantine with the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department for further testing. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at this time there is no evidence that companion animals, including pets, can spread Covid-19.

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (spcaLA) continues to monitor the situation, and encourages the public to stay informed with updates regarding Covid-19 from the following organizations’ websites: World Health Organization, American Veterinary Medical Association, and World Organization for Animal Health.

spcaLA offers these tips to pet companions in the wake of Coronavirus concerns:

• Maintain good hygiene practices by washing hands thoroughly with soap and water after touching pets.
• Optimize your pet’s health by providing regular preventative care including vaccinations, deworming, and flea and tick prevention.
• Regularly visit a veterinarian for overall health examinations.
• Create a pet emergency preparedness kit that includes items like, food, bowls, water, medications, leash/collar, vet records, etc. Include pets in emergency plans, and indicate a designated caregiver in the event you are unable to care for your pets. Visit spcaLA.com for a complete list of pet preparedness kit items.
• Make sure your pet is licensed and microchipped, and information is up to date.
• Ensure all of your pet’s information is readily available for emergencies including current photos, pet license information, vaccination history, and microchip number. Consider saving and updating the information on your smart phone for quick access.
• Always keep a cool head. Remember, preparation is key.

Stay healthy and prepared.

Pigeons and MAGA hats glued to their heads! STOP

wikimedia commons

As national attention turned to Nevada amid a Presidential visit, a Democratic debate, and Saturday’s Democratic Caucus, one group chose to make their political point using live pigeons. A group calling itself Pigeons United to Interfere Now (P.U.T.I.N.) took credit for gluing small hats, and one wig, on aflock of pigeons before releasing them in Downtown Las Vegas on Tuesday, February 18, 2020.

Can we please leave animals out of politics? It is unconscionable to affix items on these birds, inhibiting their eyesight and exposing them to other potential dangers for the sake of a political or any prank. Our animals belong to no party but will still love you regardless of yours.

Did they suffer while the items were glued onto their heads? I bet it hurts to take them off. Will others make them victims of new pranks, or try to capture them? What about copycats? (No insult to cats intended.)

Come on - STOP

"Leadership is an action not a position"

The subject of pit bulls and other "bully" breeds has always been fraught with agita as we have steadfastly fought against breed specific legislation and bias while focusing on the owner. Even so, there has been an acknowledgement that sometimes nurture loses to nature and that shelter personnel must responsibly make difficult decisions that allow for the adoption of these dogs while considering public safety issues as well. It neither fosters trust in the shelter i.e. to place a dangerous dog in a home, nor protects adoptable dogs of a certain breed from negative media hype and bias.

Sadly, the fear of these dogs results in adoptable ones not being chosen, euthanized, and banned completely from placement opportunities. I write now as two stories crossed my desk today. One, a twenty year old pit pull ban in Denver was about to be repealed and then vetoed at the eleventh hour, while reports of other bites, here in Los Angeles and elsewhere surfaced.

The inroads that were made in stressing reasonableness and responsibility have given way to the ignorant ideologue chants of place everything. They pressure shelter directors around the country to sanitize files, to use euphemistic words to mask aggressive behavior, and to tell well-meaning adopters that just a little love will cure all. The result is more bites, negative press, and lawsuits, which creates shelters full of wonderful dogs that the public is afraid to take home. Again, victimizing the dogs for the sins of those who should and are in a position to know better is cruel. Allowing these pets to languish in shelters creates an appearance that bully breeds are all that shelters offer - so the family turns to puppy mills, Instagram, Craig's' List peddlers, and other questionable sources for a healthy, reliable dog. This leads to warehousing of dogs, hoarding, and overcrowding - again - driving people away from the shelter.

This is not fair at all. Running an animal shelter means leading, managing, and protecting both the shelter pets from harm at the hands of the public as well as protecting the public from dangerous dogs at the shelter. It does not mean running away from difficult decisions.

"Leadership is an action not a position"  Donald Mcgannon


P.S. spcaLA never stopped placing pit bulls and other bully breeds despite the trend to do so, nor will we place a demonstrably unsafe dog into a home. Animal evaluation is not a perfect science - but- our supporters appreciate that we try.