Immediate Search and Appointment of a Progressive General Manager for Los Angeles Animal Services

• As concerned Los Angeles citizens and taxpayers
• As caring advocates for animals and a better Los Angleles
• As members of rescue groups and animal advocacy organizations
• As visitors to your city

We are appalled by the unconscionable number of animals killed, the horrific conditions in the shelters and the lack of accountability to the public by the Department of Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS). We therefore demand a new No-Kill, progressive General Manager candidate be found by a search committee and appointed by the Mayor immediately who will implement No Kill Policies, Programs, Protocols and creative advertising techniques to STOP THE KILLING in our six LA City shelters.   

• As concerned Los Angeles citizens and taxpayers
• As caring advocates for animals and a better Los Angleles
• As members of rescue groups and animal advocacy organizations
• As visitors to your city

We are appalled by the unconscionable number of animals killed, the horrific conditions in the shelters and the lack of accountability to the public by the Department of Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS). We therefore demand a new No-Kill, progressive General Manager candidate be found by a search committee and appointed by the Mayor immediately who will implement No Kill Policies, Programs, Protocols and creative advertising techniques to STOP THE KILLING in our six LA City shelters.   

We the undersigned do not want Kathleen Davis to be General Manager of Los Angeles Animal Services. Davis and her assistant Linda Barth are both inexperienced, incompetent leaders who know nothing about implementing progressive programs, policies, protocols and advertising techniqes in order to save the lives of our city's homeless and lose companion animals.

Here is the first bit of information on Kathy Davis that you need to know in order to understand why a search for a progressive, No-Kill GM is needed ASAP.  

Point #1)
Kathy Davis herself initially told the Mayor's office that she was NOT qualified for the General Manager's position. But now it seems she is back-peddling, figuring that the high salary she is being paid, and the fact that she doesn't need to do anything but tell people who call and complain that "I will talk to my staff and get back to you", may not be such a difficult job after all. Of course, she never gets back to anyone who has called to complain about things like the lack of transparency in the stats currently, or other abuses, neglect and increased killing taking place inside LAAS.     

Point #2)
The Mayor's office likes Davis because she doesn't make waves. That might make life easy for the Mayor's office, but it doesn't make anything better for the animals; and Davis' job and the Mayor's job should be to make things better for the animals by implementing No-Kill programs, protocols and policies. But as Davis' resume shows, she has NO experience or interest in No-Kill programs, protocols or policies.   In fact, in her resume to become interim General Manager, Davis put as a bullet point her achievement of having SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASED the volume of animals impounded by more than about 30%.  She thinks impounding and killing more animals is a positive! She doesn't mention ANYTHING about increasing adoptions in Indiana or Dallas (the adoption rate for Dallas when she left was a horrifying 6%), nothing about reducing euthanasia, nothing about creative programs she enacted that saved the lives of animals. She is a bureaucrat like those of the Jerry Greenwalt era, whose catch-and-kill mentality and lack of knowledge of the No-Kill model, is a death sentence for the animals inside LAAS.  

In this alert, we'd like to give you a bit of background on Kathy Davis:
In Dallas from 2007-2008 she was assistant director of Development Services, basically she was one of those in charge of building codes for the city! She served as interim Building Official and facilitated the search for a new Building Official! Yep, this appears to be right up the alley for implementing the No-Kill equation for the animals imprisoned inside the six city Death Camps!   From 2002 to 2007, Davis was the city of Dallas Director of Code Compliance. In Dallas, "Code Compliance" includes animal services and other departments such as parking meters, graffiti removal and even jails!  

Some interested ADL-LA members called the shelters in Dallas and spoke to some of the employees there and they said that each shelter has its own managers (who apparently reported to Davis) and that the shelter workers never even saw Davis. She had little to do with animal services and much more involvement with other things under "Code Compliance." In fact, from Davis' own resume, she focuses on things like how she helped in overhauling a multi-tenant program linking crime fighting initiatives to drive down crime in complexes in Dallas. Oh yes, and she also helped developed a graffiti program based on the Phoenix model! Lost and homeless animals are involved in lots of graffiti, so this ought to help her in her job as LAAS General Manager! She also helped developed a partnership with the state jail facility of Dallas to utilize prisoners for litter pick up. Now THAT'S something that will save the lives of our homeless animals.   

The mayor's office has just turned the clock back to the seventies with a return to a "catch-and-kill mentality" that the humane community has worked so hard to overcome.

Kathy Davis and her assistant Linda Barth have now begun to impound MORE animals and kill them. Davis knows NOTHING about implementing progressive programs that SAVE the lives of animals, she knows NOTHING about creative advertising to help get more individuals to adopt a shelter animal rather than go to a pet store or breeder, Davis knows NOTHING about implementing multiple off-site pet adoptions, and neither does her side kick, another city bureaucrat, Linda Barth.  

We must face the fact head on that the animals are, if anything, now in a worse situation under Kathy Davis and Linda Barth than under Ed Boks reign. So don't put away your picketing shoes or signs just yet.

PLEASE e-mail, call or write the contacts below and demand the mayor's office do the right thing and do it fast; search for a progressive No-Kill General Manager to take Boks' place as head of the LAAS.

Please e-mail, call or snail mail ALL THE BELOW and demand that the Mayor begin a search immediately for a progressive No Kill General Manager to over see LA's six city shelters. Please take the time to do this for every action alert we send you. You must be persistent and tenacious. If you feel it's not worth your time and trouble to do this, just think about the garbage collectors who grab the dead shelter animals by their legs and throw them into garbage trucks like trash. Heaps of dead, lifeless bodies that used to be loving, adoptable cats, dogs, puppies and kittens, but who are now (because of Davis and Barth) going to be taken to D & D Disposal Company to be ground up into fertilizer and fish food.

 

Mayor@lacity.org

(213) 978-0721

200 N. Spring St. Room 303

Los Angeles, California 90012

 

Jeff.Carr@lacity.org

Mayor's Chief of Staff

(213) 473-3396

200 N. Spring Street

2nd Floor

Los Angeles, California 90012

  Jimmy.Blackman@lacity.org  Deputy Chief of Staff (213) 922-9748

200 N. Spring Street'

3rd Floor

Los Angeles, California 90012

 

Jim.Bickhart@lacity.org 

Deputy Chief of Staff

(213) 978-0641

200 N. Spring Street

3rd Floor

Los Angeles, California 90012

 

 

 

Councilmember.reyes@lacity.org  City Hall Offic (213)-473-7001
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 410
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilmember.Zine@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7003
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 450
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilmember.Labonge@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7004
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 480
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Paul.Koretz@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7005
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 440
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilmember.Cardenas@lacity.org City Hall Office (213) -473-7006
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 455
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilmember.Alarcon@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7007
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 425
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilmember.Parks@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7008
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 460
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Jan.Perry@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7009
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 420
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilmember.Wesson@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7010
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 430
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilman.Rosendahl@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7011
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 415
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilmember.Smith@lacity.org  City Hall Office (213)-473-7012
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 405
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilmember.Garcetti@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7013
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 470
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilmember.Huizar@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7014
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 465
Los Angeles, CA 90012   Councilmember.Hahn@lacity.org City Hall Office (213)-473-7015
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 435
Los Angeles, CA 90012  

Kathy.Davis@lacity.org 

(Please demand Davis tell the Mayor's office to begin a search now and to hire a progressive No Kill General Manager) 

(213) 482-9558

221 N. Figueroa St., 5th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90012

 

Linda.Barth@lacity.org

(Please demand Barth tell Mayor's office to begin a search now and to hire a progressive No Kill General Manager) 

(213) 482-9558

221 N. Figueroa St., 5th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90012