L.A. shelters need more than additional staff. They need a COUP!
In which Jill takes off the gloves and proposes the disruptive changes L.A. shelters really need
Screenshot taken from L.A. Times web page on July 17, 2022.
This past week, the Los Angeles Times published two articles over two consecutive days on the troubled Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS) shelter system. On Thursday, July 14th, a paywalled article titled ‘It’s inhumane’: Dogs at L.A. animal shelters go weeks or months without being walked decried the increasingly ineffective policies that keep shelter animals in confinement without exercise or enrichment, often for weeks or months, and the load placed on unpaid volunteers to care for them.
The response was, predictably, explosive. The animal rescue community flooded social media, local news stations interviewed volunteers, and the Times followed up a day later with another article. This one quoted several local politicians who were “horrified” by the crowded conditions and lack of adequate staffing. The article also derided LAAS for its punitive measures against volunteers who spoke out.
After reading the first article, I rattled off a Letter to the Editor. So, it seems, did many other people. My letter wasn’t published, but I thought I would share it here.
To the Editor:
As the founder of an L.A.-based animal rescue, I’ve been waiting for someone in the media to unapologetically blow the doors off L.A. Animal Services. Those of us in the rescue and volunteer communities know firsthand how the dysfunctions of L.A. shelters end up harming—and, all too often, killing—the animals in their care.
As a former management consultant, I’ve seen the same dysfunctions play out in corporations. Promotions based on tenure, not skill. Entrenched processes that are decades old. Poor measurement systems that cement the status quo. Low productivity of line staff who are, as one animal control officer confided, “just holding on for the pension.” Gaslighting anyone with fresh ideas.
Our local animal shelters are relics intended to temporarily house animals and protect the public from rabies, cases of which are now (according to the CDC) rare. Outdated policies and defensive cultural norms persist.
The necessary steps to modernize L.A.’s animal shelters will be disruptive. Disaffected staff, anachronistic policies—like the confinement of “evidence dogs” mentioned in the article—and existing building infrastructures must be overhauled. A new level of leadership focused on strategy, staff accountability, performance-based compensation, mission-oriented marketing programs, and operational efficiencies will not sprout from within.
As the old management adage goes, the fish rots from the head. It’s time to privatize L.A. Animal Services.
There are hard-working and dedicated staff at LAAS shelters, but there are too few of them. And there’s way too much red tape. Animals are dying due to a culture rooted in outmoded operations and fear of change. How many disillusioned employees have to leave, how many volunteers have to be suspended, and how many animals have to die before we try something else?
