County Office Backs Funds for Spaying

The Los Angeles County administrative office--which oversees budgets and analyzes spending--favors restoring funding cut from animal spay and neuter clinics, management analyst Margery Gould said.

“We feel the cutbacks would be detrimental,” said Gould, who was assigned to examine restoring funds to the Department of Animal Care and Control. “We support the department’s request, but it’s just a matter of funding. We have some possibilities but they haven’t gone to the board yet.”

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich had asked the county administrator to seek alternative funds to restore $136,000 to the department in order to preserve five veterinary assistant positions and keep the county’s six spay and neuter clinics operating at full capacity.

The CAO was expected to deliver a response on Tuesday, but Gould said the response has been delayed until Sept. 21 at the earliest.

Department officials and animal-rights advocates have said they fear the elimination of the assistant positions would mean a 30% reduction in the spay and neuter surgeries county vets could perform.

Clinics say that if the positions are eliminated, other staff members will pick up the slack. But officials say that could lead to more lost pets being put to sleep as a result of diseases caught at the understaffed shelters.