School Animal Farm Closed Over Poor Care

An animal farm at Grant High School was closed and the 26 animals sent to other facilities because of “deplorable conditions” at the campus, including filthy pens without shade that were littered with trash, officials said Friday.

The animals were seized by the Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals/Southern California Humane Society, whose investigators were alerted to the problems by a parent whose young child had seen a sick goat.

According to the investigators, two goats were in the worst physical shape. One goat was walking on its knees. Other animals taken from the small farm included a dozen chickens, six sheep, three pigs, two goats, two ducks and a calf.

“This is just a horrendous educational example,” said Madeline Bernstein, the executive director of the Los Angeles SPCA/SCHS.

“Part of the reason you have animals on the campus is to teach care and responsibility for other living things. When you have the opposite--when you have conditions like this--you’re teaching that it’s OK that a goat can’t walk, that it’s OK they’re not regularly fed or cleaned.”

The animal husbandry program no longer will be offered at the school and animals no longer will be permitted on campus, said Eve Sherman, principal at Grant. She said the teacher who oversees the farm is out of town and that she allowed the officials to remove the animals. “We basically relinquished them (the animals) because they weren’t getting the care they should have--especially during the summer,” Sherman said. “The facility just wasn’t prepared for them--that’s really the biggest part of it. We feel we’ve taken care of it in a responsible manner.”

The school had been cited by the city two years ago for problems with the animal pens and told to remove the litter and debris. Sherman, who has been principal at the school for a year, said she knew of the previous problems but that she was giving the teacher a second chance.

“When you’re new, you give everyone the benefit of the doubt, a fair shake,” Sherman said. “But I’m very disturbed by this. I’m an animal lover and I don’t want anything to happen.”

The school avoided criminal charges because the animals were relinquished and no more animals will be kept at the facility, officials said.

Grant’s animal husbandry program was small and was part of a bigger, horticultural program, Sherman said. The farm facility now will be used for the horticultural classes.

The animals were supposed to be cared for during the summer but that responsibility obviously had been shirked, Sherman said. She said she plans to investigate the situation further with teachers.

Children who attend a summer program at Valley College, adjacent to the Grant campus, noticed the animals through a fence, Bernstein said. She said the children were upset when they saw the goat that couldn’t walk, and one of the mothers called her.

“The goat is 1,000% better with simple veterinary treatment,” Bernstein said. “It absolutely is a shame. Kids really benefit a lot from taking care of animals.

“You do so much more damage when you allow this to happen.”