Official Urges Animal Shelter Annex

Citing horrific conditions at Los Angeles’ South-Central animal shelter, Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas called on his colleagues Monday to immediately open a temporary annex to ease the facility’s overcrowding.

The situation is so bad at the shelter that it is not unusual for the staff to euthanize 80 animals a day just to make room for more, officials said.

“A snapshot of the current shelter operations reveals the shocking and desperate conditions at the South Los Angeles shelter,” said Ridley-Thomas, who will request today that the council take emergency action to ease the overcrowding.

Although there are only 54 kennels at the shelter, 1,185 dogs were impounded in February. About 10 serious dogfights occur each day. And in February, six dogs were killed by their kennel mates, while another eight were injured.

Also, the number of sick and injured animals housed at the facility has increased by nearly 50% in recent months.

“The conditions pose a clear and present danger to the safety, health and well-being of not only the animals there, but of the personnel assigned there, as well,” Ridley-Thomas said.

The councilman said three shelter employees have been injured by animals at the facility, including one worker who had to be hospitalized after she was attacked by a Rottweiler.

“If it were not for Rampart, this would be the council’s significant crisis of the moment,” Ridley-Thomas said.

He attributes the bulk of the problems to the implementation of state Senate Bill 1785, which took effect in July. The law directed shelters to hold stray dogs for a longer period of time before euthanizing them.

Even before the law passed, all the city’s shelters were operating at capacity--with about 12,000 animals housed in them daily. The law--which did not provide resources for more staff or space--has strained the entire system. However, South-Central was the hardest hit by the Senate action, said Dan Knapp, general manager of the city’s Department of Animal Services, because it has the most stray dogs.

The city plans to open a new shelter in the area in October, with 72 kennels. Officials also are anticipating that a recently adopted ordinance, sharply increasing the licensing fee for unaltered dogs and cats, will help ease the problems.

In the meantime, officials and animal rights activists are calling for the council to pass Ridley-Thomas’ motion.

“It’s horrible,” Knapp said. “The crowding is so bad, we’ve had up to 10 dogs per kennel. During the last month, we had six dogs kill each other.”