(April 9, 2008) -- What takes place at 7700 E. Spring St. in the Long Beach Animal Control facility ultimately isn't decided by Wesley Moore, Roger Hatakeyama, Michelle Quigley or their boss City Manager Pat West.

What's done in that facility by the City of Long Beach is done in our names with our tax dollars at the direction of those we choose on the City Council to represent us.

It is tempting to let a bungled, bloodied euthanasia or other bungles distract from the bigger issue here...the one others aren't mentioning but we find inescapable.

Even if management were flawless and efficient, the issue remains: flawless and efficient at doing what?

That's what taxpayers and the public have a right to know.

That's why LBReport.com is today requesting data showing the number of dogs and cats the City of Long Beach kills each year in our names along with the opportunity to show you exactly how that it is carried out.

City Hall's response should be an unflinching "yes" on both.

The tabulated data are obviously public records and we expect they'll be available fairly quickly.

City Manager Pat West said at an April 8 press briefing that he believes city staff are doing God's work at the facility. If so, the public ought to see this.

Second, city management invited photographs in the facility...and yes, it is a superlative facility of which taxpayers can and should be proud.

But that's not the whole story...and LBReport.com believes LB taxpayers have a right to right to know the whole story.

What's being done by LB Animal Control is a job LB taxpayers assign to their City. We urge city management to say "yes" to LBReport.com's video request...because the public has a right to know what's being done with their money in their name.