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LB Animal Shelter Says It Finished Decade With Fewest Dog/Cat Euthanasias & Highest Live Releases Ever...But No Kill Long Beach Says It's Skeptical Of Some Figures And Faults Mayor/Council For Resisting Add'l Changes


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(Jan. 9, 2020, 6:15 a.m.) -- LB's city management-operated Animal Care Services (LBACS) bureau credits its "Compassion Saves" policies, which the City Council approved in 2019 that stop short of implementing practices advocated by No Kill Long Beach, with a "sharp decrease in euthanasia, a spike in adoptions and an 88% save rate for cats and dogs combined." The city agency says "[t]hat save rate is the highest it has been in the last decade."

For its part, No Kill Long Beach director Dr. Patricia Turner says she's always happy when fewer animals are being killed but the City-released numbers and graphs don't tell the full story.

In a January 7 release, LBACS stated in pertinent part:

  • Live release for cats and dogs combined went from 79% in 2018 to 88% in 2019; this is well over double the percentage from 2010.


  • Despite an increase in kitten intakes across the country, Long Beach continues to accomplish low combined dog and cat admissions, with thousands less annually than at the start of last decade.


  • Total euthanasia was reduced by 33% in 2019 from the year prior; nearly 5,000 less dogs and cats are being euthanized annually than in 2010.


  • Adoption numbers for the ACS-operated shelter spiked with a 45% increase, with 995 in 2019 compared to 686 in 2018.


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  • The agency release says its "Compassion Saves approach creates more opportunities to work closely with community members with the intent to save every healthy and treatable animal. With this approach, Animal Care Services has expanded opportunities for experienced volunteers to include work with animals that need specialized training or behavior modification. The City is now better equipped to match animals who need more specialized care with programs and resources to fit their needs."

    To this, Dr. Turner of No Kill Long Beach tells LBREPORT.com:

    While it looks like live releases have indeed increased at LBACS over the past year, context really matters in this issue. The first thing to know is that LBACS is still killing healthy and treatable animals. LBACS is still killing 16% of cats and 20% of kittens in the shelter, and the decrease in the euthanasia rates of dogs and puppies is actually pretty small (3 and 2 percentage points, respectively).

    This isn't very surprising. People have been explicitly asking for No Kill Equation policies at LBACS for years, which includes a strong adoption program, a foster program, and a strong volunteer program to start with -- and the City has refused to act. So a lot of the decrease in the kill rate that we've seen over the past seven years can be attributed to people exposing the City's high kill rate more than to any intentional policies that City Council has put in place at LBACS.

    In fact, what the City passed last spring -- "compassion saves" -- was an explicit rejection of No Kill. The City has basically ignored the community and refused to commit to these key lifesaving programs, and they've been especially negligent about having a strong adoption program and foster program. So that means that yes, the stats have improved to some extent, but not as much as they could with No Kill policies in place.

    Mayor Garcia talks a lot about the adoptions at LBACS...This past year, he says, LBACS did 995 adoptions. That looks like a lot, but that number is small when you look at the fact that from January to November of last year, the Sacramento shelter did nearly 4800 adoptions. The difference is huge, and you really have to ask yourself why LBACS is hobbling along with 1000 or so adoptions, when Sacramento, which is the same size, has the same demographics and has the same median income as Long Beach, is doing almost 5 times as many adoptions...

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    Dr. Turner faults LB city officialdom for, she says, letting SPCA-LA in effect control City adoption policies instead of the City operating a robust animal adoption program of its own. "The City Attorney and Mayor Garcia could sit down with spcaLA and tell them that LBACS is going to be independent, and have an adoption program and foster program, and but for some reason, they won't do it...Mayor Garcia and the City have been pulling the wool over the eyes of the animal-friendly folks in Long Beach for years now because the City doesn't want to rock the boat with SPCA-LA," Dr. Turner opined.

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    Dr. Turner says she's skeptical of the City's claimed 88% live release figure because "it's not currently clear what happens to the animals SPCA-LA takes from LBACS." Dr. Turner says city officials could "require transparency from SpcaLA on that count as well, but they don't"...and says she'll remain skeptical until that figure is transparently clear.

    Dr. Turner says part of the decrease in killings stems from overburdened rescue groups increasing their intakes from LBACS, but cautions: "Animals don't need long stays in rescues and shelters; they need good homes, and they could be readily adopted into homes, if LBACS had a strong adoption program

    Dr. Turner adds: "We're always happy when fewer animals are being killed, but when you know the context, including how hard the City has fought and continues to fight against implementing No Kill policies, it's clear that we still have a Mayor, a City Council and a city shelter in Long Beach that are not committed to saving all healthy and treatable animals and animals are still dying needlessly. The good news is that people can use their votes to help the animals. We hope they'll do that in the next election."

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    A number of local animal advocates will likely raise these issues at the January 21 City Council meeting when city management reportedly plans to agendize an item (initially scheduled for Jan. 7) to "receive and file a presentation on the status of the implementation of the Long Beach Animal Care Services’ Compassion Saves approach" including management's rationale for a "Memorandum of Understanding with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles (spcaLA)."

    On Jan. 14, some LB animal advocates have signaled that they plan to hold a demonstration (for the second year in a row) outside Mayor Garcia's scheduled "State of the City" event on Jan. 14.


    Support really independent news in Long Beach. No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report. LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. You can help keep really independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.


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