TELL PROSECUTORS THAT ANIMAL CONTROL PERSONNEL ARE NOT IMMUNE FROM PROSECUTION FOR ACTS OF ANIMAL CRUELTY AND NEGLECT

There are far too many animals being abused and neglected by the very people who are paid to protect them. It’s time for city and county prosecutors to prosecute animal control personnel for the crimes of animal cruelty and animal neglect.

California law provides for criminal prosecution of ANYONE perpetrating animal cruelty or neglect. California law also explicitly REQUIRES animal control and animal “shelter” personnel to treat all animals humanely and with kindness. Yet city and county prosecutors routinely turn a blind eye to those crimes when they are committed by employees of city and county animal control agencies. Animal control personnel must not be given a free pass to commit crimes for which other people are criminally prosecuted.  In fact, ANIMAL CONTROL PERSONNEL SHOULD BE HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD, because they are paid and (at least theoretically) trained to handle animals.

On November 17, 2015 a dog was brought to the Downey facility of Los Angeles County Department of Animal "Care" and Control by a man named George Duran who found the dog lying motionless in Compton. The dog clearly had injuries to its back end. After waiting for a clerk to do something with his computer (which was apparently far more urgent than actually helping an injured dog), Mr. Duran was able to get other animal control personnel to remove the dog from his car.

Mr. Duran, like many people, probably believed that animal control staff would help the injured dog and provide treatment (as is also required by California law). They did not. In fact the manner in which LA County animal control employees handled the dog was downright abusive. To get the dog out of the car, one of the staff picked him/her up by the scruff of the neck and put the dog on the asphalt on its rear legs. The dog winced in pain, with its mouth tied shut by a cord wrapped around its muzzle by animal control, as they continued to inflict more pain on the injured dog. Another staff member participated in the effort to put the dog in a metal cage, one employee holding the front paws, the other holding the back paws, its body hanging by its visibly injured legs.

Here is a link to one of the news stories, with video of the incident: http://www.dailynews.com/social-affairs/20151126/more-trouble-at-downey-animal-shelter-after-new-video-emerges

The LA County animal control employees demonstrated not only complete incompetence, but abject indifference to the obvious suffering of the already injured dog. The dog was killed right after intake by LA County animal control personnel who claimed that the dog was “irremediably suffering”. What, if any, tests were performed to determine the extent of the dog’s injuries? How much were the dog’s injuries exacerbated by the misconduct of the employees who are (well) paid to “care” for animals? What, if any, treatment was given by animal control staff? Who made the determination to kill the dog rather than provide treatment?  The public will likely never know the answers to those questions because officials will do everything possible to hide the facts.

Since the incident, the video has been posted online and outraged many in the public. LA County animal control officials claim that they will be requiring additional training. What would have happened if nobody had posted the video? It would have been just one more case of abuse by animal control officers.

ANIMAL ABUSE BY ANIMAL CONTROL STAFF IS NOT A TRAINING PROBLEM--IT’S A COMPASSION PROBLEM.

No amount of training can force animal control personnel to care about the animals that are unfortunate enough to end up at their facilities. Each time an incident of abuse or neglect by animal control is made public, city or county officials promise to do better and provide “training”.  How many times do they expect people to believe them? More importantly, why doesn’t “management” hold their employees accountable and impose real consequences in the form of criminal prosecution? Instead the very agencies that have taken it upon themselves to investigate animal abuse and push for prosecution of animal abusers actually protect their co-workers when they commit abuse or neglect.

The abuse and killing of the dog by LA County animal control is not an isolated incident. On February 20, 2015, a small dog named “Harmony” was killed by an employee of Los Angeles (City) Animal “Services” when he choked her to death on a catch pole (a long metal pole with a wire noose on the end). The official records for Harmony show that she was a 20 lb. Fox Terrier and was dead less than 2 hours after being brought to Los Angeles City “shelter” in Chatsworth. The City’s own veterinarian concluded that Harmony was killed by asphyxiation, turning blue and purple (cyanotic) from a lack of oxygen.

Where was LA City’s Animal Cruelty Task Force when one of their own killed Harmony? Los Angeles city officials, including the entire city council and two deputy city attorneys, are well aware of the situation, because the details were sent to them by e-mail. Not one of them responded. It’s highly unlikely that the animal control employee who abused and killed Harmony on intake was reprimanded or punished in any manner. What is clear is that he was not charged or prosecuted for animal cruelty as he should have been.

These incidents are not unusual in our so-called animal “shelters”. Such acts of cruelty and abuse by animal control personnel are being perpetrated on a regular basis in animal control facilities throughout Southern California. What is unusual about the recent incident involving the dog mistreated by LA County animal control at the Downey facility is that there is video evidence of the abuse and that it was made public. The vast majority of these incidents are covered up by animal control staff and “management” as well as other officials in the cities and counties that employ them.

Ironically, animal control agencies are the first to brag about seizing animals from alleged abusers, issuing press releases and acting like they’ve committed great acts of heroism. Where are the press releases when the animals they seize and impound die from neglect and deprivation long after they’ve been impounded and held by animal control? Very often the animals seized by animal control are perfectly healthy on impound (according to their own records), but are locked up for months or years in cold concrete cells without any human interaction or veterinary care. When the animals die alone and neglected at animal control facilities, their deaths are not publicized and the animal control employees are not punished for neglect or abuse.

IT’S TIME TO HOLD ANIMAL CONTROL PERSONNEL ACCOUNTABLE AND PROSECUTE THEM FOR ACTS OF CRUELTY AND NEGLECT.