Long Beach citizens and local pets deserve transparency from spcaLA

Long Beach citizens love their dogs and work collectively to make the city a safe, welcoming, and progressive place for dogs and their people. Long Beach often makes it on the list for the top 10 dog-friendly cities, and when emergency situations arise that impact the city’s homeless pet population, Long Beach citizens step up in droves to answer the call for help.

Many citizens believe that the local shelter system is equally progressive. But, it is not. This is complicated by the fact that there are two separate entities on the Pitchford Animal Companion Village property: Long Beach Animal Care Services (LBACS), which is our publicly-funded municipal shelter, and spcaLA, which is an independent, nonprofit organization. LBACS, a government operation, participates in the nationally recognized Shelter Animal Count. This means that all animal intake and outcomes MUST be released to the public, which allows them to know if a dog has been adopted out or euthanized, and why that outcome was reached. SpcaLA does not publicly release the intake date or outcomes of the animals they house on tax-payer owned land. So, essentially, once one of our city’s homeless animals enter the spcaLA from LBACS or other circumstances, the public has no way of finding out that animal’s fate, if it was placed in a forever home or killed. This is entirely unacceptable. 

Why does this matter? 

There is a reason that every beloved animal-welfare organization across the country uses Shelter Animals Count. From the Humane Society to Best Friends to Austin Pets Alive, and virtually every public & private non-profit in between, it is common practice to publicly disclose the outcome of all animals in their care. This transparency shows a desire to not only reflect what the public wants out of its rescue organizations and shelters, but it also demonstrates a dedication to live outcomes for animals and a more humane approach to sheltering. What’s more,  the collection of data helps us innovate the future of animal welfare and ultimately, save more lives of homeless pets! Even if an organization doesn't believe in these goals, they should be releasing this information to their community, their partners (whom they literally share a facility with) and their own donors and supporters. spcaLA does none of this. 

Call to Action- Sign Today

We, the undersigned demand that spcaLA be compelled to publicly disclose the outcomes of the animals that are in their care. Currently, there is no transparency or any way for the public to find out about the outcome of animals that are living in the kennels of spcaLA. Having an organization in our city that will not publicly release the outcome of the animals in their care—whether they were adopted or killed/euthanized and why—is no longer acceptable to the citizens of Long Beach. Sign today and show spcaLA that we, the Long Beach Community and beyond believe that our city and every animal-welfare establishment within it, must be doing everything they can to not only save and improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable creatures in our city— but also to be transparent about their efforts to do so. The people of Long Beach and beyond deserve to know what happens to the animals within its city limits. And the animals housed in Long Beach deserve the compassion, care, and transparency we are calling for. Please share this petition and sign today!