As part of LA Animal Services commitment to making Los Angeles a no-kill community, they are holding a series of workshops on various topics trying to engage the public for ideas and comments about how to make no-kill happen. Tonight is workshop number 6 which will focus on Medical and Behavioral Rehabilitation and feature Rehabilitator Brandon Fouché, Deputy Chief Veterinarian for LAAS Dr. Steven Feldman and Center Manager & Dog Trainer for LAAS Capt. Louis P. Dedeaux. The workshop starts tonight at 6:30 and is being held at East Valley Animal Care Center in the Community Room (14409 Vanowen Street, Van Nuys, CA 91405). You can view the flyer for tonight’s event here.

A few weeks ago it was announced that members of the L.A. Animal Services staff presented their vote of “No Confidence” in General Manager Ed Boks and Assistant General Manager Linda Barth to the Los Angeles City Council. Things are finally starting to heat up. Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 7th at 6:30 PM, there is a meeting at the Van Nuys Civic Center where people will be given their chance to voice their complaints about Boks/Barth. As with all issues, it’s better to come prepared. To that end, I would suggest reading the very detailed history of LAAS under Boks as documented by the anonymous poster “Madison Barkley” which can be found here. Although it’s quite biased, it does provide a lot of concrete evidence using LAAS numbers on how little has been done to achieve No Kill status in Los Angeles. You will find the meeting information after the jump. (more…)

After attending all 4 of the Humane LA no-kill shelter workshops so far, I have been disappointed by the lack of attendance by those in the animal rights/animal advocacy community. I understand that traffic can be a problem, but get there late people. When I hear people say that the whole process is a dog-and-pony show, I wonder how people can say that who never go. If those of us who are supposed to care aren’t bothering to show up, then why do we expect other citizens to rally to throw out the people we are convinced are incompetent. Yes, George Bush is the worst President ever and there is little we can do to remove him or people like him from office, but we have the ability to speak with our local government officials, our Senators and our House of Representatives members. People hate Ed Boks, so they should take the time to meet the man and give him a chance to not answer your questions, but if you never ask him a question, then you are giving up without trying. If you aren’t going to bother to enter the room with the man and ask him direct questions, you shouldn’t criticize him.

When people say there is nothing new to be learned at these workshops, that is completely idiotic. Nobody knows everything about the animal groups that are truly helping the animals, so show up to these workshops and at least learn about the everyday people who are going to continue to improve the lives of the animals, regardless of who is running LA Animal Services.

Here are the remaining workshops, so show up people. http://www.laanimalservices.com/humanela.htm