14
Tue, Jan

LAAS Spends Donated Animal-Welfare Funds for Best Friends' Conference

ANIMAL WATCH-The Los Angeles Animal Services' website solicits donations to the Animal Welfare Trust Fund using irresistible images of puppies, kittens and a bunny and assuring donors their monetary gifts "will enhance the quality of life for shelter and other animals by funding animal supplies, medical equipment, improvements to Animal Shelters and other animal welfare-related projects undertaken by the Department of Animal Services." 

Read more ...

Emotional Support Animal or "Fake" Service Dog Attacks - You Could Be a Victim

ANIMMAL WATCH-Any dog attack is alarming, painful and can cause lasting injury -- whether it is by a Pit Bull or a Chihuahua--regardless of whether victims are merely knocked down or the animal sinks its teeth into their flesh. Plus, there are other victims in every attack--family members, witnesses, those who try to stop the attack, employers, and landlords or business owners on whose property the incident occurs. 

Read more ...

‘Best Friends' New Top Dog is a Woman

ANIMAL WATCH-Best Friends Animal Society last week named Julie Castle, 48, as its new CEO, heading the massive Kanab, Utah sanctuary. She will also be in charge of Best Friends' "No BSL" Pit Bull lobby, to assure Pit Bulls, regardless of temperament, behavioral history or involvement in dog fighting, have the opportunity to be adopted by families— maybe right next door to you. She will promote the TNR program for feral cats nationwide. And, Julie Castle personally pledged that the state of Utah will be “No Kill” by 2019 and the entire U.S.A. will reach this goal by 2025.

Read more ...

Pit Bulls and Feral Cattle - California's New Wild West 

ANIMAL WATCH-Los Angeles Animal Services and other local animal-control agencies and rescue groups cite Pit Bulls and feral cats as California's biggest humane challenges today. Cows are pretty low on their list of trending animal-related public safety/health issues. Thus, in 2018, it is hard to envision that, less than a two-hour drive from opulent Beverly Hills and celebrity-studded Hollywood, reality is transformed into danger and destruction by wild Pit Bulls and feral long-horn cattle. 

Read more ...

Rabid Coyote Attacks Signal Growing Danger to Humans, Pets - Is LA Ready?

ANIMAL WATCH-With the current dysfunction of LA Animal Services in regard to insuring public safety and providing wildlife expertise, it seems GM Brenda Barnette, the Commission and Mayor Eric Garcetti are oblivious to the growing danger of rabies across the nation. Have they assured that 911 operators, LAPD and City animal shelters know how to direct callers 24/7 in the event of an attack by a potentially rabid animal in LA.?  

Read more ...

LA Animal Services GM Sends 'Finders, Keepers' Plan to Council … City's Lost, Stray Pets Ignored 

ANIMAL WATCH-Why don't LA Animal Services’ General Manager Brenda Barnette and the LA Animal Services Commission want lost, stray, abandoned or unwanted animals brought to the Los Angeles City “No Kill" shelters (as recently announced by Mayor Eric Garcetti) for safety and quick return to owners searching for their furry (or feathered) family member? Barnette reports that dog impounds are down and owner redemptions are up at LA City shelters, so, why not continue a good thing? Could it be the stats aren't really telling the whole story? Or, could numbers have been achieved in a manner that is not sustainable and a new elusion is needed?  

Read more ...

LA Animal Shelters Vegan Dog-Food Proposal Hits Legal Snag

ANIMAL WATCH-On November 28, Commissioner Roger Wolfson, one of Mayor Eric Garcetti's appointees to the Los Angeles Animal Services' Commission, brought a group of "experts" and speakers to convince the Commission to approve changing all LA city shelter dogs to a meatless diet. General Manager Brenda Barnette supported the report of Chief Veterinarian Jeremy Prupas, who advised against such a change for the City's shelter population. 

Read more ...

Pet Dogs: LA Becomes a No-Limit City

ANIMAL WATCH-On January 30, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a fast-tracked motion by Councilmen Paul Koretz and Bob Blumenfield and supported by General Manager Brenda Barnette, to instruct the City Attorney to prepare an ordinance which removes LA's long-standing pet dog limits.  

Read more ...

Garcetti's Activist Commissioners Invite Radical Animal Terrorism to LA … Again

ANIMAL WATCH-Mayor Eric Garcetti, LA Animal Services' GM Brenda Barnette and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and City Attorney Mike Feuer may find it an unnerving surprise that the vegan dog-food proposal to feed only meatless meals to Los Angeles city shelter dogs -- propounded by Commissioner Roger Wolfson and eagerly supported by Best Friends enthusiast Layne Dicker -- has found fervent support and visual prominence on the Liberation/blog page of DirectActionEverywhere.com, the new site connected to the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). 

Read more ...

Vegan Dog-Food Fight Unleashes LAAS Commission Bullies

ANIMAL WATCH-At the December 12, 2017, evening meeting of the LA Animal Services Commission to discuss approval of performing a feasibility study on feeding vegan food to the impounded dogs in all city shelters, GM Brenda Barnette, Commission President Larry Gross, and Assistant City Attorney Dov Lesel acquiesced to the persistence of two of Mayor Eric Garcetti's appointees, Roger Wolfson and Layne Dicker (photos above) -- turning an official hearing into a bully pulpit opportunity for their egocentric rants and grandstanding. 

Read more ...

LA Zoning Goes to the Dogs and Cats under Koretz' New 'Pet Shop' Plan

ANIMAL WATCH-If you live, work, own a home or business in the city of Los Angeles, Councilman Paul Koretz has a holiday surprise for you! Soon, you could find that an unlimited number of Pit Bulls or cats "rescued" from city animal shelters are relocated to a “pet shop” next to your business or less than 500 feet from your home. (Most other impounded dogs are adopted.)  

Read more ...

Vegan Dogs - Should LA Animal Shelters Go Meatless?

ANIMAL WATCH-In a shocking and embarrassing display of arrogance and disrespect at the Los Angeles Animal Services' Commission meeting on November 28, Commissioner Roger Wolfson – an appointee of Mayor Eric Garcetti -- included insults and bullying to attempt to overrule the decision of General Manager Brenda Barnette and Chief Veterinarian Jeremy Prupas and gain approval to switch impounded dogs in city shelters to vegan food.  

Read more ...

Ace of Hearts Rescue Loses Right to Keep Dogs in LA After Pit Bull Attacks

ANIMAL WATCH-Two Pit Bulls owned Ace of Hearts Dog Rescue, a West Hollywood group, recently attacked innocent victims in separate incidents while in the care of fosters in the city of Los Angeles. Both were declared Dangerous Dogs by LA Animal Services' GM Brenda Barnette. This means the dogs must be removed from the city or euthanized and that the owner cannot license or keep another dog within the city limits for three years. 

Read more ...

Las Vegas Repeals Pet Shop Ban: 'It Won't Stop Puppy Mills' 

ANIMAL WATCH-“We are opposed to puppy mills," stated Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman on Wednesday, as the City Council discussed repealing a ban which would have restricted local pet shops from selling dogs, cats and potbellied pigs not obtained from an animal-care facility or rescue organization. "This will not affect puppy mills,” she said, “They’re going to continue to be there.” 

Read more ...

I’m a Pit Bull! I’m Not a Pit Bull! LA Animal Services Playing Games with Breed ID Labels!

ANIMAL WATCH-At its Tuesday night meeting, Oct. 24, the Los Angeles Animal Services' Commission, appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti, approved General Manager Brenda Barnette’s report requesting removal of all dog-breed ID labels from kennel cards in the interests of “transparency,” because she and the City shelter staff “really don’t know the breed of the dogs.” 

Read more ...

Alert! LAPD Animal Cruelty Task Force May be on the City Council's Chopping Block

ANIMAL WATCH-Animal activists and crime-ravaged communities reporting rampant animal neglect and abuse, cheered when the long-sought Los Angeles Police Department's Animal Cruelty Task Force (ACTF) was formed in 2005 to address felony crimes against animals, including dog fighting and cockfighting. The motion was introduced by now-Congressman Tony Cardenas and seconded by current Secretary of State Alex Padilla, while both served on the City Council, and was approved on May 13, 2005. 

Read more ...

Sex with Animals: Should CA Bestiality Law be Changed?

ANIMAL WATCH- (WARNING: Content of this article may disturb some readers.) Sex with animals is not a common or popular topic of conversation, unless there is a recent arrest or conviction making headlines, or you are into bestiality. The thought of someone having sex with the family dog or any other animal is repugnant to most civilized sensibility and as enraging to many as the rape of a child. Experts confirm that it should be. 

Read more ...

Poisoning Rats Means Poisoning Cats

ANIMAL WATCH--Let's say you’ve discovered some mouse droppings, maybe even seen a mouse or rat scurrying by one night.  So you decide to get some rat poison and put it out confident the problem has been solved. The rat eats the poison and makes its way across the yard where it catches the eye of a cat, a hawk, an owl that move in to catch this easy prey because it has slowed down or is moving erratically.  Let's say the neighbor’s cat catches it, eats it.  A few days later the heartbroken neighbor is posting signs wondering where their cat has disappeared to while a distraught neighbor a few doors over is calling dead animal pick up for the cat lying under the bushes. 

This is not an unusual scenario.  Using poison to kill rodents creates a serious hazard to cats and local birds of prey. 

From PetMD – 

Strychnine is a very strong and dangerous poison that is often added to bait for killing rats, moles, gophers, and other rodents or unwanted predators. Having a very short duration of action, the clinical symptoms of strychnine poisoning typically appear within ten minutes to two hours after ingestion, resulting in sudden death.

Patients often will die due to spamming of the muscles involved in respiration, resulting in strangulation. Cats of all ages are equally susceptible to the adverse effects of strychnine.

The following are some of the symptoms of strychnine poisoning:

- Limb rigidity
- Stiff muscles
- Uncontrolled violent seizures (sometimes in response to bright lights or noise)
- Severe spasms leading to arching of the head, neck and back in extreme hyperextension (opisthotonus)
- Elevated heart rate
- High body temperature
- Breathing difficulties, inability to breathe,
- Vomiting

So how do we get rid of rats without creating lethal danger to our wonderful local cats, hawks and owls, all of whom provide the BEST way to kill rats and mice?  

First of all a message to all the kind people providing food to their local feral population, do NOT put food out and keep it out.  Put it out at specific times in the day and pick up whatever the cat doesn’t eat.  That food attracts other creatures as well. Cats will know when the food is coming especially if you call them every time. 

We also discourage the use of glue traps as it is a particularly cruel and inhumane, time consuming way to kill a rodent.  The mouse runs onto it, sticks, and is terrified while its struggles to escape. It will either die slowly of dehydration or starvation. The traps can rip off fur and skin while they struggle, and rodents have attempted to chew through their own limbs to get free. Other animals can get trapped on it as well. 

There is now a popular, new and effective trap that is being used by responsible residents. An electric trap. Small box with lure at back. Only mice and rats can fit in and are immediately zapped.  More humane and less messy than the old fashioned snap traps. Just Google electric rat traps. 

Here are some websites that give excellent instruction on ways to discourage rodents from visiting at all including the use peppermint oil - Add 20-30 drops of peppermint essential oil to each cotton ball and lay strategically around your home. Refresh every week or so, or whenever you notice the smell is fading.) Did you know rodents hate to cross aluminum foil? 

MORE INFO 

 

(Dianne Lawrence is a dog trainer and the publisher of The Neighborhood News. Reach her at: whatagooddogla.com/) 

-cw

More Articles ...

Get The News In Your Email Inbox Mondays & Thursdays