A few minutes ago I read a despicable piece of news… It’s one of those things that literally makes your heart actually hurt from knowing that stuff like this ACTUALLY HAPPENS. The dog pictured below is Bambi (#A1221591). She was located at the Harbor shelter in San Pedro, CA…
I say “was” because Bambi was killed at 12:51p (yesterday/Sunday) WHILE HER FOREVER FAMILY WAS ACTUALLY WAITING IN THE LOBBY FOR HER RELEASE…
Does it get any more awful? I mean, just trying to put myself in that family’s shoes, I can’t. I cannot imagine how they must be feeling, and my thoughts go out to them on this day… Then you have the poor volunteers–who apparently had organized this situation down to a tee, and who were very much aware that her new family was coming in to get her… Pretty much devastating. RIP Bambi, for this kind of stuff is completely avoidable and should have never happened, ever.
So what gives? Which staff member erroneously made this counter-decision? A worthy question that at some point will hopefully have an answer. To me, there is just not an excuse in the world that would ever legitimately justify something like this happening, and it speaks to the supremely poor attention to detail by someone (multiple people?) working on the inside… Fact is that this call had to be made by somebody–15 dogs just don’t euthanize themselves mid-day on a Sunday when numerous kennels are already sitting empty… Hopefully there is going to be a push for some accountability, and not the pushing of this story down the memory hole!
Again, please click HERE to read a public Facebook note on the topic, written by Nicole Salter…
The Harbor facility is one of the LAAS (city) shelters being overseen by Brenda Barnette, who is the general manager for all of the city shelters… At this moment I personally do not have the name of the manager onsite at Harbor, so I guess the only suggestion I can make is to contact Ms. Barnette directly…
Department of Animal Services
221 N. Figueroa St.
5th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone ~ 888-452-7381
Fax ~ 213-482-9511
Brenda Barnette ~ General Manager
213-482-9558
brenda.barnette@lacity.org
Kathleen Davis ~ Asst. General Manager
213-482-9527
kathy.davis@lacity.org
Board of Animal Services Commissioners
Melanie Ramsayer ~ President
Ruthanne Secunda ~ Vice President
Tariq Khero ~ Commissioner
Theresa Macellaro ~ Commissioner
Kathleen Riordan ~ Commissioner
You can call 888-452-7381 to then be directed specifically to Harbor, but according to their website they are closed on Mondays.
This sickens me beyond words! you are right Josh as there is not an excuse that could possibly exist to make this forgivable! it is completely beyond the realm of comprehension!! Is this madness ever going to end??!! I feel strongly compelled to do something to end this suffering! We have to come together to prevent these dogs from ever ending up in such a place. it’s worthy and wonderful when one is able to can save one or these dogs but I feel as though we should try to come up with ways to prevent these poor babies from ever ending up in such a place as Harbor or Carson. I have an idea but it’s still in the very early stages. In the meantime I a going to email every person that you have listed above and tell them exactly what I think of this horrible, horrible travesty! Can this world be any more f’d up???!!!
THEY SHOULD BE SUED FOR THIS !! THIS IS UNFAIR FOR BAMBI AND HER NEW FAMILY WHO WERE THERE WAITING FOR HER !! VERY BROKENHEARTED TO HEAR ABOUT THIS !! SO SORRY BAMBI THAT YOU DIDNT EVEN GET TO REACH YOUR NEW FAMILY !!
Similar thing happened at the Camden County Animal Shelter in NJ that I volunteer for… horrible, atrocious, depressing. Shelter workers didn’t really care. The volunteers ran around trying to get the poor dog (Shenanigans, who had been adopted, but subsequently returned because he was ‘too much’ to handle)rescued and had a foster home lined up, and the shelter knew…but killed the poor baby anyway.
This same shelter gave a pittie away to the wrong person…or somehow approved two apps at the same time for the same dog. My husband went to the shelter to pick up Daytona, and he finds out that she was adopted out only a few hours prior. Even though my husband had received the approval call that morning and he told them when he would be arriving. Luckily, the woman who adopted her was told to have been very friendly, and we adopted another pittie Brooklyn in her place a week or so later…and she is a perfect fit for our pittie Chopper, so in this case it worked out for the better…two dogs adopted instead of one.
Thanks for the work that you do!