All Creatures Great and Small

There is no denying the fact that we have vast power over animals, and with such power comes great responsibility. We can choose to be kind and merciful or cruel and abusive. Kindness and mercy exemplify the best of the human spirit.

Our Moral Duty to Protect Animals

Religious values call upon us to show kindness and mercy to animals. The HSUS Animals and Religion program works with people and institutions of faith to act on these beliefs and advocate for compassionate treatment of animals.

“Animals are more than ever a test of our character, of mankind’s capacity for empathy and for decent, honorable conduct and faithful stewardship. We are called to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights or power or some claim to equality, but in a sense because they don’t, because they all stand unequal and powerless before us.”
Matthew Scully, Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy.

You can learn what the largest religious denominations in the U.S. say about animal protection issues at http://www.humanesociety.org/religion/.

HSUS has produced a compelling 26-minute documentary entitled, "Eating Mercifully". This film examines U.S. industrial animal agriculture from several Christian viewpoints. The film is narrated by Robert P. Marin, Executive Director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production and features commentaries from:

Elaine and Dale West, Founders Rooterville, A Sanctuary, Inc. Florida
Greg Boyd, Ph.D, President Christus Victor Ministries, Minnesota
Rev. Laura Hobgood-Oster, Ph.D., Southwestern University, Texas
Peter McDonald, owner McDonald Farm, New York
Sister Rosemarie Greco, D.W. Connecticut

You can order a free copy of Eating Mercifully on DVD, or view the film and download adult and teen study guides at www.humanesociety.org/religion.

The Parrots and People Paradox

The CBS News Sunday Morning show aired an informative segment entitled, Bye, Bye Birdie. This important story describes the perils of parrot ownership.

Should you find this report interesting, you can click on "Share" and email it to your friends and family. (Just wave your cursor over video.) Not only do you share an important story with the ones you love, but you also let CBS know that this is an important story because they count the number of “Shares” forwarded to determine public interest in a story.

You can also let reporter Bill Whitaker and the CBS Sunday Morning news team know you appreciate the story at http://tinyurl.com/mjwkub by selecting “CBS News Sunday Morning" from the drop down menu and expressing your appreciation in the space provided.

For more information on exotic bird exploitation go to: http://www.parrotpress.net/. Mira Tweety, featured in the report welcomes comments or queries about the piece, or parrots as pets. She can be reached at Tweti@ParrotPress.net. You can also purchase an autographed copy of her books, Of Parrots and People and Here, There and Everywhere. Proceeds will help fund a parrot welfare feature documentary already in production.

Food, Inc.

This past weekend I saw an important film entitled "Food, Inc."

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA.

Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli--the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farm's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joe Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising -- and often shocking truths -- about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Here is what others are saying about this film:

“See it. Bring your kids if you have them. Bring Someone else’s kids if you don’t.
- David Edelstein, NY Magazine

“More than a terrific movie – it’s an important movie.”
- Owen Gleibeman, Entertainment Weekly

“Does for the supermarket what ‘Jaws’ did for the beach.”
- Variety

Food, Inc. opened in these locations June 12:

San Francisco, CA:
Embarcadero Center Cinema 5

West Los Angeles, CA:
Nuart Theatre

New York, NY:
Film Forum

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You. See it!

Thinking Outside the Boks...

Since announcing my resignation (effective June 30^th) as general manager of LA Animal Services, I have received a tremendous response from the community and I thank all of you who took the time to contact me with your comments and support.

Even some of the Department’s (and my) most resolute critics expressed their regards. Many thanked me for my years of service, many expressed regrets over my leaving, and some expressed concern for the future of LA Animal Services and the many lost and homeless animals who find their way into our shelters.

While the past several years have been some of the most progressive in the agency’s one hundred year history, I am convinced that its best years lay ahead.

The reason for my confidence is the foundational work we accomplished over the past three-and-a-half years. During this time we built the highest volume pet adoption program in the nation while achieving the lowest pet euthanasia rates in the Department’s recorded history. We opened and staffed six LEED Certified state-of-the-art animal care centers and increased staff size 100%.

We enhanced our training programs and developed the Department’s first Strategic Plan. We updated and standardized all the Department’s policies and procedures. We recruited and managed a record number of volunteers, including a spirited group of professionals to spearhead our historic and effective Spay/Neuter PR campaign.

We firmly established the Animal Cruelty Task Force, partnering with LAPD and the City and County Attorney. We improved the Pet Shop Permitting Rules and Regulations. We built a coalition of over 140 animal welfare organizations. We developed two animal welfare television programs; The Home Shopping Petwork on City Channel 35 and another to be unveiled soon.

We implemented many innovative, life saving programs and partnerships. We built and fully staffed an exceptional shelter medical program. We modernized our website, and developed a culture and respected reputation for transparency.

But most important to the Department’s future success, we established a compassionate performance-based executive team comprised of two exceptional Assistant General Managers, an outstanding Chief Veterinarian, an effective, experienced Volunteer Program Manager, a capable Human Resources Director and a remarkable budget team - all of whom have shown their mettle in a difficult multi-year City budget crisis.

This was all accomplished as the Department experienced its largest, fastest, most historic growth while at the same time sustaining severe budget cuts and staffing shortages.

As I said in my letter of resignation, I am proud of the Department I leave behind. I leave the City of Los Angeles an Animal Services Department committed to improving accountability, effectiveness and correcting long-term organizational empowerment and accountability issues. LA Animal Services is uniquely positioned to help establish the City of Los Angeles as the most humane city in the nation.

While some choose to focus on a spay/neuter fundraising event proposed by Hooters, a worthwhile Pit Bull Academy effort and our wanting to ensure funding existed for ongoing spay/neuter programs, the most important accomplishments went largely unseen and unrecognized. But these accomplishments will be the longest lasting and most telling. LA Animal Services now has a stable infrastructure, an able management team, and a solid foundation on which to truly build a world-class animal welfare organization.

Concerning my resignation, Mayor Villaraigossa kindly said, “Ed deserves our gratitude for his efforts and our best wishes in the years ahead.” For this I am grateful. He then acknowledged not only what was accomplished but what can yet be accomplished: “We look forward to building on his legacy and continuing to make the Department of Animal Services the gold standard for pet protection.”

There is still much work to be done and I trust the entire LA humane community will pull together to keep making things better for the animals. That hope is why I am convinced the Department’s best years are yet to come.

Should LA Abandon Its No-Kill Goal?

A recent editorial in a local newspaper initiated debate about whether the City of Los Angeles can achieve a No-Kill status and should even be trying to. Instead, the editorial advocated a retreat to focusing on “core functions” such as humane sheltering, law enforcement activities and pet adoption.

No reasonable observer would dispute the importance of accomplishing core functions, but the author of the editorial clearly did not understand the concept of No-Kill as it has been defined in Los Angeles the last few years, and as it is more widely defined in the animal welfare community across the country. No-Kill means ending the use of euthanasia as a means to control pet overpopulation; terminally ill, terminally injured animals and dangerously aggressive dogs are not included in this goal and these animals will, of course, always be humanely euthanized if and when they must be euthanized.

Although the terminally ill, terminally injured and dangerously aggressive animals are not included in achieving the No-Kill goal, these deaths are included in the City’s euthanasia statistics. This skews the discernment of the City’s policymakers and the Department’s constituency of our progress towards achieving this goal.

Can the City of Los Angeles achieve No-Kill? I contend we can, and further, I suggest we are closer than many realize (and that some have been willing to admit). But to be totally successful will take the whole community working together and must include targeted, affordable spay/neuter programs for needy pet owners.

In the drive to achieve No-Kill there are two commonly recognized hurdles to clear. A community’s progress towards No-Kill usually stalls at the first hurdle which is typically found when its pet euthanasia rate is reduced to between 12 and 10 shelter killings per 1,000 human residents annually (13.8 is the current national average).

Once a community achieves this rate, further significant reductions are stalled until the community decides to implement aggressive spay/neuter programs to achieve further euthanasia reduction goals. With effective, targeted spay/neuter programs progress toward the second hurdle can be steady. Clearing the first hurdle becomes apparent after a community has successfully persuaded all the people who are likely to fix their pets to do so.

The challenge then is to persuade the more difficult populations, which include the poor, the elderly on fixed income, individuals with negative attitudes about spay/neuter, people who speak languages other than English, and those who live in relatively remote areas.

The second hurdle in the drive to achieve No-Kill has been characterized as “the wall”. Few communities have been able to break through "the wall". A community hits “the wall” when it reduces its pet euthanasia rate to between 5 and 2.5 shelter killings per 1,000 human residents annually (in 2007, Los Angeles reduced its euthanasia rate to 3.7).

Hitting “the wall” signifies the success of an earlier generation of effectively targeted programs. To break through “the wall” requires a new generation of programs to address the needs of special populations not met by earlier programs, which typically includes bully dog breeds, and feral, domestic and neonate cats.

Breaking through the wall requires comprehensive data collection, assessment, and implementation of programs targeted to meet the special needs of residual populations. Finding more creative and effective ways to reach out to the public and market the adoption of hard-to-place pets becomes an even greater priority, and implementing and maintaining targeted spay/neuter programs remains paramount.

LA has been doing this, and has been doing this successfully for many years, despite the protests of a small group of misinformed, vocal and media savvy critics.

To abandon the No-Kill goal now would be nothing less than criminal. LA is close to becoming the first major metropolitan community to achieve this goal and the eyes of the nation are on us. Once this goal is achieved we will have stripped away from every other community any excuse for continuing to employ killing as a methodology for controlling dog and cat populations. Even in an era of tight budgets and big challenges, LA Animal Services should remain dedicated not only to its so-called core functions, but also to striving toward No-Kill. In fact, this is a city that has made No-Kill a core function. We have no choice but to succeed.

Before deciding to abandon the No-Kill goal please review these reports:

The 2008 LA Animal Services Annual Report:

http://www.laanimalservices.com/PDF/reports/annual/2008%20Statistical%20Report%20LA%20Animal%20Services.pdf

The 2008 National Comparison Report Issued by ANIMAL PEOPLE:

http://www.laanimalservices.com/PDF/reports/annual/ANIMAL%20PEOPLE%20National%202008%20Stats.pdf

The Mayor's Response

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released the following statement regarding the resignation of the Department of Animal Services’ General Manager, Ed Boks:

“I thank Ed Boks for his years of service at the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services.

"Under his leadership, this City has revamped the way we treat and care for our pets and animals. The ‘no kill’ policy has become a central component of our animal services strategy. Pet adoptions are up and shelters have expanded at a rapid rate. And ‘spay and neuter’ has become more than just a call to action; it is the law in Los Angeles.

“Ed deserves our gratitude for his efforts and our best wishes in the years ahead. We look forward to building on his legacy and continuing to make the Department of Animal Services the gold standard for pet protection.”

My Letter to Mayor Villaraigosa

April 24, 2009

The Honorable Antonio R. Villaraigosa
Mayor, City of Los Angeles
200 North Spring Street,
Room 303, City Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Dear Mayor Villaraigosa:

This letter serves as my formal notice of resignation, effective June 30, 2009.

I am proud of the work that LA Animal Services has been able to accomplish over the past three and a half years including, but not limited to, development of the most successful municipal pet adoption program in the nation (over 26,000 adoptions annually); successfully opening six new state-of-the-art animal care centers; embarking on the Department’s first Strategic Planning process (scheduled for completion before I leave); updating and standardizing policies and procedures to ensure a well-run Department; and building the finest animal care and control medical and executive teams in the nation. Gratefully, all of this has successfully contributed to the lowest three years of pet euthanasia rates in the Department’s recorded history with every reason to expect continued improvement.

This was all accomplished while the Department experienced the largest, fastest, and most historic growth in service demand. LA Animal Services is finding its balance in an environment of severe budget cuts, unprecedented demand for expansion of services, and a severe staffing shortage. I am proud of the Department I am leaving behind. I leave you a Department committed to improving accountability and effectiveness and to continuing to identify and correct long-term organizational empowerment and accountability issues.

I have given a great deal of thought to my experience as general manager. As I depart I would like to leave LA residents with a call to action that unifies rather than divides. The greatest challenge to Los Angeles’ No-Kill goal is effective, affordable, convenient spay/neuter options. As a community we must help prevent unwanted pets from being born while our city shelters are filled to capacity with healthy beautiful animals waiting for loving homes. Pet overpopulation is a community problem that requires constructive community involvement and unity to solve.

As I step down, I ask for your assistance in calling LA’s pet loving residents to the following actions:

1. If you have a pet, spay or neuter your pet. It is now the law.
2. If you can help someone who can't afford to spay and neuter their pet, go to www.LAspay.org and make a donation to help provide spay/neuter surgeries.
3. Ask your friends, colleagues and employers to match your donation.
4. If you have room in your home and your heart for a pet, adopt one from your local shelter.
5. If you love your pet, license your pet. The number one reason pets die in shelters is because we can’t find their owners.

It is time LA pulled together to solve this societal problem. I would like to thank you for all of the support that you have shown me and our shared goal of creating a truly humane LA during my tenure with the City of Los Angeles. I've enjoyed working with you and your team, and value the relationship we have built over the years.

Please feel free to contact me in the future if I can ever be of assistance. Thank you once again for giving me the opportunity to serve the City of Los Angeles. It has been an honor.

Sincerely,
Edward A. Boks, General Manager
Department of Animal Services

Calling All Fosters

There is a fundamental tenet held among most animal welfare and animal rights advocates that we accept as incontrovertible. That precept was perhaps best articulated by Mahatma Gandhi when he said, “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress is best judged by how we treat our animals”. This principle expresses the belief that when a community is compassionate enough to care about the needs of its animals there can be a reasonable expectation that the bar is raised on how we care and treat one another.

The reverse is also true. If we can dismiss the needs of our animals it becomes easier to dismiss the needs of our infirmed, aged, and needy human populations. Caring about animals serves as the ultimate litmus test for determining a community’s capacity for compassion.

This test is applied to the City of Los Angeles every day, but never more than in the spring and summer months.

Spring is the beginning of kitten season in Los Angeles. In 2008 LA Animal Services took in over 7,300 neonate kittens. Neonate means too young to survive for more than an hour or two without a mother. Sadly, most of the neonate kittens we take in are orphans. People find these babies in their garage, flowerbeds, and many other places where the mother felt safe from predators and intruders while she gave birth. Property owners find these crying babies within hours or days of birth and bring them to our Centers without the mother. Taken away from their mother they have no chance at survival without significant human intervention.

Neonate kittens represent over one-third of all the cats taken in by the Department. They also represent over 35% of all the cats euthanized and over 21% of our euthanasia rate in 2008. One in three cats and one in five animals euthanized in LA is a neonate kitten. On the up side, most of our healthy weaned kittens get adopted. So anything we can do to help our neonates reach full "kittenhood" improves the odds of their eventually finding a loving home.

Kitten season in Los Angeles starts around the end of March and lasts through September when it starts to slowly decline over October and November. That means now is the time for everyone wanting to help end the killing of these innocents to contact LA Animal Services to either volunteer to foster a litter of kittens or to make a donation to help others willing to make this commitment.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “foster” as providing parental care and nurture to children not related through legal or blood ties. If Gandhi viewed animals in general as the first rung on the compassion ladder then these little creatures must be considered the least of the least. They can be so easily overlooked and forgotten. In fact, California State Law defines “adoptable animals” as only those animals eight weeks of age or older; which means these little orphans have no legal standing in the State of California. They don’t even have to be counted in the City’s no-kill goal. Nonetheless, they are because we understand that our moral progress depends on our providing adequate care and nurture to these living souls with whom we have no legal or blood ties.

The problem is that we can’t save them all by ourselves. We need your help. During kitten season LA Animal Services can take in over 80 neonate orphans a day, over 2500 in some months. Depending on their age they may require four to 8 weeks of intense foster care. Though dozens of our dedicated employees volunteer to foster neonate litters above and beyond their daily duties, the majority will not survive without the additional help of members of the public willing to step up to the challenge. They will not survive without your help. If you are able and willing to help save these lives, LA Animal Services will provide the training, support and supplies you need to be a successful foster parent.

This is a big commitment and a true test of our compassion. Even with our best efforts not all foster babies survive. But they can all be loved. These babies need to be bottle fed every two hours around the clock for several weeks; making this the perfect family, club, or faith based organizational project. Fostering helpless neonates is an ideal way to foster compassion and respect for the true value and sanctity of all life in our community.

Have you saved a life today? Make a commitment to volunteer as a Baby Bottle Foster Parent. For more information and an application, please click here. Our kittens are hoping you do!

Lessons Learned

LA Animal Services’ February 2009 statistics are now available. Something truly remarkable seems to be happening. Despite encountering the highest January/February impound rates in nearly a decade we were able to achieve the lowest January/February euthanasia rate in the department’s recorded history. And this was done without overcrowding our Centers! This is a tribute to AGM Kathy Davis, all our employees, volunteers and partners! Well done! Thank you for all your efforts!

So how did this happen? From lessons learned!

Over the past two years, LA Animal Services experienced the largest, fastest, most historic growth in service demand in its history. With the opening of our new and expanded Centers we experienced nearly a 250% increase in kennels and workload while Center staffing increased only 100%. The new facilities attracted a greater client base, leading to more animals turned in, redeemed, and adopted. More people are now coming in to adopt and relinquish pets, obtain information, more veterinary care is needed and provided, and more volunteers and trainers want to help. This is exactly the business of LA Animal Services, and it is all being managed with a minimum workforce.

As the Department moved into its new Centers we encountered a learning curve for effectively managing our new facilities and our enlarged shelter populations. As the new Centers began to open in late 2006 we realized in 2007 the lowest euthanasia rate (15,009) in the department’s long recorded history of statistics gathering (since 1960. Over 110,000 dogs and cats were euthanized in 1971).

The low euthanasia rate in 2007 was the result of many reasons, but most notable was our having more space to hold animals coupled with a robust adoption program. In 2008, as we were still moving into our new Centers, we experienced a 20% increase (54,191) in intakes due in large measure to the economic downturn. This increase was complicated by our inexperience managing so many animals in all this new space. Consequently, the shelters quickly filled up (sometimes to the point of overcrowding), animals got sick more often and we sometimes found ourselves forced to resort to euthanasia to bring populations under control again. The nearly 30% increase in adoptions in 2008 did not keep pace with our 20.5% increase (nearly 150 dogs and cats every day) in intakes.

LA Animal Services had to quickly find its balance in an environment of severe budget cuts, unprecedented demand for expansion of services, and a severe staffing shortage. The Department had to re-group, tone-up and empower staff (especially at the mid-management level) to improve accountability and effectiveness.

Having gone through this painful growth experience, our Center Managers are now constantly looking for ways to better promote their adoptable animals more effectively. They are on the lookout for more and better off site adoption partners and events. The Department is exploring partnerships with pet stores interested in abandoning puppy mill sources. Our veterinarians are spaying or neutering some animals in-house. This allows our adopters to take their new pets home on the day of adoption. And our Veterinary team is implementing an enhanced cleaning regimen designed to help maintain a healthier shelter population.

We are aggressively transferring animals to one or another of our six adoption Centers or another municipal or private shelter when appropriate to increase adoption options. We've developed and are strictly adhering to a Population Assessment Management program that maintains our Center populations at least 10% below maximum capacity to allow sufficient space for incoming animals.

Another significant innovation that we are in the process of implementing is a program called, "Heart-to-Heart". This program focuses on animals in our Centers longer than two weeks. Each Center has a Heart-to-Heart team that includes the Center Manager, the Center Veterinarian, the ACT Supervisor, and the New Hope Coordinator or their designees. This team works together to help decide the best options for animals that don't get adopted in their first two weeks in a shelter. The team is charged with considering and exhausting all avenues of release, including but not limited to mobile adoption events, New Hope and other marketing pleas, transfer to another Center or agency, etc, etc.

So, are these strategies responsible for the positive statistics below? Time will tell. The Department will continue to monitor, tweak, manage, and modify as we continually learn from our mistakes, our successes, and the counsel of others.

Intakes/Rescues: February 09 Intakes were up over 7% (from 3,010 to 3,225). This is the highest February Intake since collecting data electronically began in 2001. February 2001 Intake was 3,079. Year to Date (YTD) Intakes are up over 4% (from 6,275 to 6,542). This is the highest January/February Intake since 2001 when 7,034 animals were taken in. This is a disturbing trend continuing from 2008.

Adoptions: February 09 Adoptions are up nearly 18% (1,607) compared to February 08 (1,377). YTD Adoptions are up 17.6% (from 2,848 to 3,351).

New Hope: February New Hope Placements are down nearly 7% (from 329 to 306). YTD New Hope Placements are down just over 10% (from 714 to 638).

Return to Owners (RTO): February RTOs are down 2% (from 376 to 368). YTD RTOs are down 6.5% (from 793 to 741).

Euthanasia: February Euthanasia is down 11% (from 748 to 665). YTD Euthanasia is down 14% (from 1,568 to 1,345). This is nearly 3% lower than the historic 2007 low of 1,384).

Again a sincere Thank You to all our employees, volunteers and partners for all their efforts to help support these life saving strategies.

LA Spay Day 2009: A Huge Success!

As mentioned last week, Councilmembers Alarcón and Cárdenas introduced a resolution declaring February 28, "LA Spay Day 2009".

In celebration of this wonderful event, the two Council Offices partnered with LA Animal Services, Social Compassion, Clinico, The Sam Simon Foundation and The Amanda Foundation to host a free spay and neuter event for residents of the Northeast San Fernando Valley. Local residents were encouraged to bring their unaltered dogs and cats to the Mission Hills Animal Care Center.

The event goal to alter 165 dogs and cats was achieved! Exactly 165 pets were spayed or neutered and dozens more were scheduled for surgery in the coming weeks. Local residents were so very grateful for this free service. The event was made possible through the donations of many who are dedicated to ending euthanasia by providing free spay and neuter as the preferred method for controlling pet overpopulation.

I want to thank all our donors along with the organizations mentioned above and the employees and volunteers of LA Animal Services and the two Council Offices for making this such a successful event.

It is our hope to provide a Big Fix Spay Day every quarter in a different part of the City. If you would like to make that possible please consider making a donation to Social Compassion and indicate that it is to be used for the LA Big Fix program. Thank you!

Los Angeles Spay Day 2009

Today, Councilmembers Alarcón and Cárdenas introduced a resolution declaring February 28, "Los Angeles Spay Day 2009".

In celebration of this wonderful event, the two Council Offices are partnering with LA Animal Services, Social Compassion, Clinico, The Sam Simon Foundation and The Amanda Foundation to host a free spay and neuter event for residents of the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

Local residents are encouraged to bring their unaltered dogs and cats to the Mission Hills Animal Care Center (15321 Brand Blvd, Mission Hills, CA 91345).

This is a first come, first serve program with intake beginning at 6:30 AM (spots will fill up quickly). Animals must be picked back up by 3:00 PM.

Pets cannot be fed from midnight the night before. Dogs must be on a leash and cats must be in a carrier.

Councilmembers Alarcón and Cárdenas are true champions for increasing spay and neuter in Los Angeles. On February 12, 2008 the City Council passed one of the most comprehensive spay & neuter ordinances in the nation, requiring pet owners to spay or neuter all cats and dogs over the age of four months, unless the animal falls under one of several exemptions. An oversight and advisory committee was also formed. The Mayor signed this ordinance into law on February 26th, 2008. Since the law became enforceable on October 1st, 2008, LA Animal Services reports city spay and neuter services increased 23%.

Each year, untold numbers of cats and dogs are born in the City of Los Angeles. Left unaltered, these animals reproduce far beyond the capacity of our local shelters and overwhelm animal rescue groups and the community at an extraordinary cost.

Please help us get the word out that February 28th is LA's Spay Day and if you own a pet in the City of Los Angeles over the age of four months it is time to have your pet neutered!

Behind the Scenes of the Furry Valentine Adoptathon

Working at LA Animal Services is often compared to working in a MASH unit; with so many critical activities occurring all at the same time. This past weekend is a classic example of just how true that comparison is. While employees and volunteers were busily adopting an amazing 343 pets into loving homes during our Be My Furry Valentine Adoptathon on February 14th and 15th (a 100% increase over the same weekend in 2008) there were, as there always are, many other amazing stories playing out.

For example, consider this remarkable story. It all began on Monday, January 26th, when LA Animal Services rescued a little 2 year old, female Whippet/Chihuahua mix from the streets of San Pedro. Her name is Mya and she was found with a severely injured right rear leg, probably resulting from being hit by a car. An extensive section of her skin was completely torn off the underlying tissue, severing the blood supply and exposing her tendons. (This is called degloving by analogy to the process of removing a glove.) She was rushed to our Harbor Animal Care Center where she was stabilized.

On Wednesday, January 28th, our medical team determined Mya’s leg was so seriously injured that amputation was the only viable choice available. Mya was transferred to our West LA Animal Care Center where she underwent this surgery. She responded well and adapted quickly to her new condition learning to walk expertly on 3 legs.

On Thursday, February 12th, Mya was spayed at the West LA Center. During surgery she developed severe respiratory distress and almost succumbed. Our medical team acted quickly. Chest x-rays were taken and a severe diaphragmatic hernia was discovered. This means that when Mya experienced the original trauma (probably hit by car) her diaphragm was ruptured and her abdominal organs were crammed into her chest cavity leaving little room for chest expansion. She bravely masked this condition until she was under anesthesia and her breathing became very labored.

On Saturday, February 14th, (St. Valentine’s Day) our extraordinary medical team (behind the scenes and during one of our most successful Adoptathons ever) successfully repaired Mya’s diaphragmatic hernia during a difficult 2 hour surgical procedure. Mya is breathing much better now and she is expected to make a full recovery. Mya should be available for adoption on Thursday, February 19th at our West LA Animal Care Center. Mya is a very sweet and gentle little dog and after all this trauma she deserves a wonderful home.

The surgeries LA Animal Services performed on Mya probably would have cost over $5,000 at a private veterinary hospital. LA Animal Services was able to perform all Mya’s surgeries for a fraction of that cost using our own resources. If you would like to help ensure all the injured, abused, and neglected animals rescued by LA Animal Services receive the loving care they need, like Mya did, please consider making a life saving donation to our STAR (Special Treatment And Recovery) program.

If you are interested in adopting Mya, she may be available at our West LA Animal Care Center as soon as this Thursday, February 19th at 8 a.m.

LA Animal Services responds to LA Times article "Tracking the City Coyote"

The following message is from Officer Greg Randall, LA Animal Services' Wildlife Specialist

In the days following the LA Times article "Tracking the City Coyote" (January 27), LA Animal Services has received a flurry of calls from upset Angelenos concerned that the City of Los Angeles contracted a wildlife trapper to track down and kill urban coyotes. This belief no doubt stemmed from a photo depicting a coyote in Griffith Park over the statement, "Trapper Jimmie Rizzo is hired to help keep kids and pets safe from the predator, but more say the method is cruel."

The City of Los Angeles did not hire Mr. Rizzo or Animal Pest Management. Despite the unfortunately misleading photo and caption, the article does make clear that the trapping is taking place at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA, outside the jurisdiction of the City of Los Angeles.

LA Animal Services’ policy is to take an educational approach to wildlife encounters. We encourage residents to employ deterrents, property alterations and the reduction of wildlife temptations like food, water and shelter, rather than use a pest control company or other methods of trapping, which ultimately is an ineffective way of dealing with the issue. The vilification and persecution of coyotes over the years has led to many myths about coyotes. If you are interested in learning more about how to co-exist with coyotes and other wildlife, please visit: http://www.laanimalservices.com/aboutani_wildlife.htm.

Happy New Century - LA Animal Services celebrates 100 years of service

LA Animal Services celebrates its centennial this year; 2009 marks one hundred years of providing services to the pets and people of Los Angeles. Los Angeles established a characteristic progressive direction in 1909 by creating its original Animal Services Department, charged with protecting the public from rabid dogs, as a Board of Humane Animal Commissioners. The Department today continues to maintain the safety and security of the City’s four million residents by controlling animals and eliminating animal-related safety and health hazards.

However, from its modest beginnings in 1909 LA Animal Services has also been at the forefront of advancing the most progressive and innovative animal welfare programs in the nation. These programs have been designed to ultimately end the use of euthanasia as a methodology to control pet overpopulation. In large measure they have proven very effective.

A Centennial seems an appropriate time to look back and review the path that got us to where we are today.

At its inception in the first decade of the 20th Century, LA Animal Services served an emerging urban community where dogs and cats were owned by families who were used to having pets because of what they contributed to a more rural lifestyle. Dogs, for the most part, were considered working animals earning their keep on a local farm or ranch, or were used for hunting to help put dinner on the table. Cats, and some small dogs, were used as mousers to help keep small rodents and rats out of home, barn, yard and business. Consequently, both cats and dogs were permitted to run free.

By the third decade of the 20th Century, free roaming dogs resulted in a noticeable dog overpopulation problem with an accompanying increase in canine rabies.

The seriousness of rabies in the early 20th Century was brilliantly depicted in the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” In the novel, Atticus Finch, a Southern small town lawyer, is called upon by his community to serve as an Animal Control Officer. He is conscripted to shoot a rabid dog in the middle of a quite neighborhood street as residents watched trembling behind locked doors and windows. The account suggests Atticus had been called upon to dispatch rabid dogs before, earning him the deferential moniker “one shot Atticus”.

Although Los Angeles was forceful about licensing and establishing a leash law, this all too common scenario occurring across America through the late 1950s motivated state legislators to establish rabies and animal control programs to ensure dogs were vaccinated against rabies and licensed. Cats were not included because they were, and are, not a significant rabies vector. Over time LA Animal Services’ dog vaccination and licensing program effectively reduced the incidence of rabies in dogs to the level that naturally occurs in cats, that is, rabies today is equally as rare in dogs as it has always been in cats.

As recently as the early 1960s, dogs running free and biting people presented the very real threat of rabies, with dozens of cases seen every year, many resulting in death. Aggressive enforcement of leash laws and licensing requirements were keys to controlling this public health crisis resulting in the virtual eradication of rabies in our city.

So successful was this program that it is easy now to forget the terror the word “rabies” once evoked in the hearts of Angelenos. The fact that scenes like the one depicted in “To Kill a Mockingbird” are a thing of the past is a tribute to animal control professionals who today maintain and enforce successful rabies control programs without firing a shot.

Effectively gaining control of the dreaded disease rabies led to a striking societal change in the human/animal relationship. In the late 1950s and early 1960s many Angelenos started to reject the conventional wisdom that pets were meant to be kept outdoors and a significant number of dogs and cats found their way out of the backyard into our hearts, our homes, and for many of us, into our beds. Pets were no longer considered staff; they had become part of the family.

By the early 1970s LA was experiencing a serious pet over population crisis and LA Animal Services was killing over 110,000 dogs and cats annually. Los Angeles was the first major city in the United States to tackle this problem head on. In 1971, LA Animal Services opened the first municipal spay/neuter clinic in the United States. Thanks to LA Animal Services progressive Big Fix-style spay/neuter programs over the past 37 years nearly 500,000 surgeries were either fully funded or partially subsidized. These extraordinary efforts resulted in LA’s pet euthanasia rate plummeting an astonishing 86% during the same time that LA’s human population increased 42%.

In 2007, 15,009 animals were euthanized. Sadly, in 2008 the euthanasia rate increased to the 2006 level due to an unprecedented housing foreclosure crisis leading to the number of animals taken in by LA Animal Services spiking to the 2002 level. Despite this regrettable setback, it is important to remember that the past three years were the lowest euthanasia rates in LA history and LA Animal Services is committed to continuing this 37-year trend moving forward into the future. The current economic downturn also led to the development of such programs as “A House is not a Home without a Pet” and “Operation Safety Net” to respond to aspects of this crisis.

In addition to progressive programs, Los Angeles is also the first major city in the United States to officially, and financially, respond to community expectations for a humane animal control program. A $160 million commitment to build state of the art animal care community centers serves as a daily reminder of this promise.

The new Centers increased shelter space by more than two hundred and fifty percent and better help accommodate the on average 150 lost, sick, injured, neglected, abused, lost or unwanted animals entrusted to us each day.

The new Centers, with their wide aisles, solar and radiant heating, cooling misters, veterinary and spay/neuter clinics, park benches for visitors, fountains and lush landscaping are a world away from the typical “dog pound,” where animals become so agitated or depressed that they may seem ill-tempered and, thus, “unadoptable” by old school animal control reckoning.

By transforming our animal shelters into places of hope and life, instead of despair and doom, we experienced over a 40% increase in our adoption rates over the past two years - despite the current economic downturn. LA Animal Services is the largest-volume pet adoption program in the world with over 25,000 live placements in 2008.

To be sure, LA Animal Services cannot achieve these remarkable results alone. Los Angeles is fortunate to have so many wonderful adoptive families, donors, animal welfare and rescue organizations partnering with us in accomplishing our shared mission and vision to make Los Angeles the first major metropolitan community in the United States to sustain the abolition of euthanasia as a methodology to control pet overpopulation.

LA Animal Services’ second century will see a continued emphasis on humane, non-lethal animal care programs as effective as our rabies control program has been. By working together we will soon see the day when killing a healthy, adoptable animal in our shelters is as rare as shooting a rabid dog on a street in downtown Los Angeles.

Grim Puppy-Mill Shipment Makes L.A. Take Notice

By National Public Radio's (NPR) National Desk reporter Carrie Kahn who covers news from Los Angeles. Kahn's reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning news programs including All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and Latino USA.

Morning Edition, December 30, 2008 · Purebred dogs go for top dollar in pet stores around the country, but buyers of cute, cuddly puppies may not know that some come from unregulated breeding mills overseas. So-called puppy-mill dogs are showing up sick and dehydrated at major airports around the country.

In Los Angeles, one recent shipment of dead and ailing puppies from South Korea got the city's attention. Twenty of the dogs in the shipment seized at Los Angeles International Airport either had died or had to be euthanized after the trip. The 10 survivors were turned over to the city's shelter.

Five months later, those survivors — five miniature Maltese and five tiny Yorkshire terriers — were ready for adoption. Hundreds of animal lovers, many wrapped in blankets to keep warm, lined up on a chilly morning in front of L.A.'s East Valley Animal Shelter for a chance to bid on the dogs.

Ed Boks, the general manager of L.A. Animal Services, is required by City law to hold an auction when more than one person wants an animal.

"I want to begin with a few facts that you won't commonly hear from your local pet store concerning puppies just like these that can often times go for $3,500 or more," he told the crowd.

Boks said the 10 minipurebreds arrived with forged health certificates. The documents put their ages at 5 months, but they were actually only 5 weeks old.

"These puppies are the product of a cruel, factory-style dog breeding operation that produces animals with chronic health problems, temperament issues and hereditary defects, so our message to all of you this morning is buyer beware," he warned.

Overseas Puppy Mills Proliferate

Puppy mills began proliferating overseas about five years ago, at about the same time that U.S. authorities started cracking down on unscrupulous domestic breeders.

Tom Sharp of the American Kennel Club says that's when he started seeing bulldogs arriving from Russia and Yorkies from South Korea. With the help of the Internet, Sharp says, dishonest pet stores and breeders could easily get puppies overseas.

"That way, they don't have to be inspected by the different organizations and the governments here in the U.S., and avoid all the requirements," he says.

Right now, the only federal requirement an importer has to follow is to provide proof of a current rabies vaccine — documentation that is easily forged.

Federal regulators say that rule was written at a time when the only dogs coming into the United States were companion pets. Nina Marano of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Congress just passed a law banning the importation of dogs under 6 months old for resale.

But Marano says it will take at least two years for the ban to be enforced.

"We can try to regulate our way out of it, but another part is, I think, the issue about demand — that there needs to be a lot more public education about the demand that is being created for these puppies," she says.

A Winning Bid

The demand was high for Los Angeles' puppy-mill survivors.

One winning bidder was Debbie Garringer. "I was really lucky, and I'm happy, so happy, and I will take care of it so much and it will have a beautiful home," she said.

All 10 of the purebred puppy-mill survivors got new homes, as did 52 other pets from the shelter. In all, Animal Services raised more than $20,000 and got its message out: Adopt, don't shop.

To listen to this NPR report, click here.

A Tribute to Dogs

George Graham Vest (1830-1904) served as a United States Senator from Missouri from 1879 to 1903, and became one of the leading orators and debaters of his time. This delightful speech is from an earlier period in his life when he practiced law in a small Missouri town. It was given in court in 1855 while representing a man who sued another for the killing of his dog.

During the trial, Vest ignored the testimony, but when his turn came to present a summation to the jury, he made the following speech and won the case.

* * * * *

Gentlemen of the Jury:

The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us, may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.

The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer. He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.

If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.

Operation Safety Net Announced

I was joined today by LA City Council Member Herb Wesson to announce the implementation of a wonderful new life saving program called, "Safety Net."

2008 will be remembered as a very difficult year for many Angelenos, especially those who felt coerced by the economic downturn to surrender their beloved pet to a shelter. Over the course of the past year, LA Animal Services has seen a 20% increase in animals coming into our Animal Care Centers.

Dog owners relinquish their pets for many reasons, but we were finding that many of those reasons did not seem reason enough to give up on a beloved member of the family.

So two weeks ago we started asking the question, “What would it take to keep your dog from entering a shelter?” That one question saved seven dogs from entering the South LA shelter over the past two weeks. While that may not seem like a lot, it represented the birth of "Operation Safety Net".

Safety Net is a public/private collaboration involving LA Animal Services, Downtown Dog Rescue, Karma Rescue, and Paw'd Squad; three extraordinary organizations with tremendous experience working with large breed dogs, the very types of dogs more frequently relinquished and euthanized at our shelters. LA Animal Services is thrilled to be working with them on this life saving program.

Safety Net is officially starting today in our South LA Animal Care Center. A sign is prominently displayed in our Center lobby informing dog owners how they can keep their pet despite the fact that they may feel as though they have run out of options.

Dog owners sometimes feel forced to surrender their dog because they can’t afford to feed, vaccinate, spay/neuter, treat a minor medical issue, get basic obedience training, or even pay for a $15 dog license. With Safety Net, LA Animal Services staff and volunteers encourage the dog owner to take his beloved pet home and call the Downtown Dog Rescue phone number on the postcard given to them. Safety Net is a wonderful program that enables a community to work together to solve one of the most basic and traumatic problems a family might face.

When the dog owner calls the Downtown Dog Rescue Hotline Phone Number a volunteer will return the call within 48 hours to help address the situation that brought the dog owner to the shelter. Often, ‘the problem’ is a combination of issues. Many dogs need to be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, licensed, or trained. Sometimes it's just not having enough dog food to get through a difficult time. But surely, none of these reasons are good enough to give up a family member. Operation Safety Net is designed to help keep pets and families together.

Safety Net is designed to help dog owners who really want to keep their dog if only they had the resources to do so. The program is modeled after Downtown Dog Rescue’s successful 13 year-old Skid Row program to help homeless dog owners.

For more information on how to keep your pet visit Safety Net.

LA Animal Services Makes Overseas Puppy Mill Survivors Available for Adoption But Cautions "Buyer Beware"

This morning LA Animal Services hosted a well attended Press Conference at our East Valley Animal Care Center where we discussed a very troubling reality, the horrors of the “puppy mill” industry in both the United States and abroad.

The term “puppy mill” is perhaps an unfortunate expression. Many who do not understand this cruel industry may think a “puppy mill” refers to a wonderful place to buy a puppy. In fact, puppy mills are cruel, factory-style dog-breeding operations that produce puppies with chronic health problems, temperament issues, and hereditary defects.

These puppies come from female dogs who are bred over and over again until they sometimes die from sheer exhaustion. These animals are forced to live in crowded, filthy cages with little or no human contact. Their sick and under-aged offspring are shipped around the world to pet stores who, for profit, are compelled to satisfy the public’s seemingly insatiable demand for purebred puppies.

It is important for the public to know, that with rare exceptions, when you buy a puppy from a pet store there is a strong likelihood that you are supporting the puppy mill industry just as surely as you are supporting an illegal drug cartel when you purchase drugs from a pusher on the street.

That is why we say “Buyer Beware” and encourage the public to adopt a pet from a shelter, and save a life, rather than buy a pet from a pet store, off the internet, or from a newspaper ad which leads to the incalculable suffering of untold thousands of animals.

I was joined by Los Angeles City Councilmember Tony Cardenas' Chief of staff Jose Cornejo, LA County Public Health Senior Veterinarian, Dr. Karen Ehnert, film and stage actor and Chief Advisor to Congressman Dennis Kucinich's Animal Welfare Program, Mariana Tosca, and Senior Director of the Hollywood Office of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Beverly Kaskey. Together we introduced ten fortunate survivors of one South Korean Puppy Mill and discussed their significance to our local pet overpopulation problems, international trade, public health, and homeland security.

In June of this year, three shipments of puppy mill dogs were flown into LAX from the Far East on Seoul, Korea-based Asiana Airlines. They were intercepted and confiscated by LA Animal Services and LA County Public Health officials. Ten dogs survived: five underage Yorkies and five eight week-old Maltese puppies; accompanying health certificates falsely claimed the puppies were four months old and ignored serious health issues. These 8 week old animals arrived at LAX ill and seriously dehydrated, having just survived over 14 hours of transport in tiny carriers with no food or water.

These puppies represent an all too typical example of how the demand for purebred puppies has created a situation ripe for abuse.

The interception and rescue of these puppies prompted the formation of a multi-agency animal cargo task force to conduct a three-week survey of incoming animals at LAX. The goal of the survey was to determine the volume, types and condition of animals entering the country via international air carriers.

The Task Force, led by LA Animal Services, LA County Public Health, and the Southeast Area Animal Control Authority, also included the Los Angeles World Airports, U.S. Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, U.S. Transportation Security Administration, and several local animal control agencies including the Humane Society of San Bernardino Valley, Inland Valley Humane Society, Long Beach Animal Control, Santa Ana Animal Control, Orange County Animal Care Services, Pasadena Humane Society, Riverside Animal Services, and SPCA-LA.

The findings of the Task Force demonstrated the fact that puppy mills are not a U.S. problem alone. Overseas commercial mass dog-breeding facilities - that put profit above the welfare of dogs - are attempting to flood the U.S. market.

That is of particular concern to the City of Los Angeles, and all U.S. communities, because it undermines our efforts to increase shelter adoptions, fight pet overpopulation, and ultimately end euthanasia as a pet overpopulation methodology. Also of great concern is the fact that imported animals can carry disease (including rabies) or be used in outlandish smuggling schemes representing both public health and homeland security threats.

The magnitude and impact of this industry highlights the need for domestic law enforcement officials to focus more collaborative attention on both the domestic and the international “puppy mill” industry. I want to thank all the members of the Task Force in helping us uncover this cruel attempt to flood the U.S. market with puppy mill puppies.

However, in these dire fiscal times, enforcement alone cannot be the only answer, the best response to this insidious industry is “Don’t Shop, Adopt!” There are hundreds of thousands of puppy mills around the world (over 720,000 in South Korea alone) that produce untold millions of puppies annually, while at the same time more than 4 million pets die in U.S. shelters each year. The puppy mill industry exists because of public demand. Only the public can end it. I encourage all Americans to follow President-Elect Obama’s example and Don’t Shop, Adopt a Shelter pet and save a life.

NOTE: The ten puppies rescued in June will be available for adoption on December 20th, at our East Valley Center. With interest in them running high, LA’s Municipal Code Article 3, Section 53.11 requires that each one be made available through an auction if more than one party wants to adopt the animal.

While these puppies are more fortunate than many puppy mill survivors, having been in the loving care of LA Animal Services for five months, the Department is still concerned that these survivors could develop other types of physical or behavioral issues as a result of improper breeding and poor living conditions during their formative first weeks of life. LA Animal Services is utilizing the City ordinance required adoption-auction process to help ensure that the new owner/guardians of these puppies will have sufficient financial means to afford the medical costs they are likely to incur over the lifetime of these animals. These are Puppy Mill puppies; Buyer Beware. Click here for more information on the Puppy Mill Survivor Auction.

Don't Shop: Opt to Adopt!

As the Holidays approach many consider purchasing a puppy from a pet store. The intent is to place a cute bundle of joy under the tree to be found on Christmas morning to the delight of a child. This is understandable; a puppy does bring a tremendous sense of warmth and love into a home any time of the year, but especially, it seems, during the Holiday Season.

But Buyer Beware!

If you want a dog in your life, please don't buy a puppy mill puppy. Unfortunately, avoiding them requires tremendous discipline and awareness. Pet store clerks and other sellers never willingly admit their dogs come from puppy mills, despite laws that require retailers to clearly and accurately identify the source of the animals they have for sale so that customers can be aware that their purchase supports a horrific and cruel industry.

An edition of “Oprah” earlier this year focused national attention on the “puppy mill.” A puppy mill is a dog-breeding operation intended to provide a non-stop supply of often purebred puppies to a public that seems to have an insatiable appetite for them, an appetite that has created a situation ripe for abuse.

Puppy mills force dogs to produce litter after litter just for profit. These dogs and their puppies are often plagued with suffering, resulting from disease, malnutrition, and loneliness. Oprah Winfrey’s intrepid investigative reporter found bitches who, when rescued from these unconscionable conditions, could barely walk after living a life of immobilized confinement. Most people don't know that when they buy a puppy from a pet shop, a newspaper ad or from the internet, they are often supporting a cruel and inhumane industry.

We owe these dogs the favor of educating ourselves and others about the reality of puppy mills. No matter what kind of dog we desire, we can’t let ourselves be duped. We must resist buying a puppy from a pet store, newspaper ad or website, where dogs from puppy mills are typically sold. Still, the temptations are difficult ones.

It’s easy to gaze into the sad eyes of the puppy in the pet store window and want to "rescue" the lonely pooch...

Or you read an ad in the newspaper, and the couple seems so trustworthy, with their decades of experience breeding dogs...

You find a website with photos of green hills and beautiful puppies that insist the "little darlings" and "bundles of joy" were born in paradise and will only be sold to "loving families"...

But watch out! A cruel, mass dog-breeding facility could hide behind each of these scenarios. Even if you missed Oprah’s exposé, most likely you've heard about these puppy factories. Puppy mills frequently house dogs in shockingly poor conditions, particularly for the "breeding stock" animals who are caged and continually bred for years, without human companionship, and then killed, abandoned or sold to another "miller" after their fertility wanes.

These adult dogs are bred repeatedly to produce litter after litter, without the prospect of ever becoming part of a family themselves. In addition to an abused mother (and we’ve occasionally seen heartbreaking examples of abandoned overbred females come into the City shelters), the result is hundreds of thousands of puppies churned out each year for sale at pet stores, over the internet, and through newspaper ads. This practice will end only when people stop buying these puppy mill puppies.

How do you separate fact from fiction?

1. Pet stores cater to impulsive buyers and consumers seeking convenient transactions. Unlike responsible rescuers and breeders, these stores don't interview prospective buyers to ensure responsible, lifelong homes for the pets they sell, and the stores may be staffed by employees with limited knowledge about pets and pet care.

2. Puppy mill puppies often have medical problems. These problems can lead to veterinary bills in the thousands of dollars. But pet retailers count on the bond between families and their new puppies being so strong that the puppies won't be returned (though the law requires them to accept returns). And guarantees are often so difficult to comply with that they are virtually useless. In addition, poor breeding and socialization practices at many puppy mills can lead to behavioral problems throughout the puppies' lives. In the event a puppy purchased from a store does experience medical problems, the buyer should file a Pet Seller Complaint Form.

3. A "USDA-inspected" breeder does not mean a "good" breeder. Be wary of claims by pet store staff that they sell animals only from breeders who are "USDA-inspected." The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) enforces the federal law called the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which regulates commercial breeding operations. But the act doesn't require all commercial breeders to be licensed, and the USDA establishes only minimum-care standards in enforcing this law and its inspection team is chronically understaffed. Breeders are required to provide food, water, and shelter, but not love, socialization, or freedom from confining cages. Sadly, many USDA-licensed and inspected puppy mills operate under squalid conditions with known violations of the AWA. But federal law constrains state and local authorities from blocking the shipping and sale of these animals across state lines, and current efforts to regulate their importation from overseas leave something to be desired, placing that much more of a burden on the customer to make the right choices.

4. Many disreputable breeders sell their dogs directly to the public over the Internet and through newspaper ads. They often sell several breeds of dogs, but may advertise each breed in a separate place and not in one large advertisement or website. These breeders are not required to be inspected by any federal agency and, in many states, are not inspected at all.

5. Reputable breeders care where their puppies go and interview prospective adopters. They don't sell through pet stores or to families they haven't thoroughly checked out.

6. Purebred "papers" do not guarantee the quality of the breeder or the dog. Even the American Kennel Club (AKC) readily admits that it "cannot guarantee the quality or health of dogs in its registry."

I can’t say this enough: If you’re looking for an animal to join your family, you should not buy from a pet store, and you should be very wary of websites and newspaper ads. Above all, don't ever buy a dog if you can't physically visit every area of the home or breeding facility where the seller keeps the dog.

Puppy mills will continue to operate until people stop buying their dogs. Putting them out of business should be a goal of every dog lover (and we should be so fortunate as to be faced with the dilemma of what to do with the remaining mothers and puppies if and when we succeed). We urge you to visit your local shelter or to do business with a respectable rescue individual or organization. You are likely to find a wide selection of healthy, well-socialized puppies and adult dogs—including purebreds—just waiting for that special home—yours.

For more information on the insidious puppy mill industry click here.