Brenda Barnette’s Plan for Saving Animals:
On October 21, 2010, Los Angeles Animal Services General Manager Brenda Barnette issued a NEWS RELEASE which reads:
"EXPANDED FOSTER PROGRAM for LOS ANGELES SHELTER PETS
How You Can Help From Home
"Immediate Foster Homes Needed! Our Animal Care Centers are filled to over flowing. You can become a volunteer hero by opening a spare room, garage or basement to an adult dog or cat that will benefit from home care and a break from the shelter! We will assign you a foster animal who matches your lifestyle and animal experience. Time commitment can range from one to eight weeks or occasionally longer. All you need is a room (even a bathroom) and some spare time. We will provide fosters with basic training, all supplies, any necessary medications, and access to someone to answer your questions.
"This is open to anyone who has a big heart and some extra room in your home!"
At the “No More Homeless Pets Conference” on October 16, 2010, Ms. Barnette told Francis Batista of Best Friends Animal Society that when she worked at Seattle Humane Society (which takes in only 6,000 to 7,000 animals a year), she had over 4,000 pets in foster homes.
She also announced that the Los Angeles Animal Services Commission just approved increasing dog and cat limits to five each (TEN animals) per property and this will enable more “fostering,” especially of adult animals.
She discussed her plan for Los Angeles, which is to foster out 2,000 animals from each of the six City shelters—that would total 12,000 animals—BUT SHE DID NOT SAY THEY WOULD BE FOSTERED IN GARAGES, BATHROOMS OR BASEMENTS?
Los Angeles residents and taxpayers care very much about animals: .
· In 2000, Los Angeles residents voted for $154 million in bonds to build/renovate city animal shelters, most of which are now completed.
· Los Angeles maintains a generous low-cost and free spay/neuter program.
· Los Angeles Animal Services’ General Manager Brenda Barnette is paid $170,000/year to provide humane care of the city’s homeless pets.
DO WE WANT HOMELESS AND HELPLESS ANIMALS THAT ARE ENTRUSTED TO THE CARE OF CITY FACILITIES TO BE “FOSTERED” IN BASEMENTS AND GARAGES?
Is this really a solution, since City shelters are replenished with unwanted/stray animals every year—the greatest percentage being Pit Bulls and feral cats?
Does Animal Services have the financial and staffing resources to monitor and assure thousands of “fostered” animals are receiving proper care and attention?
Does just having a big heart and extra room in your home—or maybe a basement or garage—qualify you to “foster” animals, many of which have special physical and emotional needs and possibly behavioral challenges?
Since “fostered” animals are still the property of the City, can we risk the liability for the lives and safety of pets and families who may “foster” adult animals of unknown background—especially Pit Bulls or other aggressive-breed dogs?
http://blogs.bestfriends.org/index.php/2010/10/16/abigail-smith-and-brenda-barnette-at-the-no-more-homeless-pets-conference/
In a recent interview with Adrienne Alpert on KABC, Ms. Barnette advocates for pit bulls, fostering animals and increasing pet limits.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=7689953
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=7689954
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=7689955
What the heck is wrong with basements? My basement is a finished apartment that we currently aren't renting. It's completely finished with windows, a separate bathroom, and just about everything you'd expect in a small apartment.
By way of contrast, our local shelter is a windowless building with dogs kept in darkness and isolation for more than 16 hours a day (a part-timer feeds and cleans the runs twice a day. There are no outside runs.)
Are our community foster homes better than the shelter? Damn straight they are.
I'm not in LA, but I can't imagine that their shelter is such a luxurious palace that almost any home situation would not be superior.
I don't know who the author of this post and these negative nelly comments are, but you guys really seem to prefer dead animals than those living in less than absolutely perfect homes. There's a big range of possibilities between death and a wonderfully perfect home, and there's no shame in placing a dog in a decent foster home. It's almost always better for the dog than placement in a shelter.
The "all about me" and "what a nice place I have" people are always the arrogant ones that sit back and criticize. So how many animals are you fostering in your nice basement? Secondly, Barnette's proposal is to just hand out the animals to anybody. Not everybody has a mansion in their basement. How many other basements and garages have YOU been in lately?
so she may not be off to a good start. Hear Mark Salazar is coming from up here in Longview TX where we have an 80% kill rate and the ADL and the guy who knows all about ac but never went in a shelter ain't even squeakin. Did you hear that, folks--only 20 % of the animals get out alive. Better wipe off the ADL microscope. But he wants to go back to CA and Barnette will have somebody who knows less than she does so it's a match. Well, at least he spells better than she does. It's all good. Hey, y'all, you know why I don't miss L.A.
Surround yourself with dumba**es. Barnette is a control freak and she wants those around her to bow down. She overlooked veterans with 20+ years experience in LA for this loser. That's always the story with these "No Kill" cult followers. This guy, Salazar, was an ACO for only a year and a half, not even enough to wet his feet good. His resume is so weak but that makes him a perfect candidate for the likes of Barnette. Don't forget she had a vet in Seattle working for her that was caught prescribing medication for himself in the name of his dead dog. Public record, folks.
Send all those pit bulls to Seattle. You didn't mind cherry picking the cute little fluffy dogs before so now is time for you to send the dogs that are truly going to be euthanized. Plus send them to the fosters you already had there, that's 4000 dogs gone leaving only 10,000 left to go. Simple solution wouldn't you say?
In your words, Phyllis, "especially Pit Bulls or other aggressive-breed dogs?" Another ignorant statement you have made about pit bulls proving that you have never ever truly known one in your life. What have animals ever done to you that you spend what seems like every waking moment of your existence fighting animals and trying to keep them from EVER catching a break??!! You are at every meeting spewing your ignorance and you write these articles. For what? What do you gain from it? The karma you will reap will be of biblical proportions, I assure you. Of course having extra room in your house is better than an animal being killed, isn't it? Fosters do have to be trained. The animals and the animal lovers of Los Angeles wish you would move away and quit making things harder for the innocents that have no voice!!!
I supposed she didn't give a crap when she successfully campaigned to stop leaving dogs in cars to die from the heat. She was the one responsible for getting the DMV to put this in their info to drivers. What did you do to stop dogs from dying in hot cars? Did you even bother to support her on this issue?
You have a problem with being humane to animals, Buddha? Obviously you are one of "those", those meaning a hoarder. Those meaning someone who doesn't have a clue about how we should treat animals. This writer makes sense, whereas you make none. What makes you think for a second that pit bulls aren't aggressive, they are killing people at the rate of one every 22 days and the maulings are daily, life altering injuries. Plus beloved pets are mauled and killed daily while people like you refer to these maulings and killings as "accidents". Pits were bred for one thing and one thing only, to kill, yet you defend them???? You make one sensible statement, fosters do have to be trained. Not in Barnette's world, they don't. If she had a program for training, she would have announced that first. You better hope that Daugherty stays in LA, she is the only one that makes sense. Now go kiss your pit and be the next headliner.
I am not a hoarder. If not for the expense of medical care, I would have more. I have as many as I can afford and have time for. I am a Registered Vet Tech, shelter volunteer, and have been involved in rescue in Los Angeles for many years. I know that some pit bulls can have dog aggression, but I have 3 that love every creature (they help me foster kitties and they love my own kitties), even wild bunnies in our yard (and I have known more dog-friendly pits than non-dog-friendly. The key is socialization, preferably early, but I feel it's usually never too late. Also responsible guardians are a must with any dog!). But aggression towards humans is very rare for a pit bull. I have known countless Pit Bulls and I (and so many experts) find them to be among the most docile & eager-to-please breeds there are. They were bred to be very docile towards humans, so that a human could come into the ring and not worry about getting hurt. These dogs must be abused, neglected, or trained to be aggressive towards humans, although I've met many abused pit bulls that don't hold it against anyone. The media has demonized this breed, and people eat these stories up, so the media goes looking for these stories, which is why we hear about every single incident when they are in fact, very rare. There was actually a story a few months ago about a girl getting 'scratched' by a pit bull. Give me a break! It was probably an accident. Most of the poor dogs serving a life sentence at the end of a chain in a lonely backyard are Pit Bulls. This creates frustration, and makes them territorial of their small space because it's all they have. Dogs are pack animals and won't be right if they are kept away from the family.
These poor dogs have been victims much more than they have victimized anyone. If you do your homework, you will learn that the Pit Bull used to be "America's Dog". They were military dogs in WWI and WWII. Petey from Little Rascals was a pit bull, and Helen Keller had a pit bull, for just a few facts. Education is needed here. Ignorance creates fear, and adds to the hype. Please, get to know a Pit Bull, because to truly know a Pit Bull is to love all Pit Bulls. Our shelters are full of them and pit mixes, so you always know where you can meet some, though the atmosphere is not favorable to most animals. They are awesome family dogs that are great with kids. Just ask a family that lives with one, or two. They have been called "Nanny Dogs" for many years.
And though a basement or garage can sound grim, please go to the shelter and tell me how grim that is, especially since close to most will not be leaving there alive. They will die on a cold cement floor or table and be thrown onto a pile of their former cellmates in the freezer just because no one loved them enough to take them home, no matter how much they loved their life. I see the love of life in their eyes and we take that from them. Of course, Brenda Barnette does NOT mean throw them in a garage and forget about them, and of course, an extra bedroom would be preferable (though there are many really nice garages out there), but these animals will take what they can get as long as they are living and being taken care of/paid attention to. There IS a training program you must go through to be a qualified foster. These foster animals must be properly taken care of.
The taking of these precious lives is what we need to get angry about, not nitpicking words when the head of LAAS is trying to come up with solutions for these animals that deserve to live more than some people.
If you think Phyllis Daughtery cares about animals, then you don't know Phyllis Daughtery. She is the antithesis and the arch enemy of animals and those that love them.
Just for you, a new posting in case you want to use some more propaganda.
http://thetruthaboutpitbulls.blogspot.com/2010/10/americas-dog-tige.html
Why is it that the people most ignorant about pit bulls are the owners of pit bulls?