Workshops to explore “no-kill” policy at L.A. animal shelters
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The Los Angeles Department of Animal Services on Wednesday evening is holding the first of 11 scheduled workshops to look at how the city shelters can achieve a ‘no kill’ policy. All meetings are open to the public. (Locations and times are below.)
Every municipal animal shelter wants to arrive at a ‘no-kill’ policy. Essentially, that means that no healthy animals -- like the young pooches pictured above in the city’s South L.A. shelter in January -- will be euthanized for lack of space. Being able to do that is a challenge.
The Humane L.A. Workshops will look at what is being done and what could be done better. ‘We want to get input from stakeholders in our community,’ says Animal Services general manager Ed Boks, who will attend the Wednesday workshop.
The first meeting is the High Volume/Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Workshop, focusing on that topic and its effect on the goal of no-kill. It is scheduled to be hosted by Councilman Bernard Parks. Also expected, in addition to Boks, are Teri Austin of the Amanda Foundation and Judie Mancuso, the director of California Healthy Pets, the campaign to get the California spay/neuter bill, A.B. 1634, passed.
The location is the Constituent Service Center, 8475 S. Vermont Ave. (near Manchester), Los Angeles. Time: 6:30 p.m.
‘At each one, we want to identify the gap between where we are now and where we want to be -- and then develop a plan for getting us from here to there,’ says Boks. All voices -- including those of the critics of L.A.’s shelter system -- are welcome, he says.
-- Carla Hall
