L.A. animal shelter workers won't be fired

This just in: The 28 animal care technicians (ACTs) who were scheduled to lose their jobs in the fall at Los Angeles municipal shelters will not be fired.

The technicians, who care for shelter animals like Aaron, the 2-year-old pit bull pictured above at the North Central shelter, were scheduled to be cut as part of citywide budget cuts.  But shelter officials, volunteers, local animal rescuers and the workers themselves pleaded with City Council members at a meeting this month to find a way to keep them on for the sake of the animals.

"We have gotten a commitment from the mayor's office that we're not going to have to lay anyone off," said Ed Boks, general manager of L.A. Animal Services. He says he got the word at a meeting in City Hall Monday morning. "Of course we are relieved.... The details need to be worked out."

Those details would be where the money comes from.  At least some of it may come from revenue yet to be collected from city residents with extra -- or extra large -- city trash bins. Councilman Richard Alarcon discovered that the city was not collecting fees it was owed. It remains to be seen how much the city will really reap when they bill people. We'll keep you posted.

And if you want to check out Aaron, above, his shelter ID number is A0941121. The shelter folks say he walks well on a leash and loves to play fetch. They also report he's OK with large dogs but dislikes cats and little dogs.

--Carla Hall

Photo: L.A. Animal Services

Comments

[Mary]

Thanks for posting this update. Glad they found the money for the much needed ACTs. Thanks also for posting an animal to be adopted with adoption info. The animals need all the help they can get.

[Brien Comerford]

Bravo ! These animal shelter workers are veritable saints doing all they can to comfort God's creatures.

[Rochelle]

That is good news. I hate to imagine what the conditions would have been like for the poor animals if they lost these amazing people to care for them. I hope that this highlights the plight of these shelter animals to anyone who is able to offer a home for one or two each.

[Pam Holt]

This is a huge relief, as there is no other position on the payroll in the department that works as closely with the animals as the ACTs do. The animals need more of them, so if the city laid them off, I would have to wonder where the heck the city's priorities are at. I am frustrated that the department is without a volunteer coordinator, and I certainly hope someone realizes soon that the volunteers are the heart and soul of the shelter, and the only ones putting in long, heartbreaking hours purely for no other reason but their love for animals and their need to help them. There are people wanting to volunteer with the department, but no one to coordinate them except for other volunteers, it seems.

Aaron is awesome and unfortunately as of the evening of Aug 27th, he is still at the shelter, so I hope his soulmate breaks him out of there soon. I wonder who's to say that he "dislikes" cats & small dogs, when in reality, he is probably just not used to them. Countless pit bulls have cats and small dogs as their best buddies, so I just hoped the stigma wouldn't be perpetuated, and Aaron's hopes of being saved diminished with that statement. Everything takes time, and he would just need to be properly introduced, with the cat or small dog being safe from harm, until they become packmates.