Neighborhood Councils Protest Alleged Illegal Trapping Activity

The Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council Animal Welfare Committee, along with representatives from the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, met Wednesday night to address alleged improprieties by the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services.

“There’s a disservice going on to the citizens of Los Angeles, by the department of animal services, staff and personnel,” said Mark Legassie, ASNC Director of Animal Welfare. “They aren’t following policies and procedures, and they’re allowing illegal trapping activity of feral cats to go on.”

The animal welfare committee has concerns about one specific facility, the South Los Angeles Animal Care Center.

According to Legassie, the staff at the center has allegedly used improper conduct, and the general manager of L.A. Animal Services, Brenda Barnett, is not properly addressing the conduct. Legassie said he has brought the matter to Barnett’s attention by email; however, he claims there is an inconsistency in Barnett’s findings.

“We’re trying to resolve why there is a discrepancy, and those emails are trying to answer those questions, by talking to Brenda and asking what’s going on,” Legassie said. “The flow of emails show a pattern of negligence, and the general manager being given false information from the staff of the shelter. We know they’ve been giving illegal permits, and they’ve been letting people turn in cats without a permit.”

Legassie forwarded his email exchange with Barnett to Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch. In it, he writes to Barnett demanding that she immediately revoke the trapping permit of South Los Angeles resident Jason Evans, who has been accused of trapping cats on his neighbors' property.

"I demand the immediate revocation of his permit by tomorrow morning, or I will
launch a city-wide campaign to call the City Council, Mayor and the City
Attorney's office to file a complaint," Legassie wrote to Barnett on Tuesday, April 19.

According to Legassie, a formal complaint will be written by at least two neighborhood councils regarding the allegations against the South Los Angeles Animal Care Center.

Legassie, who has been working on this issue for months, said the biggest roadblock to resolving it is that there isn’t a system of checks and balances implemented at the department of animal services. Legassie also mentioned the welfare committee is trying to find out the qualifications of the workers at the care center, who determine whether an animal lives or dies, after they have been turned in.

"Hundreds of cats are being put to sleep every year," Legassie said.

Barnett said that Evans permit is valid and that 11 of the 15 cats he has trapped have been adopted. She went on to say that if Evans were to seek a new permit, after his current one expires on April 24, she would have to issue them one.

"We have ordered an internal investigation," Barnett wrote in an e-mail to Legassie. "If you have additional information or witnesses who are willing to step forward with additional information that we can investigate, please forward that to me or have them contact me directly."

Highland Park Neighborhood Council Seeks to Align Themselves with ASNC

HHPNC at large director, Trish Gossett,  attended the Wednesday night meeting. She said the importance of this meeting for Highland Park was to align themselves with the ASNC and their animal services.

“They’ve been doing this for a while and they’ve been successful at creating services for animals and strategies for our pets and wild animals on the street, including feral cats,“ Gossett said. “The goal for us tonight was to come to their meeting and introduce ourselves, so that we can create an umbrella we can all stand under.”

She added: “We’d like to have an umbrella with Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, Highland Park, Lincoln Heights, Arroyo Seco, and Mt. Washington…We need to have as powerful a group we can in order to get things done, that we would like to see get done."

Gossett said, “I feel like once we get going and we have a powerful animal services alliance with L.A. Animal Services, we will find other people like us who are avid pet owners and love animals, wild or tamed, and want to see them taken care of and provided for and to do what we can, to make their quality of life better.”

In addition to addressing the situation at South Los Angeles Animal Care Center, the committee also voted to buy medical supplies and search and rescue supplies,  in the event pets are lost during an emergency or major disaster. The $1,500 funding request will be sent to the ASNC board for approval.

Roy Payan said it’s important to deal with a variety of animal issues such as minimizing the number of cats and stray dogs and having them neutered. He also said it’s vital that community members be informed on the topic of animal cruelty.

“I don’t think the general public knows how to deal with feral cats or what a feral cat is; they also have to be taught what animal cruelty is,“ Payan said. “Too many times the general public doesn’t know what animal cruelty is or who to report it to, and if we just let it go on it just perpetuates more animal cruelty.”

Payan also said the public should be made aware that the Los Angeles Police Department has animal cruelty officers on staff, and the LAPD should be contacted if they witness animal cruelty.