Long Beach Needs a No Kill Animal Shelter, Not Excuses

We are disappointed to see that City Manager Patrick West still refuses to acknowledge the many problems at our shelter that are continuing to harm Long Beach’s shelter animals more than a year after the City Auditor identified numerous problems that are negatively affecting Long Beach’s shelter animals.

On December 18, when animal advocates went to Long Beach City Council, Pat West apparently came prepared to defend Long Beach Animal Care Services (LBACS) -- a shelter with 186 documented substandard industry practices ranging from animals’ receiving only 6 minutes of daily care per animal to housing unvaccinated animals next to sick animals to inadequate monitoring of animals after medical treatment – substandard practices which have been documented by no fewer than two city audits and for which Pat West, as City Manager, is ultimately responsible. (City audits can be found here and here.)

At the Dec. 18 City Council meeting, immediately after animal advocates exposed Pat West’s longstanding indifference to animal advocates’ pleas for lifesaving programs for our shelter animals and once again pled with him to communicate with them, Mr. West preferred to argue against those advocates using numbers that he would have been embarrassed to admit – were he better informed about the state of animal sheltering today.

It is extremely disheartening to see that the City Manager of Long Beach used time during public comment not to listen to what animal advocates had to say, but to speak against them.

First, Mr. West stated, apparently to counter animal advocates’ requests for changes at the shelter, that LBACS has adopted out 454 animals in 2018. That is sadly true, and it is nothing to be proud of because in the exact same time period, the demographically-and financially-similar Sacramento Animal Care Services has adopted out nearly ten times as many – 4,464 animals have been adopted out by Sacramento Animal Care Services since January 2018.

It is troubling that Mr. West chose to fight back against animal advocates, rather than step up, acknowledge LBACS’ problems, and commit to remedying the many problems that two City audits have identified. But what is even more concerning is the fact that Mr. West appears to be satisfied with continuing to set a low standard for the city shelter’s performance. It is this approach to the city shelter in Long Beach that is hurting our shelter animals. Unfortunately, Mr. West didn’t stop there.

Mr. West then doubled down on his stance by arbitrarily citing a three-year adoption statistic, saying that LBACS has adopted out 1,141 animals over the past three years – a number that, though perhaps accurate, has little meaning, except as evidence of how poorly LBACS is doing with animal adoptions when compared with other similarly-sized cities. Sacramento Animal Care Services has adopted out 15,595 animals in the past three years – nearly 14 times as many animals as Mr. West has said that LBACS has adopted out.

After citing statistics that actually show how poorly LBACS is doing, Mr. West pointed out that last year, LBACS had a 95% live release rate for dogs. There are two problems with this. As of November 2018, LBACS’ live release rate for dogs was only 90%, and in 2017, the live release rate for dogs was only 93% - not 95%. In fact, at no time was the yearly live release rate for any species of animal at LBACS 95%. The statement was simply false.

It should be a red flag to Long Beach residents that Mr. West is continuing the City’s practice of publicizing cherry-picked numbers to keep the public uninformed. (No Kill Long Beach published a report on this practice in 2017). This time, Mr. West excluded cats from the statistic he cited at City Council. The industry practice in animal sheltering is to report the live release rate as a function of both dogs and cats. And when cats are taken into account, LBACS’ live release rate as of November 2018 is only 79% - much lower than it should be in a city as progressive as Long Beach. However, in citing an (inaccurate) 95% live release rate for dogs, Mr. West is apparently banking on the fact that the good and hard-working people of Long Beach are too busy to verify the City’s numbers or look at the misleading ways in which the City reports them. By selectively using statistics in ways that mislead the public, the City is able to keep the public satisfied with a low-performing shelter that still euthanizes healthy and treatable animals.

Finally, Mr. West stated, again in defense of LBACS, that the City is going to hire an adoption coordinator in 2019; however, this is hardly reassuring. Mr. West must think that the public has a very short memory because the same announcement was made back in 2014 at a Town Hall Meeting by Mayor Garcia. The end result was the unnecessary deaths of more than 8,000 animals at the Long Beach Animal Care Services shelter in the 4-1/2 years since Mayor Garcia was first elected. Mr. West also failed to mention that the adoption program funds are one-time staffing funds. The fact that these are one-time funds makes it almost impossible for staff to be hired in a position to help animals in any sustainable way. The fact that the City is providing only one-time funds for an adoption program shows that the City is not genuinely interested in making Long Beach a lifesaving, No Kill shelter.

This Tuesday, January 8, City Council is going to take under consideration two LBACS-related issues: the first is as yet an unspecified agreement with rescues to operate a kitten nursery and the second is five days of training for staff to implement dog play groups at the Long Beach shelter. While these are, on the surface, laudable changes, we respectfully submit that as long as LBACS makes it difficult for people to adopt animals due to unreasonable adoption requirements, continues to have "no-touch" policies for animals when they most need human contact and socialization, resists having a full-scale adoption, foster and volunteer program, and does not enact proven, lifesaving protocols for at-risk animals, including dogs with treatable behavioral challenges, programs like kitten nurseries and play groups will not have the desired lifesaving effect because the positive effects of these "upstream" programs will be neutralized later in the animal's stay by shelter policies that block animals from taking expedited pathways out of the shelter.

We don’t know why Mr. West would choose to defend a shelter that clearly needs reform. What we do know is that in spite of clear evidence that LBACS is an underperforming animal shelter that engages in substandard care for animals, the City has not changed its stance on the shelter and still refuses to commit to having an effective, efficient, lifesaving shelter. Given this display of outright disregard for the animal-loving residents and taxpayers of Long Beach, who pay Mr. West’s salary, it appears we can expect more of the same business-as-usual approach coming from the City about the shelter unless the people of Long Beach speak out.

The good news is that animal advocates across the nation have engaged in the democratic process and have effected change in their communities. Every time animal advocates go to City Council and talk about what is happening at the LBACS shelter, they are shedding light on the need for change at LBACS, and that light is what our animals and the taxpaying animal guardians of Long Beach need. Can we make Long Beach a No Kill city? You bet we can – all it takes is the willingness to hold our politicians and city bureaucrats accountable. This is how social change has happened throughout the history of our country, and it’s happening now. The people of Long Beach deserve a shelter they can be proud of – a No Kill shelter. A No Kill Long Beach is within reach – all it takes is for good people to speak.

Watch Mr. West speaking at City Council on Dec. 18 here.

For more information on how to make Long Beach a No Kill city, visit No Kill Long Beach on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NoKillLB.

The Mayor's Animal Care Task Force is meeting on Tuesday, January 8 at 11 am. More information here. Open to the public.