Results tagged “neuter”

Richard Alarcon and others on the Los Angeles City Council are fed up with Ed Boks, the General Manager of the Animal Services Department. This month's drop of coupons for city mandated spaying and neutering apparently was the last straw. "[The city] faces a continuing crisis in the management of the Department of Animal Services," began Alarcon in a motion he introduced today. "These problems range across a gamut of issues: facilities, management and operations, and priority setting and follow up. These problems have caused a severe problem for the City in implementing its laws, policies and procedures."

Spaying and neutering vouchers for low-income residents are back and it didn't come without controversy. The vouchers were cut a few weeks ago because of citywide budget cuts. Animal Services General Manager Ed Boks had a choice where to cut his budget, unfortunately for him, he chose one of the most hot-button issues. Councilman Dennis Zine, who slammed Animal Services' Ed Boks about blogging last week, has asked for him to step down or be fired. "I think it's time for Mr. Boks to find another place to work," Zine said. "It's been a continuing saga of him and his mismanagement." To that, Boks responds: "I stand ready and willing to meet with Dennis Zine any time, any place to help move the department forward. This has been an open invitation for well over a year."

Budget cuts recently led to the Los Angeles Animal Services Department announcing they would no longer be able to offer low-cost spay/neuter services, despite the fact that just a year ago the City made spaying and neutering mandatory--a law that went into effect last October.

It's already law that your pooch must be snipped, but starting tomorrow it is enforceable. If you didn't know about this, that's because "though Animal Services is charged with enforcing the mandatory spay-and-neuter law, it does not intend to do so," according to City Controller Laura Chick's scathing audit released in the summer. The purpose of the law is help control pet population growth. In theory, the less the little buggers are born and in turn not adopted, the less Animal Service shelters will have to practice euthanasia in overcrowded shelters. Fines start in the triple digits.