Madison's Installment #5
What did Ed Boks do with 1,000 LAAS UNWEANED KITTENS?
Ed looks the Mayor and City Council straight in the eyes and lies about his "success."
Given the transparency Ed Boks claims, why do his numbers not add up? In a recent Email, we looked at the monstrous lie by Ed Boks that he has reached "95.75% No-Kill." That claim is insultingly false. By Boks' own admission, euthanasia is now UP by 37% (click on link to view) http://www.laanimalservices.blogspot.com/. That charade required use of LABELS to hide Boks/Barth's killing.
TODAY'S EMAIL ILLUMINATES ANOTHER CHARADE BOKS/BARTH USE TO HIDE THEIR KILLING. This one is simple. They just DON'T REPORT IT.
Boks claims he is transparent because his statics are posted on LAAnimalServices.com. Let's go there. Under
"About Us" click on "Statistics". Scroll down and click on "This Month's Statistics for Department" (which
really shows multiple year statistics). We know that Ed Boks has failed to do anything new to reduce the
crisis of unweaned kitten overpopulation and euthanasia, so let's look at the statistics for unweaned kittens.
Look with me if you like:
http://laanimalservices.com/PDF/reports/UnweanedKittensIntakeNOutcomes.pdf
Here are all categories of kitten outcomes Boks/Barth report; some show live release and some show other than live release. Also, if you scroll to the very end, you see impounds. Here, for the last fiscal year, 2007 to 2008, are Ed Boks' "transparent" statistics:
|
Unweaned Kittens |
2007/08 |
|
Live Release |
|
|
Adoptions |
441 |
|
New Hope Placements |
1,050 |
|
Returned to Owner |
4 |
|
Total Live Releases |
1,495 |
|
|
|
|
DOA |
29 |
|
|
|
|
Died in Shelter (Not Euthanized) |
331 |
|
Euthanasia |
3,447 |
|
Escaped |
4 |
|
Stolen |
0 |
|
Total Other Than Live Release |
3,782 |
|
|
|
|
TOTAL OUTCOMES INCLUDING DOA |
5,306 |
|
|
|
|
Impounds |
6,474 |
|
|
|
|
KITTENS UNACCOUNTED FOR (Impounds less total outcomes including DOA) |
1,168 |
What does this mean? It means that Ed Boks and Linda Barth are hoping you, the media and the Mayor will look at the kitten outcomes they DO give you, and not notice that they are hiding the outcomes of 1,168 kittens by simply not reporting them to you. That is, of the 6,474 unweaned kittens impounded in 2007/08, Boks/Barth think it is okay to not tell you what happened to a full 1,168 kittens. They admit to killing 3,447 kittens, while another 1,168 kittens disappear from Boks/Barth reporting before your very eyes. We just aren't told what happened to them.
IN WHAT PRIVATE INDUSTRY AND IN WHAT RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION CAN SOMEONE SIMPLY FAIL TO ACCOUNT FOR 1,168 OUT OF 6,474 OF SOMETHING AND KEEP THEIR JOB?
Boks/Barth have failed to report what happened to 1,168 out of 6,474 unweaned kittens, or over 18% of the unweaned kittens in their "care."
Worse, Boks/Barth have reported the statistics in a way that misleads the public and City officials into thinking things are not nearly as horrible as they truly are. In glancing at the spreadsheet provided by Boks/Barth it is easy to be lulled into believing that it is accurate and that Boks/Barth are doing something about the unweaned kitten overpopulation crisis, when in fact they are not.
If Boks/Barth try to tell you that the missing kittens are still in the shelter, then the shelter should have roughly 1,168 unweaned (only those under 8 weeks of age) kittens. Interestingly, the number of unweaned kittens in LAAS shelters on August 31, 2008, per Pet Harbor, were no more than 160. (515 were under one year of age, including the unweaned kittens.) 1,168 unaccounted for minus no more than 160 unweaned kittens held in the shelter leaves at least 1,012 unweaned kittens unaccounted for by Boks/Barth.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REMAINING OVER 1,000 UNACCOUNTED FOR KITTENS!
One more time this begs the question, what are Boks/Barth doing with numbers. No matter what their reasoning, the best that can be said is that Boks/Barth have completely failed in their duty to properly track and report their department's activity and have again given reason to doubt anything coming out of their mouths or their keyboards.
Madison
Madison's Installment #6
Unmasking Ed Boks "No Kill Equation"
In this and following installments, I will be addressing each one of the "Ten No-kill equation
recommendations" stated in Ed Boks' document "IMPLEMENTING THE NO-KILL EQUATION IN LOS ANGELES " which
appears on the LAAS website
http://www.laanimalservices.com/PDF/ED/No-killanalysis.pdf.
Recommendation 1. FERAL CATS TNR PROGRAM
In this document Boks states that "The Department has no formal TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return for feral cats) program yet because a proposal to change City law to officially permit such a program has been delayed by threats from environmental and wildlife organizations insisting that TNR is unacceptable..."
Boks goes on to say that "Since 2006 the Department spays or neuters over 8,000 feral cats annually independent of and in addition to any formal spay/neuter or TNR programs..."
However, as we have see too often Boks' numbers do not mirror the truth. The 8,000 feral cats he quotes in the LAAS document is NOT the number he reported in the Los Angeles City 2008-09 budget found on the LA mayor's website.
Click on http://www.lacity.org/cao/budget08-09/2008-09bluebook-Volume1.pdf and go to page 44 of the PDF document (although it is marked as page 26 of the document). The heading of the page is INDICATORS OF WORKLOAD (continued). On the left is a column title PET STERILIZATION PROGRAM, scroll down 14 lines where you will find "Pilot Feral Cats Program". Continue across the page where you will see that Boks reports that the number of feral cats the department actually spayed or neutered since he became LAAS General Manager is NONE.
Now we know that LAAS did spay and neuter some feral cats. Most of them were done in that North Central spay/neuter clinic by the operator that was only there a short time and then left the city (to go to Burbank). But here is what Ed tells the Mayor he did and it sure does not jive with the JIVE BOKS TELLS THE PUBLIC. Kinda like the jive he tells the mayor about his 95.75% no kill "phase I" when in actuality the completion of "phase I" is not even in sight.
To add insult to injury, Boks goes on to state, " There is no record of any municipality funding more feral cat surgeries annually than LA City." Not according to Ed Boks' annual budget reporting to the Mayor which the Mayor posts to his website.
Boks continues on with TNR information which is correct but as always his diatribes are hypocritical. Similar to the hypocritical diatribes he delivers about LAAS achieving "no kill", Boks does not do what he advocates.
In the LAAS document, Boks states, "TNR is being practiced in more and more communities across the United States and around the world with amazing results". Sadly for our city's feral cats LA is not one of those communities and Ed Boks is not moving us in that direction.
Ed goes on to say " TNR is practiced in lots of places." Then why not here in LA? Simple! Because although Ed tells you some of the obstacles, he has not done anything to face, manage or eliminate any of them. Kinda the same way he has done nothing about "no kill" except preach theory. While Boks blogs, preaches and theorizes, animals including feral cats keep dying.
Madison
Madison's Installment #7
Boks/Barth are not following up on spay/neuter of LAAS animals.
Thanks to Ed Boks and Linda Barth's mismanagement from March 2008 continuing to the present, every month approximately 350 dogs and cats were released from LAAS shelter to new owners without being spayed or neutered.
For each of these animals LAAS keeps a record (called a D-300). Until March 2008 the POP officers followed on all the LAAS D-300. Starting in March 2008 Boks/Barth implement another bad idea and took the POP officers away from their duties following up on these D-300.
Guess who they put onto the project of following up on unsterilized animals released to new owner by LAAS to make sure those animals get spayed or neutered.
NO ONE!
Thus, since March 2008, LAAS has release nearly 2100 unsterilized dogs and cats. For those unsterilized dogs and cats released by LAAS, Boks/Barth have had no mechanism in place to even find out if the animals are getting sterilized, let alone to insure that they do get spayed or neutered.
By not following up to ensure spay/neuter of animals Boks/Barth released to the citizens of Los Angeles, Boks/Barth are contributing to the already overwhelming pet overpopulation of our city.
This, while the new spay/neuter ordinance has been in effect since late February 2008.
Gestation for cats and dogs is approximate 63 days. It has been 6 months since LAAS stopped following up. I wonder how many have been born due through your negligence. Boks/Barth, are you going to blame this one on the employees too? Or is it the foreclosure market again?
Madison