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When an issue is presented to Council for action, Council President refers the issue to the appropriate Committee for review and recommendation. The Public Safety Committee oversees the Department of Animals Services. I started there.

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June 23, 2009

City Council
Public Safety Committee
City of Los Angeles
c/o City Clerk, Room 395
City Hall, 200 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012-4801

Dear Councilmembers Weiss, Zine, Parks, Smith and Reyes,

[Here's] a link to Kate Woodviolet’s Examiner.com follow-up story on my dog, Stu, his 4-year-old case and the evidence of malfeasance and obstruction on the part of certain employees within the Department of Animal Services. Please be aware, that only 10 days prior to the oral arguments in the Court of Appeals, the City Attorney’s office sent me the attached draft settlement offer (and opposed my request for a continuance in the Court so that I might discuss the offer further) with full knowledge that no consummation of this proposed settlement could be expected in time for the City Council to approve it, before the Court ruled.

These are not coincidences and let me assure you, there have been no coincidences in this case. Ever. This case is one of the last vestiges of the inept and embarrassing tenure of Ed Boks. The only thing left to clean-up (that I know of ) of the mess Mr. Boks made of this Department will be the lawsuit I must file against him and others for these despicable acts. We are about to welcome back to our City legal system what is promised to be a new era of integrity, so says Mr. Trutanich. I hereby give you an opportunity to usher that era in with my dog, Stu in tow.

I beseech you to consider compassionately what I hope will be a forthcoming recommendation from the Board of Animal Services Commissioners to your Public Safety Committee or to the full Council, which will , as I understand the intent of the Board, attempt to preserve the integrity of the Administrative Hearing process, the Department, the Board and the City of Los Angeles by setting aside the previous ill-founded decision to declare Stu to be dangerous and order his destruction. The Board, which you have entrusted to make these decisions is unified on this issue as are thousands of people from our City and around the world: the consensus is to send Stu, a non-dangerous animal home to live out his remaining last couple of years. He was 6 years old when he was first impounded. He is now at least 10 (or 70 in human years).

The Court of Appeals could not remedy this injustice as there was a defective record before them and only myself, a non-lawyer, presenting it to them. However, although the Court has failed to right this horrible injustice , because it was confined to the incomplete record of the case, your Committee and your Council are not so constrained. Please find the time and the attention which this most deserving matter requires.

Thank you,
Jeff de la Rosa
Council District 13

from the Pilots N Paws website

5000 Animal Rescue Week Sept.12 through Sept 20th!!

by Jon on Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:36 pm

I am posting this update to the orginial request to let you all know that the week as been chosen…..we are going to do our best to put plans in motion for the week starting Sat., Sept 12 through Sunday, Sept. 20th. If the transports start a little earlier or end a little later that’s ok too!

We are presently working to set up a system attached to this board that will help us coordinate.

What we need from all the rescues who wish to participate is for you to work on your end with setting up sending and receiving locations. Please do your best to keep these flights to a distance of 200 to 400 nautical miles (250 to 450 road miles) This is a reasonable day’s flight for most general aviation pilots, some a little more some a little less. For those of you who have worked with a pilot before, please contact them and see if they are willing to participate that week in September and assist you . We are hoping to work with a large pilot association to see that everyone who needs transport can be accomodated. We have roughly 440 pilots who are members of Pilots N Paws but we do need more.

Regarding media attention, many of us have been fortunate to have stories, filming, newscasts, newspaper articles written about what we do. Please contact whoever you have worked with in the past and let them know this is going to take place. For others, please contact your local newspapers and spark interest in this and contact your local tv stations as well. There are many videos under the NEWS section on our homepage that you can refer people to. Everyone loves to hear about animals being saved! Pitch this event as though animals lives depend on it because they do!

Thank you all and we will keep you updated!! Mark your calendars!!

Debi and Jon

………………………………………………………..

Debi and I are back from our efforts at Sun “n Fun where we had a booth and hopefully encouraged more pilots to volunteer.

However, there is a cloud on the horizon. General Aviation is being threatened, and if some of the current threats are implemented the impact will hurt general aviation and our efforts to make animal transport flights less likely.

The short version is the Transportation Security Administration is attempting to implement stringent security clearance requirements that will make an animal transport a difficult thing. There are other potential threats also, but the one I see as most likely to make rescue transports a thing of the past is the implementation of user fees. The cost of general aviation is already staggering and adding more costs may stop a lot of pilots from flying.

I have proposed that to gain national attention to the problem and make the general public aware of how they need to express themselves to the elected officials is to have a single day or week in which across the nation we transport 5000 animals to safety. Every transport should be covered by the local media and the entire coordinated event should be covered by all the national media. We will have three messages.

First, we need spay and neuter programs. Second, pilotsnpaws needs more volunteer pilots so not request goes unasnwered, and finally the general public needs to hear this effort to transport animals at risk is at risk itself if the previously mentioned issues are allowed to occur.

My question is simple………Can the shelters and pulling rescues arrange for a single day when 5000 animals will be available for transport, and those 5000 animals will have a receiving rescue or a safe forever home? If so we will work with as many pilot organizations as possible to make available the necessary pilots with planes.

Your response will determine if we go ahead with this plan or if we lack the support on the rescue side.
Jon
Cessna P210N, ATP
500 NM legs Okay, 1000 miles per day OK
Hard IFR Okay

Appeals Court rules against Stu – could allow Animal Services to kill senior dog
by Kate Woodviolet
June 23, 9:49 PM

Despite a case filled with discrepancies, missing reports, and irregular behavior on the part of L.A. Animal Services and City personnel, the California Court of Appeals today ruled that the City’s sentence of death against Stu, a ten year-old dog with a record of one biting incident four years ago, when Stu had himself just been injured, could stand. This clears the way for L.A. Animal Services to euthanize a dog who many, including Animal Services Commissioners, feel was denied his legal due process, and who most agree presents no danger to the public.

This despite assurances from Deputy City Attorney Dov Lesel at this Monday’s meeting of the Board of Animal Services Commissioners that it was unnecessary for the Board to take any action to save Stu, as a ruling by the Appeals Court could be weeks in coming.

Yesterday’s meeting also featured an impassioned critique of the Department’s actions by Commissioner Archie Quincey. “I’ve been over this case backwards and forwards,” he said, enumerating the discrepancies in the Department’s case against Stu, beginning with how Stu initially came to be in Animal Services custody in 2005. Stu’s owner Jeff de la Rosa kept the dog in a locked kennel and found, on the day he discovered Stu was missing, that his gate had been tampered with. The dog was allegedly found by an unidentified private citizen and brought into a City shelter, but Quincey questioned the circumstances of the dog’s appearance in City custody, “I don’t see a report. Who picked up the dog? That’s a big discrepancy.”

Quincey, who brings thirty years of experience in L.A. County animal control to his role as Commissioner, also questioned the process by which Stu was condemned, despite a hearing in which the Hearing Examiner did not find Stu to be dangerous. Contrary to L.A. Animal Services policy and L.A.’s municipal code, a Department captain unrelated to the case, a Captain Helen Brakemeier, intervened, sending a memo to former Animal Services General Manager Guerdon Stuckey saying she believed Stu to be a “dangerous dog,” a designation that carries with it a sentence of death. De la Rosa says he was unaware of Brakemeier’s role in condemning Stu until after the dog had been sentenced to die by Stuckey, who was fired by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa days later.

Quincey questioned the process by which Brakemeier arrived at her opinion. “”She came to her conclusion without an investigation. If there was an investigation, where is the report?” He further pointed out, “There is no report from the doctor [regarding the bite victim's injuries].”
“All of these reports should be in the file and should have been made available to Mr. de la Rosa. I think the Department was in grave error.”
Startlingly, Quincey also pointed out that since the single biting episode occurred inside a private residence, it was “not a violation of the municipal code. There’s no way that dog could have been impounded [by Animal Services].”

“It’s inhumane to keep Stu locked in a cage. There’s numerous errors. I think this was wrong from the get-go. There should never have been charges filed — Stu’s completely innocent!”

Commissioner Kathy Riordan also addressed issues of denial of due process, questioning how Captain Brakemeier initially became involved, “It doesn’t seem like the General Manager asked for a report.”

Commissioner Quincey repeatedly asked Deputy City Attorney Dov Lesel, who has in the past been an advocate for the City’s case against Stu, “What can we do today? This has been going on [for years]. It’s got to stop!” He repeated his question as to what the Board could do immediately several times, “I think it should be done today.”

Lesel downplayed the urgency of the issue, saying it was “not an emergency situation,” therefore nothing needed to be done immediately, as the Appeals Court ruling could take weeks to be handed down. He also denied there was anything the Board could do to influence the situation, stating that “The City Council and the Mayor decide now.”
Quincey also demanded to know why his motion that the Board ask the City Attorney to drop its opposition to de la Rosa’s appeals on behalf of Stu, first introduced on April 14th, was never placed on the agenda for a Board meeting, despite assurances on that day from Animal Services Assistant General Manager Linda Barth that “the item is already agendized for the next meeting.”

Quincey’s motion to save Stu never subsequently appeared on the Board agendas as an “action item,” the designation Lesel said was required before the Board could vote on it. Then, as previously reported, the Board meeting immediately prior to June 18th arguments before the Appeals Court was abruptly cancelled.

Quincey asked, “Can we find out why it was not agendized? I introduced this motion over a month ago and the Department has been circumventing. Somebody has to give the Board an answer!”
Commissioner Riordan asked, “Is it purposely that the Department did not want to bring this up?”

Lesel, in an apparent attempt to disclaim responsibility for setting the meeting’s agenda, stated “I saw the agenda [for Monday's meeting] on Sunday.”

Animal Services Assistant General Manager Linda Barth, who according to the minutes of the April 14th meeting informed the Board that Quincey’s motion would be on the agenda for the April 27th meeting (although it did not subsequently appear), and who was seen handing out printed copies of Monday’s agenda prior to the meeting’s start, remained silent as Commissioners demanded to know who was responsible for failing to place Quincey’s motion to spare Stu on the agenda prior to the June 18th Appeals Court arguments.

Meanwhile, supporters of the embattled Stu took the opportunity to appeal to the Board for mercy for the senior dog. Attorney Laura Beth Heisen said “We don’t have evidence that Stu is dangerous,” and she urged the Board to instruct the City Attorney to file a supplemental pleading with the Court of Appeals prior to the Court’s decision, arguing that “we don’t kill dogs when there’s a chance to fix it.”

Several members of the community stepped up to request clemency for Stu, as well as his return to de la Rosa. One supporter read an email from Laurel Barrick Rine, Chairman of the Grand Rapids Community Bite Prevention Committee, in which Rine states “I have researched dangerous dog legislation extensively. Universally such laws hold that a dog that is injured and in pain at the time of their bite is exempted from being labeled Dangerous Dogs.”

Commissioner Riordan stated that “Dangerous or not dangerous is not even an issue anymore. We owe this dog his trip home.”
This opinion that Stu is not a dangerous dog is also shared by Dr. Richard Polsky, a dog behavior expert who helped formulate the City standards for dangerous dogs in 1987, and by Bobby Dorofshar, an expert who has consulted with the City on various animal-related issues.

After Lesel shut down attempts by the Commissioners to take immediate action, Commissioner Riordan asked, “Can I just appeal to the Department that we will not kill Stu before the next Board meeting?” Barth agreed, while Lesel stated “I can’t see any reason why it can’t be on the next agenda.”

Commissioner Riordan reaffirmed her commitment to saving Stu, saying, “If there are any attempts at execution, they’ll have to knock me down at [the sanctuary where Stu is being kept].”

If you would like to register your opinion on Stu’s fate, you can contact the Mayor’s office at: (213) 978-0600
………………………………………………
reprinted from the LA Pet Rescue Examiner

“My name is Maria Ewan and I am 11 years old. I live in Marlton, New Jersey. I am writing this letter to you because I want to give you a song I dedicated to animals being abused. What tempted me to write this song was a story on the news. The story was a person who tied their dog behind their truck while they drove. Whoever did this terrible act, may God help them! This song I composed, I was hoping could go on your commercials. Your commercials make me cry and want to save all of these poor animals. Here is my song.

“Why do you do this to me?

Why do you hurt me?

I have done nothing to wrong to you.

Don’t abandon me, don’t chain me up, don’t abuse me, all I want is love.

What did I do to you that made you angry?

What did I do to you that made you angry?

And when you leave me just anywhere, I end up alone and scared!

But I know, I know I will make it through.

I will survive and recover without you!

“This song does come with a tune but I can’t write the tune! Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this.

Sincerely,

Maria Ewan”