ANIMAL WATCH

ANIMAL WATCH-A lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against Best Friends Animal Society in 2016, after a savage attack on a 13-year-old girl by a 52-pound Pit Bull-type dog, named Bleu, taken from a Los Angeles Animal Services shelter by Best Friends Animal Society, and reportedly adopted to a family as “good with children.” 

ANIMAL WATCH-Los Angeles Animal Services’ former-GM Brenda Barnette left a legacy of Best Friends’ “No Kill” policies which reject unwanted, lost and stray dogs and cats, claiming they are better off in the streets and with strangers than impounded and protected in the City’s shelters.  

ANIMAL WATCH-In 2020, over 5,800 USPS mail carriers were victims of dog attacks and California was #1 in the nation, with 782 of those bites. That was almost double the number in Texas -- the #2 state -- with 402. 

ANIMAL SAFETY-Many dogs are terrified by fireworks. Some dogs are so frightened that they run away.

ANIMAL WATCH-LA City animal owners and taxpayers were advised on June 24 that Interim GM Dana Brown has been appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti as the General Manager to straighten out the severe problems at the floundering Los Angeles Animal Services Department, where the doors have remained essentially closed to lost and stray animals by former-GM Brenda Barnette. 

ANIMAL WATCH-On June 23, 2021, U.S. Congressional Representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard (D) and Ken Calvert (R) demonstrated that politics is not a dividing factor when it comes to promoting humaneness and ending animal suffering in research laboratories. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Animal cruelty is a “gateway” or “indicator” crime, often first committed as a juvenile and leading to other serious offenses, including sexual predation and assault on humans. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Dog fighting operations and seizure of Pit Bulls is reported all over the U.S. by major news sources, ignored or diminished by the major humane organizations--

ANIMAL WATCH-As the California Recall effort gains momentum, in his 2021-22 budget plan Governor Gavin Newsom is dangling the same $50-million cash carrot to animals which he promised in his last budget (allegedly a 2018 election campaign promise) to dazzle pet lovers, influence animal advocacy groups

 ANIMAL WATCH-Multiple cases of gunshots killing or severely maiming a child have occurred in the past year in the U.S.—one of the latest and most publicized was on May 21,2021, in Orange County, CA, when a six-year-old boy, Aiden Leos, was killed in an alleged case of road rage against his mother, who was driving him to school.  

ANIMAL WATCH-National Animal Control Officer Appreciation week was recognized and celebrated nationally from April 11–17, 2021, but was unnoticed -- or ignored -- at City of Los Angeles Animal Services by then-General Manager Brenda Barnette, until the afternoon of Thursday, April 15. 

ANIMAL RIGHTS-As readers of CityWatch know, the City of Los Angeles has done much to promote the end of the dog meat trade in other countries.

ANIMAL WATCH-On March 29, 2021, an Ohio Grand Jury issued a Supersede Indictment for 53 counts against Steffen Baldwin, aka Steffen Finkelstein, co-founder of the nonprofit Underdog Alliance and Save Them Dogs in Acton, CA, who advocated for dangerous, last-chance Pit Bulls and “No Kill.”  

ANIMAL WATCH-At 1:00 p.m. on May 7, her last day as General Manager of Los Angeles Animal Services, Brenda Barnette issued the announcement that she launched the Safety Net Foster Program for LA City residents “facing a crisis and needing short-term housing for their pet.” 

ANIMAL WATCH-A “rescued Dogo Argentino-mix” (or white Pit Bull) named Brody, was reported stabbed and beaten on April 12 at a “foster home” in California City where he was placed by Ace of Hearts dog rescue

ANIMAL WATCH-A vicious dog attack at the home of Chris Brown occurred on December 12, 2020,

ANIMAL WATCH-GM Brenda Barnette did not present the “Fear-Free Sheltering” concept at the April 13 Los Angeles Animal Services Commission meeting,

ANIMAL WATCH-The stern face of a Pit Bull adorns the Best Friends’ Animal Society’s Facebook  announcement, “Together, We Made LA a No-Kill City,” but there is no mention of Los Angeles Animal Services nor General Manager Brenda Barnette as part of this accomplishment.

ANIMAL WATCH-Three Los Angeles County Animal Control Officers from the Public Safety Division, Major Case Unit, of the Department of Animal Care and Control were the first responders at a tragic auto crash on April 1, where the vehicle had burst into flames and was threatening a nearby home. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Brenda Barnette has announced her retirement as General Manager of the LA Animal Services Department, effective in early May. Who will be the new GM? 

ANIMAL WATCH-Major, the shelter dog fostered by President Joe Biden as a puppy and then adopted from the Delaware Humane Society, has bitten twice since being moved into the White House, with the first bite on March 8 and CNN reporting a second bite last Monday. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Final-investigation documents obtained from Los Angeles Animal Services reveal gruesome photos and details of the vicious dog attack on a housekeeper at the Tarzana, CA, home of singer-rapper Chris Brown on December 12, 2020. 

ANIMAL WATCH-A young West Los Angeles couple, wanting to adopt a dog as a pet for the family they were planning in the near future, attended a Los Angeles Animal Services mobile pet adoption event in September 2019 and was encouraged to consider a six-year-old Pit Bull, named “Big Man,” which came with a price discount and an 8-week training program at the Lancaster, California, maximum-security prison. 

ANIMAL WATCH--It should not have been a surprise to anyone that Major, the three-year-old adopted German Shepherd brought to the White House by Joe and Jill Biden, bit a security guard. 

ANIMAL WATCH-On March 12, LA Animal Services GM Brenda Barnette callously and boastfully announced that Los Angeles has reached the Best Friends Animal Society “No Kill” goal for the city’s animal shelters due to efforts of “the city, LA Animal Services, a coalition of animal welfare organizations, compassionate leaders and a dedicated community.”    

ANIMAL WATCH-During a brief lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in May 2020, a San Diego man took his Pit Bull to a San Diego-area park, where an aggressive coyote jumped a six-foot fence to attack the dog. 

ANIMAL WATCH-On February 18, 2021, Los Angeles Animal Services General Manager Brenda Barnette (photo above) submitted a brief two-page letter to Councilman Paul Koretz and the City Council, abruptly revising her recent reconstitution proposal,

ANIMAL WATCH-Since 2010 the seminal obligation of Los Angeles Animal Services to maintain animal-law enforcement and protection has been intentionally destabilized by General Manager Brenda Barnette in her mania to achieve the Best Friends Animal Society mythical "No Kill" goal. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Los Angeles Animal Services General Manager Brenda Barnette is determined that she will not open the West Valley Animal Shelter for the intake of strays and lost pets -- this shelter has one of the highest intake rates in the City.

ANIMAL WATCH-On January 27, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Bloodsport Team seized 70 roosters in an investigation of a possible cockfighting operation in LLanos, California, an unincorporated area southeast of Palmdale in Los Angeles County.