ANIMAL WATCH

ANIMAL WATCH-While the U.S. focused on possible Russian influence in the election of President Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin signed an almost-unnoticed historic law to end animal cruelty in Russia, including a ban on dog fighting and animals in petting zoos, and establishing breed-specific laws (BSL) and dangerous dog controls. 

(WARNING: Content of this article may disturb some readers.)

ANIMAL WATCH-At its April 9 meeting, the Los Angeles Animal Services Commissioners delayed its vote on GM Brenda Barnette's recommendation to support Assembly Bill 611 (Nazarian) -- Prohibition on the Sexual Abuse of Animals -- until its next meeting. 

ANIMAL WATCH-There have been no dog-fighting convictions in the city of Los Angeles since Brenda Barnette was appointed as General Manager of Los Angeles Animal Services in 2010, according to a member of the Los Angeles Animal Cruelty Task Force, which is now part of LA Police Department. The felony charges upheld against Arnett William Counts and Walter Citizen was the last successful trial in 2008. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Scientists from China's Yunnan province have successfully cloned a Kumming wolf dog, named Kunxun, (photo above) from a "great canine detective," and predict she will be the “Sherlock Holmes of police dogs,” according to the Global Times. 

ANIMAL WATCH-LA Animal Services' GM Brenda Barnette first tried to stop spays of late-term pregnant shelter dogs in 2013 and was fiercely rebuked by Councilman Paul Koretz.  

ANIMAL WATCH-Shame on LA Animal Services GM Brenda Barnette! She apparently talked to the media behind the backs of the Board of Animal Services and Councilman Paul Koretz.

ANIMAL WATCH-In the midst of #MeToo Movement controversy, LA Animal Services' employees received a City of Los Angeles Inter-departmental Correspondence form recently with the subject line: "Notification of Close Personal Association," issued April 1, 2009.

ANIMAL WATCH-If you own a dog or cat and it is lost in Mayor Eric Garcetti’s City of Angels, there is a very good chance you will never get it back if the new 'finders, keepers,' law devised by LA Animal Services GM Brenda Barnette is enacted to limit impounds and thereby avoid euthanizing pit bulls that overcrowd city shelters. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Los Angeles Councilman Paul Koretz discussed cow farts on KFI radio earlier this week to justify his December 5 motion that, among other City venues, all movie theaters and major entertainment centers in the city of Los Angeles be required to have "at a minimum one vegan protein entree food option on their menus."  

ANIMAL WATCH-A homeless man and his two small dogs were attacked on Wednesday afternoon, November 28, in downtown Los Angeles -- the heart of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “city of angels” -- by a loose Pit Bull. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Last week on City Watch, we discussed the dangerous potential of an item on the LA Animal Services' Commission agenda for November 13 - LAAS Shelters Packed with Pit Bulls, GM Barnette Proposes Licensing Dogs to Homeless with No Address.   

ANIMAL WATCH-Isn't it an oxymoron that giving a homeless dog to a homeless person is giving it a "home?" Finding “furever” homes for shelter animals is supposed to be the goal of "No Kill," according to Best Friends Animal Society and Presidential-hopeful Mayor Eric Garcetti. 

ANIMAL WATCH-A winsome Pit Bull, named Bailey, is stretched out on a blanket on the Facebook profile page for Oliver Rescue Mission, with a cookie-cutter description designed to grab your heart. Bailey is a “female/spayed Pure-bred Pit Bull who was adopted from the Bakersfield high-kill animal shelter in 2010..."  

ANIMAL WATCH-The Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission has asked for more information on the investigation into Gemmel Moore’s death, Wehoville announced on October 23, 2018. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Mayor Eric Garcetti's approval of an $800,000 expenditure of tax funds -- requested by Councilman Paul Koretz and L.A. Animal Services GM Brenda Barnette -- for the City to produce an environmental report (EIR) indicating there will be no negative impact from releasing thousands of feral cats through trap/neuter/release (TNR) programs in LA may come back to bite him in other politically sensitive areas--public health, homelessness, and an outbreak of typhus.

ANIMAL WATCH--A Pit Bull attacked a two-month-old baby boy in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles on October 1, leaving the infant in critical condition.

ANIMAL WATCH-The Board of Supervisors, on September 25, unanimously approved a plan developed by Los Angeles County Animal Care & Control Department to curb cockfighting by limiting the number of roosters allowed per property in LA's unincorporated areas.

ANIMAL WATCH-On September 13, Forbes Magazine published an Infographic report on, "America's Most Dangerous Dog Breeds," which reveals that Pit Bulls -- the breed most responsible for dog bites in the 1990s, has held its lead in attacks into the 21st century, with even greater frequency. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Under the "finders, keepers" plan of LA Animal Services General Manager Brenda Barnette, recently approved by the City Council, the city's costly animal shelters may soon become merely havens for wayward Pit Bulls -- the dogs least likely to be picked up as strays and taken home by Good Samaritans. 

ANIMAL WATCH-On August 15, Councilman Paul Koretz, Chair of the Personnel and Animal Welfare (PAW) Committee which oversees Los Angeles Animal Services and essentially decides all city animal policies, was lauded by local animal rescuers, fur-ban advocates and major animal-rights organizations --

ANIMAL WATCH-On August 15, 2018, two members of the Los Angeles City Council --  Paul Koretz and Mitchell Englander -- approved a motion that would prohibit the manufacture and sale of fur products, including apparel made in whole or in part of fur or any fashion accessory, in the city of Los Angeles (CF 18-0538). 

ANIMAL WATCH-Los Angeles Animal Services' GM Brenda Barnette did not comment on the August 8 KTLA News report of the death of a female Pit Bull dumped in front of a South Los Angeles home on Monday.

ANIMAL WATCH-Ask LA Animal Services’ GM Brenda Barnette about her officers' heroic actions for animals in the increasingly dangerous streets of Los Angeles and it is likely she will recite the latest news broadcast on the exploits of the Los Angeles Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team (SMART) -- praising Armando Navarrete, Annette Ramirez and Ernesto Poblano. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Another Pit Bull attack and injury to an employee occurred at an LA Animal Services shelter, just weeks after a dog mauled volunteer Ursula Carmody.

ANIMAL WATCH-A widely shared online post, claiming a Los Angeles restaurant had a court’s permission to kill up to three dogs a day for public consumption, was “fake news,” according to CBS.

ANIMAL WATCH-On July 10, the Los Angeles Animal Services Commission heard an appeal by Frank and Laurel Pavone, who adopted a Pit Bull from Best Friends Animal Society and four months later it killed a neighbor’s 9-year-old Chihuahua.

ANIMAL WATCH-Since 2010, LA Animal Services' General Manager Brenda Barnette and Councilmember Paul Koretz (photo above, right) have been trying to raise the pet limits in Los Angeles – and for different reasons.

ANIMAL WATCH-The discovery of two mutilated dead cats lying near each other in his neighbor's yard last Tuesday morning deeply disturbed Arleta Neighborhood Council President Jaime Gallo.

ANIMAL WATCH-As the result of very persistent and persuasive phone calls from a prominent activist that an LA Animal Services' Commissioner was claiming his electronic communications were "hacked," a California Public Records Act request (CPRA) was sent to General Manager Brenda Barnette and certain members of the Los Angeles Animal Services Commission. 

ANIMAL WATCH-"Puppy-mill" bans are increasingly being exposed as unable to stop the commerce of mill-bred animals in cities/states where they have been passed.