LA Animal Services Updating Shelter Policies After Dog Attacks Longtime Worker (2024)

Los Angeles Animal Services is changing policies for its six shelters after a staff member was severely attacked by a dog at the Harbor Shelter in San Pedro last month.

Staycee Dains, the general manager of the department, told the Board of Animal Service Commissioners on Tuesday that they’ll be introducing a buddy system for volunteers and staff handling certain animals.

The “red alert” list, which has been used for animals who are in danger of being euthanized and need to be immediately adopted, will also be replaced by a “needs rescue" list in the coming weeks for those who are showing their suffering and are at risk of euthanasia, Dains added.

“Please understand that we're doing this in a time of crisis,” she said. “This is not how we want to manage populations going forward. This is what we must do, in this moment, to bring our shelters back to a state of operating safely.”

But the move was met with almost immediate backlash by a group of shelter volunteers who requested an emergency meeting with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, describing it as a “knee jerk reaction by management” that limits their access to animals, according to a letter reviewed by LAist.

About the changes

The "red alert" list, which currently has 18 dogs, will be retired, but Dains said the department will continue to maintain a “euthanasia alert” list for the animals with a date scheduled. Dains added that animals with behaviors that could pose a safety risk will be made “rescue only” and given 72 hours on the euthanasia list.

You can find those lists here, but only rescue organizations that have a relationship with the city as a New Hope partner will be able to take animals on the euthanasia list, which currently has 10 dogs.

The buddy system for volunteers and staff will apply to animals on the “needs rescue” list, Dains said, which is still being worked out.

But the group of L.A. Animal Services volunteers said in their letter to Bass that the new rules are unclear, and good dogs are being unfairly demonized because they aren’t perfect in an incredibly stressful environment.

“The new policy essentially limits our access to many dogs we have relationships with and to new intakes who will clearly benefit from our working to enrich their stay with us,” the letter states. “The result is a conveyor belt pace of killing happy, healthy dogs falsely labeled as unadoptable.”

The group wrote that the shelter system is obviously in crisis, but these “sudden and unfair” changes have led to anger, anxiety, and confusion for some volunteers.

They’ve requested a meeting with Bass this weekend so they can share their thoughts on making the shelters a better place for animals and the people who care for them.

A "dog occupancy meter" pop-up on the L.A. Animal Services website that shows the six shelters' current population as of Tuesday afternoon.

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L.A. Animal Services

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“We are sure, Mayor Bass, that your constituency, of whom we are members, will not sit for this barbaric approach,” the letter states.

Cathy Serksnas, a former 14-year volunteer at the West Valley shelter who still visits regularly, told LAist that the changes have put a stranglehold on the volunteers that are essential to a dog’s mental and physical wellbeing.

“They're just so discouraged right now, and frustrated, and helpless,” she said. “And they're the ones who know the dogs best.”

Serksnas said the volunteers have the most intimate knowledge of the animals. She added that the group’s letter to Bass shows how bad the situation is right now.

“Never has something like this occurred before,” Serksnas said. “This is how desperate the volunteers are to say, stop, don't do this.”

L.A. Animal Services had 1,395 dogs in its care as of Tuesday afternoon, which is more than 650 over capacity, according to a department population meter. Dains said the policies could be updated if the overcrowding crisis at the shelters improves.

L.A. Animal Services didn’t immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

How we got here

Leslie Corea, a longtime kennel supervisor at the Harbor Shelter, was severely injured by a dog on the “red alert” list on May 31, the same day the dog was set to be euthanized.

Corea told NBC4 she was caring for Brie, a 63-pound dog, when she suddenly started mauling her chest and thigh in a 7-minute attack. Corea called 911, was hospitalized, and has had at least three surgeries since.

Dains told the commissioners Tuesday that Corea suffered a Level 5 bite, the most severe type of bite to a living person.

“Level 6 is death,'' Dains said.

From her hospital bed, Corea said she will not be going back to the animal shelter.

“The message here is the city of Los Angeles adopted no-kill way too soon,” Corea said in an NBC4 interview published June 5. “I’ve been with the department 24 years and this is the worst it’s ever been. There are so many people that have been bit and mauled at the shelters and it needs to stop because we’re overcrowding, and we’re not euthanizing the animals that need to be euthanized in a timely manner.”

When board president Larry Gross asked how they can help Corea, who he described as one of the department’s “brightest stars,” Dains replied that she really wants to see change, and she wants it now.