To the editor: Because the chief of an L.A.-based animal rescue devoted to saving at-risk shelter canines, I work intently with all six L.A. Animal Companies shelters and have witnessed the system’s challenges firsthand. Your article precisely displays a actuality we’ve grappled with for years: So long as union protections defend underperforming staff and the specter of legal responsibility stifles significant reform, L.A. Animal Companies will stay mired in dysfunction (“She ran the L.A. animal shelters. Why couldn’t she repair the issues?,” Could 30). This setting breeds disillusionment amongst workers, leaving many numb to animal struggling and in some circumstances, complicit in preventable deaths.
Actual change would require the desire to deal with these systemic boundaries head on, for the sake of the animals and the residents who care about them.
Jill Dyche, Los Angeles
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To the editor: What sort of reputational rehabilitation of Staycee Dains is that this? I used to be a volunteer at East Valley Animal Shelter from November 2023 by means of July 2024. In fact our animal shelters are underfunded and understaffed. The workers that I noticed and bought to know did their finest, as did the handfuls of volunteers. What’s worse is that the accelerated euthanasia schedule for canines and cats was designed by one individual: Dains. But this text makes it seem to be not one of the shelters’ issues are her fault — simply as she does.
Judy Graff, Studio Metropolis
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To the editor: One more glorious article from the supremely educated author Dakota Smith. I used to be a reasonably common attendee at L.A. Animal Shelters Fee conferences throughout Dains’ 12 months. I’ve seen her in motion and provides her excessive marks. Until funding for LAAS is dramatically elevated, I don’t see any high quality basic supervisor candidate eager to enter that battle.
Lisa Edmondson, Los Angeles
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To the editor: The Los Angeles Instances publishes one other expose on the dismal situations of L.A. shelters and nothing adjustments. What must occur for this metropolis to rent an efficient basic supervisor who can proper this damaged system and really assist animals keep nicely and get out alive? It’s unhappy and irritating. I, like Daines, keep up at night time interested by good canines leaving the shelter in rubbish luggage. If Gandhi was proper that the greatness of a society is judged by how they deal with their animals, then we’re failing miserably.
Melissa Klaskin, Los Angeles
