Animal shelter critic said a mouthful––about herself

Animal shelter critic said a mouthful––about herself

On Dec. 9 Donna Lackmeyer of Agoura Hills wrote that she "had a horrendous experience with Agoura Animal Control."

As I read her letter, I was expecting her to describe some horrific act committed by someone at animal control. Instead, I found that Lackmeyer did what a lot of people do today. She shirked her own responsibility and blamed someone else for her own misdeeds.

By her own admission, her small Pekingese, Coco, got out of the yard because her husband had left the gate open. Lackmeyer then attempted to retrieve her dog from animal control, but was unable to because she failed to keep copies of her dog’s vaccination records. Instead, she had to wait for her veterinarian to provide this information to animal control. And during this debacle she brings her 9-year-old daughter to the shelter, as if she thought the shelter actually had visiting hours.

Lackmeyer described everything that animal control officers are supposed to do and what they are paid to do. She may not have liked the attitude of the officer that she met, but I suspect by the tone of her letter she probably brought a little bit of the attitude to the shelter with her.

May I suggest that her bringing her upset 9-year-old into this fray was just to stir the pot even more. She could have told her daughter that mistakes were made by leaving the gate open and failing to properly maintain veterinary records at home.

A more valuable lesson for her daughter was to admit her mistakes and tell her that these are the consequences for not properly securing your pet and maintaining vaccination records.

Instead, she taught her daughter to write letters to The Acorn and blame someone else.

Phil Strenkowski

Oak Park