Complaint says animal shelter has ‘egregious’ kill rate

Agoura facility chooses euthanasia over rehabilitation, Oct. 4 lawsuit alleges



ABUSE ALLEGATION–The entrance to the Agoura Animal Care Center on Agoura Road. The facility’s kill rate is an unacceptable 64%, critics say.

 

The impound kill rate at the Agoura animal shelter has been targeted in a new lawsuit that says Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control, the Agoura shelter’s umbrella agency, stands in violation of a California law aimed at preventing only the most troubled animals from being euthanized.

Enacted in 1998, the state’s Hayden Act made it a goal to end the euthanizing of animals in California’s municipal shelters by 2010. Under the act, shelters are required to release any impounded animal scheduled for euthanasia to a nonprofit animal rescue or adoption organization unless that animal was “irremediably suffering” from serious injury or severe illness.

But in papers filed Oct. 4 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, plaintiffs Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center Inc. (SPARC) and Lucky Pup Dog Rescue assert Animal Care and Control and its director of the last the 20 years, Marcia Mayeda, have flouted the law by routinely denying requests by animal rescue and adoption organizations to “redeem,” or take over the care of impounded animals scheduled for euthanasia that are not irremediably suffering.

In addition to the Agoura Hills location, Animal Care and Control operates six other shelters: Baldwin Park, Carson, Castaic, Downey, Lancaster and Palmdale. The countywide agency employs more than 40 veterinarians and registered veterinary technicians to care of about 19,000 animals per year.

The plaintiffs’ claims of ongoing violation of the Hayden Act are twofold. First, they say DACC imposes “burdensome procedural requirements” on nonprofits that seek to redeem animals while requiring the groups meet “a number of substantive obligations nowhere present” in governing state law to become approved adoption partners. Second, they say the county denies requests by pre-approved adoption partner organizations like SPARC to take animals that have supposed “behavioral issues,” which, according to the plaintiffs, “is not a justification for withholding an animal under the Hayden Act.”

For example, in February 2020, SPARC’s request to redeem from Agoura Animal Care Center a dog named Gunnar was denied because the Department of Animal Care and Control “determined he had behavioral problems,” according to the lawsuit. Most recently, in June, DACC allegedly denied another SPARC request, this one pertaining to an impounded dog named Winston, again for supposed behavioral problems.

“The consequence(s) of these denials were severe,” the lawsuit states. Both dogs were euthanized. “The result of DACC’s willful violation of state law is stark,” the lawsuit continues. “While an estimated less than 1% of impounded animals are irremediably suffering from a serious injury or severe illness, in the last 12 months alone DACC has euthanized 30% of its impounded animals.”

According to the lawsuit, filed on the plaintiffs’ behalf by Santa Monica-based Sullivan & Triggs LLP, the situation at Agoura Animal Care Center on Agoura Road is “egregious,” write attorneys Sheldon Eisenberg, Gillian Kuhlmann and Nairi Shirinian.

SPARC, the lawsuit states, has redeemed impounded animals scheduled for euthanasia from DACC shelters, caring for and finding them new homes.

“The same DACC shelter (Agoura Animal Care Center) that has repeatedly denied SPARC the right to redeem impounded animals,” the filing continues, “euthanized 64% of its impounded animals over the last 12 months, in contrast to adopting out only 21% of the animals it had admitted in the same time period.”

Director Mayeda did not respond to a request for comment. Don Belton, public information officer for Animal Care and Control, told The Acorn, “This is ongoing litigation so we cannot provide a response.”

The plaintiffs want a judge to order the county to stop refusing requests by rescue organizations and start releasing to them “any impounded animal scheduled for euthanasia unless that animal is irremediably suffering from a serious illness or severe injury.” As an alternative, plaintiffs’ attorneys say, the county should be ordered to show why it won’t release the animals in question.

San Diego-based Lucky Pup Dog Rescue was formed in 2010 and is dedicated “to saving the lives of lost, abandoned, abused and neglected animals confined in California’s animal shelters.” Founded two years later as its city’s shelter, the no-kill Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center “provides humane care and treatment for the stray and abandoned animals of Santa Paula as well as educational, spay/neuter, vaccination, licensing services to the community’s pets.”

In their complaint, both entities claim to have suffered financial losses “by being forced to divert resources from (their) regular programs to, among other things, consult on, monitor and investigate (Los Angeles County’s) failure to act in conformance with state law.”

Agoura Hills resident Rebecca Arvizu told The Acorn in an email that the case is important to her.

“I rescued a dog 15 years ago who was on death row at the Agoura pound as a ‘biter,’” she wrote. “The pound manager refused to release Buffett to a 501(c)(3) rescue group. I had to threaten to sue before Buffett was released to me. I agreed to sign a liability release. My vet confirmed that Buffett was abused, but the pound manager failed to investigate.

“Buffett was a good boy and never bit anyone,” Arvizu added, “attending the annual Doo-Dah parade with other rescue dogs and partying with the parrot heads.”

Arvizu is urging an independent investigation into all seven L.A. County animal facility operations to determine if they are following all state laws.

Follow Scott Steepleton on Twitter @scottsteepleton.