The city’s Department of Animal Services, which has taken significant criticism while struggling with staffing and budgetary issues in recent years, would get an increase of about $4.75 million in Mayor Karen Bass’ proposed spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year under consideration by the Los Angeles City Council.
The roughly 18% boost in funding would bring the budget for animal services to about $31.7 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1, although the head of the department hopes the City Council will allot even more.
“Due to years of budget and staffing reductions it is critical that front line level resources be restored in order to provide proper care and enrichment for animals while in our shelters,” Annette Ramirez, the department’s interim general manager, wrote in an April 21 letter to the council’s budget committee.
“The Department has been publicly criticized as we struggle to provide the gold standard level of service the animals deserve and our customers expect,” she wrote. “Much of our difficulty in providing this level of service is due to a lack of staffing.”
Volunteers and rescue groups have alleged that animals in the city’s shelters have been neglected, that dogs are not walked and kennels not cleaned as often as they should be – at a time when shelters are more overcrowded in part because owners surrendered their pets during the coronavirus pandemic.
Last October, then-City Councilmember Paul Koretz, who then chaired the council’s Personnel, Audits and Animal Welfare Committee, issued a report which said the Department of Animal Services was a victim of a “chronic budget issue.”
In the mayor’s State of the City address last month, Bass noted that the city is conducting a national search for a leader to head the department “who will make our city a national model for animal welfare.” Brenda Barnette, the department’s former general manager, retired in 2021 after more than a decade at…
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