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Los Angeles, CA – Conservation groups win suit to force city to conduct required environmental review of feral cat program.

Six conservation groups won a lawsuit on Friday against the City of Los Angeles and its Department of Animal Services to stop the practice of encouraging feral cat colonies until the legally required environmental impact reviews are performed.

The Los Angeles Superior Court found that the City of Los Angeles had been “secretly and unofficially” promoting “Trap-Neuter-Return,” a controversial program to allow feral cats to run free, even while the Department of Animal Services promised to conduct an environmental review of the program.

The Court ordered the City to stop implementing TNR.

The plaintiffs, The Urban Wildlands Group, Endangered Habitats League, Los Angeles Audubon Society, Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon Society, Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society, and the American Bird Conservancy, sued the City in June 2008 to ensure that the controversial program to sanction and maintain feral cat colonies was not implemented before a full and public environmental analysis.

The groups decided legal action was necessary after their investigation revealed that the City had been unofficially implementing a so-called “Trap-Neuter-Return” program and the City repeatedly declined their request to stop implementing the program until environmental review was performed.

Although the City insisted that no such program existed, the Court concurred with the conservation groups and concluded in its Friday ruling that, “implementation of the program is pervasive, albeit ‘informal and unspoken.’”

“Our goal was to see that the City follows the California Environmental Quality Act by thoroughly assessing the program’s impacts on the environment and considering alternatives and mitigation measures before making specific programmatic decisions,” said Babak Naficy, attorney for plaintiffs.

“Feral cats have a range of impacts to wildlife, human health, and water quality in our cities. The impacts of institutionalizing the maintenance of feral cat colonies through TNR should be discussed in an open, public process before any such program is implemented,” Naficy said.

In June 2005, the Los Angeles Board of Animal Services Commissioners adopted TNR as the “preferred method of dealing with feral cat populations as its official policy.” Thereafter, the Board directed the General Manager to prepare an analysis of the program under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

This analysis was never completed but the Department implemented major portions of the program anyway.

The Department issued coupons for free or discounted spay/neuter procedures for feral cats being returned to neighborhoods and open spaces, including parks and wildlife areas. It also began refusing to accept trapped feral cats or to issue permits to residents to trap feral cats. The Department assisted outside organizations that performed TNR by donating public space, advertising their services, and referring the public to their TNR programs. The Department even encouraged and assisted in establishing new feral cat colonies at City-owned properties. The Superior Court recognized these actions as illegal implementation of the TNR program that could have an impact on the environment and enjoined the City from further pursuing the program until it complied with CEQA.

Dr. Travis Longcore, Science Director of The Urban Wildlands Group, said, “Feral cats are documented predators of native wildlife. We support spaying and neutering all cats in Los Angeles, which is the law, but do not support release of this non-native predator into our open spaces and neighborhoods where they kill birds and other wildlife.”

Even when fed by humans, cats instinctively hunt prey, including birds, lizards and small mammals. Colonies of feral cats, often thriving with the aid of handouts from humans, harm native wildlife and contaminate water bodies with fecal bacteria.

Longcore continued, “TNR is promoted as a way to reduce feral cat populations but scientific research shows that 70–90% of cats must be sterilized for cat populations to decline. This is virtually impossible to achieve in practice, but population reduction can be achieved with only 50% removal.”

The City must now stop its TNR program and any further proposal to implement such a program must undergo objective scientific review as part of the CEQA process. This will ensure that the public has adequate opportunity to comment and that significant impacts on parks, wildlife, water quality, and human health are avoided.

For further information about Trap-Neuter-Return see:

• Longcore, T., C. Rich, and L. M. Sullivan. 2009. Critical assessment of claims regarding management of feral cats by trap–neuter–return. Conservation Biology 23(4):887–894. http://www.ca.audubon.org/chapter_assets/Longcoreetal2009ConBio.pdf
• Williams, T. 2009. Felines fatales. Audubon Magazine. Sept-Oct, pp. 30–38. http://audubonmagazine.org/incite/incite0909.html
• Hat Tip: http://tnrrealitycheck.com/legalert.asp

About:
The Urban Wildlands Group is dedicated to the conservation of species, habitats, and ecological processes in urban and urbanizing areas.

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Bashful  is going to be euthanized in the next few days for space.  He’s young and very healhty – a wonderful dog.  He is a loving and sweet boy, Min Pin/Chi mix it looks like.  He’s about 20 pounds, gets along great with other dogs.  Just wants a home and to be loved and safe.  North Central thinks he is wonderful too and has kept him alive trying to get him out.  If you could give this guy a home, please call 213-485-5767 and ask about impound# A1066560.  The North Central Shelter is located at: 3201 Lacy Street, Los Angeles 90031

Snowflake at East Valley

UPDATE: 12/11 Snowflake was rescued today! Thank you everyone who networked him!

SNOWFLAKE is a loving, outgoing 10-month-old white male kitty. He’s so wonderful that they’ve kept him at East Valley since October 24th! When I visited him he just rubbed again the cage bars and wanted me to pet him. This amazing boy has a very slight cold and is in medical and on the Red List. With a little Clavamox (oral antibiotic), he will be in perfect health! Impound # A1072776. A rescue group was supposed to save him Sunday, but never showed up. Urgent situation.

VIDEO of Snowflake (need to use IE)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVXYI9pi9lE

East Valley Shelter, IMPOUND # A1072776
14409 Vanowen Street, Van Nuys 91405
Ask for Veronica – New Hope Coordinator
818-756-9323

Min Pin Amber

I just talked to Veronica about Amber.  She is one of the animals that really needs to be focused on.  She was found by construction workers.  They think she was hit by a car.  She has a broken pelvis, but has been at East since Nov. 7th, so the bone is healing well with cage rest.  You can see how well she moves in the video. 

She is the sweetest little girl – a Min Pin, about 1½ yrs-old.  Gets along great with other dogs!  She’s just wiggles she get so happy when you talk to her/pet her. They’ve kept her so long because she’s incredibly loving and sweet.  Veronica really wants to save her. Urgent situation.  

VIDEO of Amber (need to use IE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l598sn6M1E 

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that you can now register and/or receive updates on my website/blog www.lifesapet.com  which is a animal rescue site for Los Angeles County. You now can post your rescue/shelter cats or dogs, adoption events, news articles, DNA’s, Lost and found, and rescued animals directly to the site absolutely FREE.

*This site is open to all rescuers, not just 501(c) groups. It is dedicated to all homeless animals* 

Your posts will then be automatically shown on twitter and facebook for more exposure! You can also opt in to receive updates in your email whenever there is a new post on the site.

To register: Under the title “Register And Post” in the left sidebar, click on register and sign up. It’s fast and easy! Your email is never given out to anyone.

If you don’t need to register and just want email updates, sign in on the right sidebar (or at the bottom of this post) “Subscribe To Lifesapet” and you can elect to receive an email for each post, or you can elect to get the digest version which is all the posts for that day in one email.

Please email me if you have any questions or suggestions-

Thank you for your support and saving lives of homeless animals! We are all in this together!

Caryn Klein-Administrator cklein@lifesapet.com

Tiny Tim from SLA

WOW!!!! Michelle an ANGEL from Santa Barbara stepped forward and offered to take him to a really great vet that her husband works at for treatment/surgery, AND foster/rehab him, AND help with his medical bills!!!! AMAZING!!!
Mary Ann is on her way to the shelter NOW to pick him up and take him to… Calabasas to meet up with Michelle where he will FINALLY get the treatment he needs and end the pain and a chance at LIFE!!
WOW. IN AWE..THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR SUPPORTING Tiny Tim!! Without all of your help networking his desperate plea and your donations this little pup wouldn’t of made it out. He had less than 24hrs left to live and little hope. YOU CHANGED HIS FATE!? Absolutely INCREDIBLE RESCUE!!!

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A1077784 ( Tiny Tim ) – MALE, TAN AND WHITE CHIHUAHUA – SMOOTH COATED.  Shelter: SOUTH L.A. Condition: INJURED Age: 6 MO
This animal has been at the shelter since 11/19/2009 and on this list since 11/26/2009 . SOUTH L.A.

He was born into this world just 6 mo ago. He was probably wiggly, and bouncy like all puppies. Timmy didnt get to enjoy that stage very long.

Thankfully, on 11/19 a good samaritan found him wandering in LA, beat up, limping badly – and brought him to the South LA shelter. The staff told me that while smaller wounds have healed, Timmy has a right femoral hip fracture. They note necrosis – it is a very old injury.

The shelter experience,  in and of itself is very hard on small dogs, but Tim has managed to win over staff and vets alike, even while in terrible pain. ( one of the vets personally extended his time, because she likes him so much )

Timmy’s surgery estimate was given as ” under 2,000.00 ” by the shelter vet. Tim is caught in a catch 22 – redlisted because of an untreated fracture, unaffordable for most people. So he lingers, day after day, in pain – hoping someone will carry him out of there.

I called various vets, and networked out to other rescue ladies I know – no vets could give an estimate without an xray. The shelter vets will not send an xray of an unadopted dog. Timmy’s last day is Wed. ( Dec.9th ) even with his extention.

Luckily, I was referred to Dr. Coghlan, and luckily the shelter vet would speak to the Dr. if she called. From the information given by the shelter vet to Dr. Coghlan, she arrived at an 800.00 surgery estimate.

If just a few more good samaritans could show up for this little man, and help bring down that price, and make him within the budget of a good family – maybe someone willing to let Timmy stay for alittle while and recover from his surgery ? He promises to not take up alot of room ( just in your heart ) Please help this lost little lamb, begin a new life – filled with love and stability .. pain free.

The Kris Kelly Foundation is willing to help this dog if we can gather some donations to help with the surgery. Someone mentioned $800.00 so if we can start working on getting money  for this guy, Kris Kelly can take him in and get him all fixed up and good as new. 

Donations can be made to Kris Kelly via Paypal at        www.thekriskellyfoundation.org  

Please help her rescue another life!!

THANK YOU!!!

This is Bambi.  He’s an adorable Fawn Colored Chi.  He looks like Bambi with his long legs.  He’s just a baby at 4 months.  Bambi is so loving and wants out of his cage to be with people.  He’s been at East since Nov. 12th & needs out now.  Has a slight cold. Shelter 818-756-9323. Impound # A1076433.

VIDEO of Bambi (need to use IE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3GHcaUk3-k