Shocking video of dog abuse at Baldwin Park shelter

January 28, 10:46 PM
by Kate Woodviolet, LA Pet Rescue Examiner

In another blow to L.A. County's embattled Department of Animal Care and Control, and its longtime Director, Marcia Mayeda, video was released yesterday that clearly shows a County employee abusing and dragging an injured dog across the ground at the Baldwin Park shelter.

This revelation follows a lawsuit filed last year against the County and the Department of Animal Care and Control by the No Kill Advocacy Center, a national shelter reform organization, and two individual rescuers, in the wake of the death of a ten month-old puppy dubbed "Zephyr," allegedly due to severe neglect while in County custody .

According to the No Kill Advocacy Center, "the lawsuit alleges unlawful and abusive treatment of animals at all six Los Angeles County animal shelters."

From a Center press release:
"Among the allegations in the 29-page complaint filed in Superior Court, the County Department of Animal Care and Control routinely:

Kills healthy and treatable animals before their state mandated holding period expires;
Misclassifies animals as “ill” or “injured” in order to kill them before their holding period expires even though the animals are not irremediably suffering as required by state law;
Kills lost animals without making reasonable attempts to find the animals’ owners;
Fails to provide adequate veterinary care to impounded animals, resulting in animal deaths;
Fails to provide adequate nutrition, water, shelter and exercise to impounded animals and to treat the animals humanely and kindly;
Refuses to release animals to rescue groups that are willing to care for the animals until adoptive homes can be found and, instead, kills the animals."
The video of the Baldwin Park shelter incident, released yesterday shows a County employee dragging a large dog across the ground, despite the fact that sections of the video clearly show the dog is injured and having difficulty walking.

Although the video was released by the County only yesterday, in compliance with the California Public Records Act, the incident reportedly occurred on July 1, 2006. Allegations about the incident and the existence of a videotaped record of the events surfaced intermittently in the blogosphere and in June of last year I contacted Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's office to ask about this and several other issues related to allegations of chronic mismanagement by Mayeda and her team at the Department of Animal Care and Control. Yaroslavsky's office responded via email:

"You…expressed a concern about an incident in which a LACDACC employee was videotaped dragging a Rottweiler with a broken back on the ground. The employee who committed this very inhumane act was disciplined and has been permanently re-assigned to a position in which he will have no contact with animals."

(Note: although initial reports indicated that the dog had a broken back, the internal report filed on July 1, 2006 by the Department of Animal Care and Control appears to indicate that the dog in fact had a dislocated hip.)

From this communication with Yaroslavsky's office it's clear that Director Mayeda, the County and the Board of Supervisors were aware the incident took place, and that videotape from the County's own surveillance cameras had recorded it, yet the employee was not charged with a crime, and is reportedly still on the County payroll.