General Manager of Los Angeles Animal Services Gabrielle Amster shares her plan for the Department.
This is a summary of the video linked below which I wrote.
She stated the main problem today is pet overpopulation. During Covid more people wanted pets because they were stuck at home. This caused some to start breeding more pets. Covid also caused a lack of spay neuter services due to the lockdown.
LAAS provided 65,000 spay neuter surgeries within the last year. We still have to euthanize because of pet overpopulation and shelter space. Even with these issues live release rate for dogs is 90-91% and for cats it's 80-85% depending upon time of year and shelter (there are six shelters).
She stated they euth for space and behavior. After some pets are in kennels for long periods of time their mental and physical health can decline.
Skid Row is a complicated issue. There are some good pet owners and some who are neglecting the animals just like in any community. In 2025 LAAS and LAPD teamed up in Skid Row. There is now one decidated officer just for Skid Row. We also have great partners on the ground there (Street Vet, Best Friends, .....)
We are willing to work with outside sources in a public private partnership. The City Council agreed to work with outside sources. We just must first do our due diligence. We want to find solutions. We are doing an RFI (Research for Information) for a public private partnership to see if it's feasible.
We just received a $14,000,000 grant from Best Friends and ASPCA to hire 23 new positions.
Animal Advocates' comment: Back in early 2000 we were concerned about the department killing wildlife and the high euthanasia numbers for cats, dogs and bunnies. We started going to LA Animal Services Commission meetings to speak about these issues and learned a lot. We joined the spay neuter Committee, Shelter Task Force and we became a New Hope foster partner. Our founder was later appointed a member of the Prop F Committee which oversaw the construction of the new shelters. She was also approved to be a Commissioner. We fostered some domestic animals and took thousands of wild animals for rehab and release over the years. We got the 2004 Wildlife Policy passed so they wouldn't euthanize wildlife and would instead give the animals to wildlife rehabilitators. Instead of complaining and attacking we helped the department to help animals.
To all of those who are only complaining, yelling and attacking the department, get out there and help! Adopt animals, foster animals, volunteer at the shelter, donate a grant for more spayneuter, fund your own spaymobile to spayneuter more animals, go help animals on Skid Row directly, pick up and foster animals from the street, go help homeless people with their pets, stand at the door of the shelter and offer to take people's animals before they dump them... Do something instead of just sitting on your behind and pointing a finger. LAAS didn't cause pet overpopulation which leads to euthanasia for space. People in Los Angeles caused pet overpopulation. This is your city. Give them an amazing cheap or free idea to save more animals. They'd love to do it. The department needs help. Help them, don't attack them! Attacking them only makes it worse for animals.
- Mary Cummins LinkedIn
- Mary Cummins Meet up
- Animal Advocates custom Facebook name
- Mary Cummins Real Estate blog
- Animal Advocates on Google maps
- Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates
- Mary Cummins biography resume short
- Mary Cummins Real Estate Services
- Animal Advocates fan page at Facebook.com
- Mary Cummins Animal Advocates Squirrel Rescue
- Mary Cummins Animal Advocates on Flickr photos
- Mary Cummins Animal Advocates on Twitter.com
- Mary Cummins on Picasa web photo albums
- Mary Cummins on MySpace.com
- Mary Cummins on Google Blogger Blogspot
- Mary Cummins on YouTube.com videos
- Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates on Classmates
- Mary Cummins on VK
- Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates on Google+
