Dear Mayor Garcetti,
Two city employees (Annette Ramirez, General Manager of LA Animal Services, and Steven Houchin, City Attorney) and Larry Gross, head of the Animal Services Commission, have all blatantly ignored their own policy regarding animal ownership which has been in effect for 13 years!
On or about March 5, 2022, the West Los Angeles Animal Services Center wrongfully released two cats which belong to VFTA to a total stranger who purportedly adopted them that day. The cats are identified as having the following microchip identification numbers: A2019600, and A2019604
Although Animal services was very promptly notified of this problem, LAAS has refused to lift a finger to recover the cats and return them to us. This refusal flies in the face of the Department’s own policy. LAAS Policy No. 220295P sets forth the Department’s duties in the event of an animal ownership dispute. That policy, which has been on the books for nearly thirteen years, provides that where a microchip exists, the most recent registered owner of the microchip shall be deemed the owner of the animal(s). It is indisputable that VFTA owns these animals.
LAAS’s mystifying refusal to retrieve the cats it has wrongly given away or to even provide us the location information for the cats is contrary to LAAS’s own policies.
We request that you immediately terminate all three of these individuals and replace them with people who care enough to read their own policies which protect animals. We the undersigned take exception to the city paying the salaries of people who break the law and endanger animals.