40 Pets Have Vanished From L.A.'s North Central Animal Shelter: 'They Were the Young, Cute Ones'

By Simone Wilson Wed., Jun. 1 2011 at 9:10 AM

Where have all the puppies gone?

No, this is not a Disney movie about a herd of adorable animals who scheme up a shelter-break and roam the adorable streets of Silver Lake.

Nope. This is some fishy corrupt-city-worker business, according to today's Los Angeles Times, which compares the mysterious vanishing of 64 "dogs, cats and other animals" from the city's six animal shelters over the last year -- and 39 from the North Central Shelter alone -- to recent city-department scandals like bribery within the Department of Building and Safety and a traffic-officer-made porn. (Really.)

If the missing critters (aww) were your average lot of mangy old mutts, that'd be one thing. But Brenda Barnette, general manager of the Animal Services Department, has noticed a pattern in the type of pets who tend to disappear:

"They were the young ones, the cute ones," Barnette said. "They were ones that would have been likely to have been sold or be a nice gift for someone." The majority of the unaccounted-for animals were dogs, Barnette said.

L.A. Animal Services Department

Where does Mayor V think he's going with that young, cute one?

What's being implied here, obviously, is that shelter workers might be selling the cutest of the caged beasts on the cute-beast black market for cash.

Not quite as terrible as accepting bribes for sketchy building approvals or paying some streetwalkers to let you spank them over the hood of your cop car. (Especially since Angelenos willing to pay top dollar for their housepets are probably those most likely to pamper the things to death, Paris Hilton purse style. Not too shabby a fate for a street orphan.)

But the vanishing-puppy scandal is being taken as seriously as the worst of them:

The Associated Press reports that "investigators with the city's police and personnel departments began probing the disappearances in April. Since then, the animal services agency has added new locks at the Lincoln Heights shelter and changed some of the personnel assigned there."

Have you seen these pups? Or perhaps you payed big bucks to a man in a "City of L.A." uniform for a doe-eyed pit bull terrier with a mad case of the fleas? Call Animal Services today: (323) 276-5845.

And in the future, save yourself some cash and corruption charges and just adopt straight from the shelter. Quick -- before city workers steal all the best ones.

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

Tags:

Animal Services Department, animal shelter, bribery, city workers, pets, scandal

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isadream

I do not know what to say-all this anti dog and anti breeding views have created such a huge demand that now we have black market shelter dogs, rescues illegally transporting sick dogs across several state lines, rescues trying to adopt out feral puppies that attacked and bit them. I am just literally speechless--Never in a million years would I have thought it would get this bad.

Monalsa Liz-ardo

I lost an adult female cocker spaniel a few months ago. After she escaped from the yard, one week later, she was at the local animal shelter. Because we just found her, she wasn't really ours so we can adopt her on adoption day. We weren't sure we wanted to adopt because we already have one, but wanted to know if she was adopted because she was such a playful sweet dog. Yet the pound has no record of her ever being there but I identified her, her stall at the pound and saw the card on the stall that says her breed and age and stall #. I guess she was adopted for cash.

PitVictim

I bet you folks don't know that Breeder Barnette has given keys to volunteers whereas before an employee had to open the kennel for a volunteer. So the volunteers now have access whereas they didn't before. Bet you didn't know that volunteers also have access to the computer files with our private information, if you have a licensed dog, thanks to Breeder Barnette.

PitVictim

Sorry, but to only name employees is disgraceful. I bet every penny I have that this will be traced back to volunteers. I have rarely heard of employees doing such but I have heard many times about volunteers doing it. You get those fanatical volunteers who think that something might be euthanized and they chose to "save" it by stealing it. Stop being so quick to blame employees, the humane community attracts more weirdos and kooks.

anonymous

I sure hope those pets weren't sold to those greedy "non-profit" shelters who collect thousands of dollars even as they make it near impossible for eligible pet lovers to adopt the animals. My experience with those agencies has been such that they should be shooed out of collecting certain breeds and then profiting from them. They want to hang on to the animals cause if they were quickly adopted, then all those workless women would have no outlet for their free time. These agencies need to be audited. They are arrogant, greedy and worthless.

Tom

What about volunteers? Barnette has given them the keys to the castle. When you go in they take over and the employees work for them. The volunteer had a key when we were at the Lacy shelter. We were trying to talk to an employee who seemed to really know animals and a volunteer came up and interrupted and was insulting to the employee and my wife. We left and went to the Pasadena shelter.

Angela Garcia as NeonMosfet

Or maybe someone is trying to make a case for the big, bear, ugly ones, the ones you can't carry in a purse. They always have a rough time of it in a city. They need a fenced in yard. The shojo and bishy pets can always find homes.

Angela Garcia as NeonMosfet