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Bambi killed while her new family waited in Harbor lobby

Posted July 11th, 2011 in Shelters and tagged , , , , , by Josh

A few minutes ago I read a despicable piece of news… It’s one of those things that literally makes your heart actually hurt from knowing that stuff like this ACTUALLY HAPPENS. The dog pictured below is Bambi (#A1221591). She was located at the Harbor shelter in San Pedro, CA…


I say “was” because Bambi was killed at 12:51p (yesterday/Sunday) WHILE HER FOREVER FAMILY WAS ACTUALLY WAITING IN THE LOBBY FOR HER RELEASE…

Does it get any more awful? I mean, just trying to put myself in that family’s shoes, I can’t. I cannot imagine how they must be feeling, and my thoughts go out to them on this day… Then you have the poor volunteers–who apparently had organized this situation down to a tee, and who were very much aware that her new family was coming in to get her… Pretty much devastating. RIP Bambi, for this kind of stuff is completely avoidable and should have never happened, ever.

So what gives? Which staff member erroneously made this counter-decision? A worthy question that at some point will hopefully have an answer. To me, there is just not an excuse in the world that would ever legitimately justify something like this happening, and it speaks to the supremely poor attention to detail by someone (multiple people?) working on the inside… Fact is that this call had to be made by somebody–15 dogs just don’t euthanize themselves mid-day on a Sunday when numerous kennels are already sitting empty… Hopefully there is going to be a push for some accountability, and not the pushing of this story down the memory hole!

Again, please click HERE to read a public Facebook note on the topic, written by Nicole Salter…

The Harbor facility is one of the LAAS (city) shelters being overseen by Brenda Barnette, who is the general manager for all of the city shelters… At this moment I personally do not have the name of the manager onsite at Harbor, so I guess the only suggestion I can make is to contact Ms. Barnette directly…

Department of Animal Services
221 N. Figueroa St.
5th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone ~ 888-452-7381
Fax ~ 213-482-9511

Brenda Barnette ~ General Manager
213-482-9558
brenda.barnette@lacity.org

Kathleen Davis ~ Asst. General Manager
213-482-9527
kathy.davis@lacity.org

Board of Animal Services Commissioners
Melanie Ramsayer ~ President
Ruthanne Secunda ~ Vice President
Tariq Khero ~ Commissioner
Theresa Macellaro ~ Commissioner
Kathleen Riordan ~ Commissioner

You can call 888-452-7381 to then be directed specifically to Harbor, but according to their website they are closed on Mondays.