As many of you know, I will take a random day and go down to the shelter with the intention of photographing every single Pit Bull or mix that that specific shelter houses at that time. I’ll then upload that group of photos with the intention of initiating a massive networking blitz for these dogs. I depend on all of you to help me, and hopefully from that we make a big difference in a few of these dogs’ lives. I follow each dog that I photograph, and make public whatever information I learn concerning whether the dog was adopted/rescued/redeemed/killed, etc.

Well, on 9/17/2011 I was at the Carson shelter, and these numbers don’t lie…

50 Pit Bulls/mixes were photographed.
Of those 50, 37 were killed.
Of the 13 that were saved, 2 were redeemed by their owners, and 7 were directly saved through networking efforts that originated on my picture threads.
I say that not to toot my own horn–because I usually play a marginal role once the pictures go live–but more to underscore how big of a difference a simple photograph can potentially make for an innocent shelter dogs life. If you want to volunteer your time, please do that, as these dogs would definitely enjoy the company of any loving and genuine person.

But let’s be clear… What I do should be WELCOMED by Carson, as it HELPS their dogs reach a public audience. My intention is to HELP get the dogs adopted, rescued, saved. You’d think that any shelter would embrace that kind of an organic effort. Unfortunately, politics and a bullying need for an iron curtain rules supreme inside many of these facilities. Their own fear of their “public image” being squandered prohibits them from even allowing genuine people to offer assistance in any kind of a collaborative fashion. They need control of information at all times, and they don’t want any negative press coming from any direction–even if it’s simply just someone telling the truth, aka stating facts, aka bringing light to a situation. They then fear double the public blowback that may come when this information is given to an open public. This is one of this shelter’s many problems, the shrinking from transparency, not unlike Government… The giving the illusion of caring, while they continue to plunder in the shadows–again, not unlike Government. What Carson specifically doesn’t realize is that blowback’s coming when you act like that. People aren’t stupid. Many can see through that charade from the minute it’s trotted out. So why push a willing participant away when he wants to help you adopt out your Pit Bulls, wants to help you lower your kill numbers, etc.? This isn’t a question for me, it’s for them, and unfortunately I’ve been left asking it from the very second that I walked out of Gil Moreno’s office many, many months ago.

But see, even with the (unwanted) networking assistance, their kill-rate was still 74% of all of the Pit Bulls existing on the property on that day in September. That is disgraceful.
You then take the 7 dogs out of the equation that had their rescue’s spring from the Facebook threads, and that kill-rate all of a sudden jumps to 88%!
I mean, what in the hell is going on at Carson? These numbers simply cannot be ignored.

To Carson and the LA County DACC: Since you continue (for now) evading my public records requests, I’ll just simply begin publishing the fractions of numbers that I know to be factual. You got a problem with it? Then either stop this public relations facade & embrace the fact that you actually KILL DOGS, or just stop killing so many dogs! I know that would require putting some kind of effort forth, but that’s your job… Is that that horrible? In my view you need to formulate some alternatives, take long/hard looks at internal policies, do some adoption events, reengage your staff and a certain portion of your volunteers, and drop whatever lazy weight still exists–amongst other things. But start. Do something. Try. Care. Please!