City Brings Peace to Some Owners of Lost Pets
Community Leaders work with Council Office to Ensure Los Angeles City Dead Animal Collection Unit Gets Notice to Owners
In a new citywide program, all Bureau of Sanitation Dead Animal Collectors now carry microchip scanners to upload identification information or will take tags on any dead animals collected. This information is brought to the Department of Animal Services, who then try to contact the owners of these pets.
This new procedure, spearheaded community volunteers, addressed a tragic gap in the cities services. Prior to the new policy, owners of tagged or micro chipped pets picked up by Dead Animal Collections never knew that their lost pets had been disposed of.
Andrew Garsten, a member of the Echo Park Animal Alliance (EPAA) and Board Member of the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council
(GEPENC) said it was a posting in June 2005 on the EPAA Yahoo discussion board regarding a dog that was killed on Glendale Boulevard that started it off. In the discussion, Christine Peters, co-founder of the EPAA and also a Board Member of GEPENC pointed out a tragic fact – that the Bureau of Sanitation Dead Animal Collection unit did not scan dead animals for microchips (tiny embedded chips that contain unique identification information), nor did it take tags from tagged animals and forward the information to Animal Services."When people heard about this oversight they were justifiably mortified," said Garsten. "They were saying ‘What if Fido got lost, I was looking for him at the shelter, but he already had been found by the city, dead in the streets? I would never know what happened to him.’"
Garsten and Peters got together shortly after the online discussion to discuss the situation, and immediately sought the support of local LA City Council Member Eric Garcetti (CD13). Mitch O’Farrell – currently the District Director for Constituent Services for CD13 – was at the time designated the unofficial "Animal Deputy," and took up this issue.
O’Farrell lobbied for the necessary changes in procedures and proper equipment for the Dead Animal Collections Unit. "We all knew that getting this done would take some time, so we checked in with Mitch every couple of months to see what the progress was," said Peters. In the summer of 2006, Garsten, Peters and O’Farrell were informed that the Dead Animal Collection unit had begun a pilot program to scan and collect information at its Central Division.
Early this month, Garsten again checked in with O’Farrell to see what the progress was. "Mitch called the Bureau of Sanitation and got back to me that the program was now being implemented citywide! We were so surprised because they did not notify anyone," said Garsten.
"The initial report we had was that they have not found a lot of animals with microchips or tags," said O’Farrell. "But for the pet owners who do find out the final disposition of their animals, for us to allow them to stop the worrying, to make peace with the passing of their companions, it is something we just had to do."
For interviews or more information please contact Christine Peters at 323.860.3294, e-mail: cp007@sbcglobal.net or Andrew Garsten at 323.702.1647, e-mail andrew.garsten@sbcglobal.net