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DAW Meeting March
30, 2006
Ida Noack, who will soon be applying to the Burbank City Council
to be appointed as the DAW for Burbank presented on the subject of
Hoarding. Ida who has attended seminars and read literature on
the subject, described the basic types of hoarders and also talked
about the various agencies and social tools (social workers, mental health
professionals, etc.) that are available as a means to help hoarders so
that they may gradually give up the animals they are often hurting in the
process of hoarding. She announced that the Second Annual Compulsive
Hoarding Conference will be in Long Beach May 17-18, 2006.
Charlotte Laws and other DAWS questioned her about Red Enright. There was
talk about a hoarding task force for Southern California.
Committee Chair Reports and sign-up – Sign up lists on the table, and
chairs gave reports about the committee activities.
East Valley Shelter Committee Chair Tiffany Krog was unable to
attend, but will give a report at the next DAW meeting. Elephant Committee
Chair David Hernandez asked that everyone forward letters to the LA Daily
News about the elephant situation.
Platform
Committee Chair Rich McLellan discussed legislative ideas to improve
animal welfare. He made the point that while saving the life of one animal
is important and fulfilling, certain pieces of legislation, if passed, can
save the lives of thousands of animals He talked about his ideas for
no-kill.
1.
If you want to sell an animal, you have to register with
animal control. The registration number must be published.
2. Micro-chipping of all pets
3. Animal Control should be run along the lines of the DMV. Animal Control
should not be a kennel; it should be a data center.
4. The goal is to regulate breeding. It needs to be mandated that only
as many animals should be coming into the population as there permanent
homes for them.
5. Records must be kept of every sale -- comparable to the record kept
of the sale of an automobile.
6. It should be mandatory to publish the registration number at any point
of sale.
7. It should be mandatory to register new owner with animal control where
the new owner & the animal go to reside.
8. Animal Control means regulation of sellers.
9. There should be registration of everyone who owns an animal.
10. If your animal gets lost, you have to notify Animal Control within 72
hours.
11. All of the above must be enforced.
Discussion about SB 236 to regulate breeding and selling of animals came
within one vote of passage in 2001. It will be brought before the
legislature again in 2007.
Discussion about three bills that should be supported: AB 210 -- Field
coursing of rabbits, hartes, foxes.
SB 1578 -- (Lowenthal) prohibits tethering for more than four hours.
AB 3027 -- (Levine) would change provisions re maximum allowable number of
pets per household.
E-mails and phone calls don't get much attention, but concise clear
well-written letters or faxes in support of or in opposition to certain
bills, do. There is a most advantageous time during which the writing
of such letters and faxes will make the strongest impression on
legislative committees, usually just before a bill comes to a committee
for consideration.
There is so much legislation pouring through both houses in Sacramento, it
would require the hiring of a secretary to keep track of it all.
Pacific Palisades DAW Kris Kelly expressed enthusiasm for the hiring of a
secretary on at least a part-time basis.
Another point of view was that if Rich Mc Lellan simply notified the DAWS
at
the appropriate times regarding important pro-animal legislation, then it
might
be very possible (without the hiring of a secretary) for the DAWS to write
letters and send faxes re two to three important pieces of legislation per
month.
There was a discussion of possible meeting dates with some members
expressing support for returning to meeting on Sunday night. Charlotte
Laws reported that the owner of the Lake Balboa Sun. night meeting site
was asking for a very high rent. It was decided to check out alternative
spaces
and change to, possibly a Sun. night meeting time or a meeting time on
some
other weeknight -- other than Thurs.
DAW Elizabeth Wittlesbach initiated a discussion re dog that may be put
down or returned to family in which it has a history of suffering abuse.
DAW Kris Kelly reported on the Animal Cruelty Task Force to the effect
that her group is merging with another group.
Reseda DAW Missy Woodward spoke re volunteering with the LAAS. She
made the point that all it takes is to do one orientation at one shelter.
Charlotte Laws passed out volunteer flyers to be taken to Neighborhood
Council meetings in order to recruit LAAS volunteers from our
neighborhoods.
Following is a condensation of Missy's remarks in Missy's own words:
Heidi Hubner asked me to speak on behalf of the LAAS Volunteer section to
solicit the assistance of DAWs to help with MPAs (Mobile Pet Adoptions)
most specifically.
She asked that DAWs speak about volunteering to their respective
Neighborhood Councils to get involvement in the community and create new
avenues for MPAs throughout the City. DAWs will have a special
‘designation’ as volunteers such as the Best Friends volunteers as our
time is limited and spread amongst other volunteer groups and that we
would not have to commit to the 8 hours per month as all other volunteers.
She said we just need to go through orientation at any of the 6
shelters which are usually on weekends. At that point, she will put
together a special orientation regarding driving the trucks to the events
and handling all the paperwork. She would expect that we are all
good at screening so the focus is more on the mechanics of the adoption
process through LAAS and the care of the animals under our watch.
This is the best opportunity to show our cooperation with LAAS to help
them adopt out as many animals as possible and help them increase the
number of MPAs they can do every year by creating new opportunities within
our neighborhoods. The other suggestion is to find new locations and
think “out of the box” when creating a MPA and not just hold them at
adoption collaboratives with other groups where most people already have
all the animals they want. I had suggested that DAWs ban together
and do them as a group – perhaps 5 or so DAW areas do one together in a
mutually close area to each other.
I also stated that I felt we could commit to two per year as the DAW
group. DAWs would also be able to participate in other MPAs if they
choose that are not DAW created.
Paula Maxwell spoke re the appalling conditions found at the Angel Puss
rescue site. She asked for help from the membership re the adopting of
animals found at Angel Puss, also donations and other assistance re
providing of
veterinary services to heal the various injuries and illnesses. Maxwell
also
displayed photos of the horrific conditions in which some of the animals
were
found. She named three veterinarians who were donating their services to
the effort, among them, Dr. Mark Raboni as well as the Studio City and
Woodland Hills Animal hospitals.
DAW Secretary George Shea spoke to the membership re progress on the
glue trap campaign. Shea has been working with PETA on a campaign to
persuade large chain drugstores and supermarkets to stop selling glue
traps. Since last summer, the project has been very successful,
eliminating glue traps from more than 10,000 stores around the U.S. The
latest public success has been with CVS Stores (5,400 stores nationwide.)
Shea noted that Rite Aid, which has more than 3000 stores nationally and
about 250 in S. Calif. is a holdout and has refused to cooperate with the
campaign. Shea urged the membership to write letters to Rite Aid
urging it to stop selling glue traps. He also urged DAWS members to stop
patronizing Rite Aid if it refuses to cooperate.
Shea also urged members to monitor glue traps in various drugstores and
super-
markets and other retail outlets in S, Calif. to verify that stores that
have agreed
to give up the sale of glue traps are keeping their word.
Shea also urged the membership to submit DAWS reports to him for March,
2006. He noted that, while 20 DAWS did submit reports for Feb. 2006, at
least
a dozen others did not and urged these to submit both Feb. & March
reports. He
noted that a total of only five DAWS attended a neighborhood council
meeting in Feb. He noted that there were strong extenuating circumstances
(no neighborhood council meeting; DAW only very recently appointed, etc.)
that kept a number of DAWS from attending. He noted the possibility that
some DAWS, while very active in other ways, may have an aversion to
attending NC meetings and/or may simply lack the time. He suggested that
in some locales, a two DAW system may be desirable -- one DAW to attend
the NC meetings, another to perform other pro-active works on behalf of
animals.
(Note: PETA has, following the meeting, informed Shea that it is
optimistic
re succeeding in negotiations with Rite Aid and that no letters are
urgently
needed at this time; however, a monitoring of all chain drug &
supermarket
stores is requested.)
Charlotte Laws raised the question of electing or appointing a permanent
DAWS representative to attend Animal Commission meetings. As the hour was
getting late, the matter was briefly discussed and then tabled for another
meeting.
Next was a discussion led by Sharon Brewer re the situation in Lake Balboa
Park. Ducks and other animals are being endangered by a woman who arrives
at 8:30 AM every morning to feed the animals. Ducks and other animals need
to cross a heavily traveled road to get to the food. A number of animals
have been killed by motorists traveling at high speeds on their way to
work. Brewster has received no cooperation from officers working in the
park. A number of possible solutions to the problem were discussed.
Meeting was adjourned. Next meeting will be on Monday, April 24, 2006 at
7:00 pm. |