A few years ago, the old general manager of LADAS put Linda Gordon in charge of the 153 MILLION DOLLAR BOND FUND to build bigger animal prisons which, (because the "catch and kill", apathetic, incompetent and outdated mindset is still entrenched in the LADAS municipal shelter employees and administrators), the result will merely be the imprisonment of more animals, and eventually the KILLING of even more animals. While Boks and Gordon celebrate the increased number of animal prison cells, and local union 347 celebrate the increased number of union jobs (resulting in increased union money from dues), the animals are in an even WORSE POSITION THEN BEFORE. Remember, if a system is diseased at it's very core, putting some 153 MILLION DOLLAR window dressing over it will do NOTHING to save lives, we repeat NOTHING to save lives, as history has proven, time and time again.

Putting Linda Gordon in charge of ANYTHING is disastrous for the animals, but the old General Manager thought at the time, that by putting her in a back office to oversee the new shelter building fund, she would at least be away from the animals. Problem was, Gordon had NO background in building, architecture or designing humane, user-friendly shelters; the only thing Gordon WAS interested in was: Giving more city contracts to builders, making the union happy by employing more lazy, apathetic union employees and putting expensive sculptures outside some of the new shelters. . .(this will REALLY SAVE ANIMALS!)

It never ceases to amaze us at Animal Defense League LA as to how the City Council and Mayor's office hires and appoints some of the worst individuals to oversee and work for the LADAS. It's as if all the job postings for LADAS administrators and employees must read "Apathetic, uninterested, obese (the fatter the better), uncompassionate, and unskilled individuals, wanted to work in and oversee the six city shelters. . . trained, experienced, capable, compassionate, enthusiastic and innovative individuals need NOT apply."

Linda Gordon, the unskilled, inexperienced individual assigned to oversee the building knows nothing about design nor cares about the innovative ideas and policies that other shelters are using world wide in order to increase adoptions and educate the public. In fact, ADL LA just learned that Linda Gordon and her committee turned down an offer from a private individual to pay for spay/neuter clinics to be built on the new shelter premises for the sole purpose of spaying/neutering privately owned animals for low cost or free.

We knew that Gordon was the wrong person for the position when she gave a boring two hour presentation on the new shelters and not only didn't have information like the sizes of the spay/neuter rooms and the wildlife areas on hand, but concentrated on the awards won for such things as the sculptures and art pieces to be placed in front of the shelters. How many art pieces will save the lives of the over fifty thousand precious animals being killed every year in our six city Death Camps?

Another "red flag" that Gordon wasn't the right individual for this position was her family's behavior at a public meeting that Councilman Zine's office held. Her family appeared as if they just stepped out of the movie "Deliverance" and asked for coyotes and their pups to be killed in her neighborhood. Employees like Gordon, Diliberto, Moriarty, Rainey, etc. MUST have been hired by the Devil himself because no caring, civilized, intelligent person living in the 21st Century could have hired individuals so out of touch, inarticulate and apathetic as these.

THE PUBLIC SHOULD HAVE DEMANDED TO SEE AND TO MAKE PUBLIC THE ARCHITECTS' NAMES, THE BLUE PRINTS, THE SIZES OF THE ROOMS (INCLUDING THOSE FOR WILDLIFE, REPTILES AND GROOMING), AS WELL AS THE SIZE OF THE SPAY/NEUTER CLINICS CONTAINED IN EACH SHELTER. THEY ALSO SHOULD HAVE DEMANDED THAT THE AREA WHERE PEOPLE CAN INTERACT WITH THE ANIMALS BE USER-FRIENDLY. BUT THE PUBLIC WAS TOO BUSY CONCENTRATING ON FILLING POT HOLES IN THEIR STREETS.

Gordon also oversaw the building of the South Central Death Camp four years ago, which is a lousy, poorly planned facility. Reptiles have no adequate housing and are therefore are currently thrown into the grooming sink to die. Animals' paws are being torn up because of the type of flooring used scrapes their paws as they are dragged to their cages, and there is no area where an adopter can interact with the pet they are thinking of adopting.

mayor@lacity.org, laura.chick@lacity.org, tariqkhero@gmail.com, ninekitties@aol.com, councilman.cardenas@lacity.org, councilmember.smith@lacity.org, councilmember.greuel@lacity.org, councilman.rosendahl@lacity.org, councilmember.reyes@lacity.org, councilmember.zine@lacity.org, councilmember.Labonge@lacity.org, councilmember.parks@lacity.org, Jan.Perry@lacity.org, councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org