Benevolence  |  Celebrity   |  Hoarders  |  Katrina Animal News  | Legal Stuff  |  No Kill  |  Shelter News  |  Zoos

October 14,2005

Hon. Antonio Villaraigosa
Mayor, City of Los Angeles
City Hall, Room 303
200 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA  90012

Dear Mayor Villaraigosa,

I have just been notified of my replacement on the Board of Animal Service Commissioners. (This is not totally unwelcome, given the present General Manager.)  I will serve until my replacement is confirmed and I wish that nominee all the best in doing what is right for the animals and representing your administration.

In 2000, I founded the Coalition of Pets & Public Safety in order to support the City of Los Angeles in its new spay and neuter ordinance, an ordinance for which you actively advocated. 

I personally contributed $160,000.00 to buy the first mobile spay and neuter van for the Department. 

I was able to persuade people like David Murdock (DOLE), Jeffrey Katzenberg (Dreamworks), Bob Peterson (Peterson Automotive), John Anderson (TOPA Equities), Donald Kendall(PepsiCo), Paula Kent-Meehan(REDKEN), Aaron Spelling (Spelling Productions), Erivan Haub (Atlantic & Pacific), Geoff Palmer, Mrs. Kirk Kerkorian, David Kissinger, Priscilla Presley, Father Maurice Chase, Debbie Reynolds, Brooke Shields and others to join the Coalition. 

So far the Coalition has expended a total of $670,000 on behalf of the City's spay and neuter program.

This summer I was in the process of personally buying a second spay & neuter van, at a cost of $180,000.00, for the City, before the Department totally dropped the ball and awarded the new mobile spay and neuter contract to an operator (the Sam Simon Foundation) that previously operated its van three days per week using private funding.  Simon's representative stated publicly before the Commission that they were willing to run a second van in order not to lose the three free days for the City.  However, the Department awarded the contract without obtaining any kind of assurance to that effect.  Now that they have the contract, they apparently are no longer willing to do so.  Instead, the City is paying for five days and  lost the additional three days.

     I sat on the Animal Regulation Commission years ago and was reappointed this last time, without solicitation, by Mayor Hahn. This happened even though I supported your first bid for the mayoralty (attending a breakfast at the Regency Club, cocktails in Sherman Oaks, etc). 

I belong to many civic and charitable organizations and my husband sat on the Airport Commission, had a presidential appointment to West Point, sat on various corporate and bank boards. He is also a founder of the Music Center, etc. I have run a very successful business for the last 20 years. My husband and I have a net worth of over 60 million dollars.

All of this is to say that I certainly don't fit the profile of an activist or a fanatic. Unfortunately it appears that any member of the humane community who object to the current General Manager is presently being seen in the mind of your administration in a manner that is unfair, unreasonable and detrimental to both your decision-making and political well being. 

I do not belong to the Animal Defense League (ADL) (and neither do any of your other Animal Services Commissioners). In fact, I have only met one member of that organization once. I don't even belong to any local animal or rescue groups.

 
Instead of fighting with the City, I wanted to join with the City to reduce the yearly kill rate of at least 36,000 animals, which, since the inception of the mobile spay and neuter van, has gone down by 19%. 

It was my pleasure to serve on the Commission over the past 18 months despite the frustrations of seeing our attempts at reforming Department operations thwarted. You have a good Commission and a capable representative in Jim Bickhart. But, as you yourself have acknowledged, the Department is led by an extremely weak and very inexperienced General Manager. I sincerely do not believe the situation can be salvaged without a definitive change in Department leadership. You have nothing to gain and much to lose from allowing the status quo to persist, and I believe your current inaction to be notably uncharacteristic of your activist approach to government.

Sincerely,

Erika Brunson
 

Los Angeles Animal Shelter News

Send Information: AnimalNewsInfo@yahoo.com