Los Angeles Police and other officials are looking into the disappearance of 64 animals from city shelters over the past year.
LA Animal Service's new general manager Brenda Barnette said it’s not unusual to have a few missing animals due to clerical error, but this was different.
“When we realized we had 64 missing in all six shelters, but 39 came from this one shelter we thought that looked odd,” Barnette said.
Those 39 dogs, and kittens, were the highly adoptable ones, the young and cute ones, gone from one shelter in the city’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood.
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Where did they go? Barnette is not sure, but has her theories.
“I think because they were so desirable I think they probably were either sold or given,” she said.
While the goal is to get these animals a good home, the adoption fees help feed and house the ones left behind.
“We want to make sure every animal goes out of here is spayed or neutered out; and that’s important so they don’t produce more animals that then come back into the shelter,” Barnette said.
So she called the police, and the mayor’s office and they’ve been doing an independent investigation.
Everyone is being questioned.
So far, they’ve made a few staffing changes, and changed the locks.
