$7.5 million award for mauling by pit bull rehomed from L.A. Animal Services

Los Angeles Animal Services withheld bite history from pit bull adopter

LOS ANGELES, California––The Los Angeles City Council on June 14,  2024 approved a record $7.5 million settlement of claims resulting from a pit bull attack on Argelia Alvarado,  74,  of Van Nuys.

“In May 2020,”  Alvarado’s attorney Kenneth M. Phillips told ANIMALS 24-7,  “a pit bull named O’Gee attacked a jogger in Los Angeles.  A city animal control officer noted the vicious attack and recommended a hearing to consider euthanizing the dog.”

On June 13,  2020,  however,  “A supervisor at the city’s East Valley animal shelter authorized giving O’Gee to the public,”  Phillips recounted,  “rather than to one of many rescue partners who could give O’Gee a safe home.”

“Nearly chewed off her right arm”

On June 18,  2020,  Phillips continued,  “shelter employees adopted out O’Gee,”  to Brent Alvarado,  the adult son of attack victim Argelia Alvarado,  “without warning him about O’Gee’s bite history.

“Three months later,”  on September 26,  2020,  “O’Gee mauled Mrs. Alvarado,”  in a backyard attack,  “severely injuring both of her arms and nearly chewing off her right arm.

Litany of errors

“The City of Los Angeles had to be held accountable for Mrs. Alvarado’s mauling and suffering,”  Phillips continued.

“City employees made several mistakes:

• Ignored shelter records showing O’Gee was vicious.
• Failed to conduct a required dangerous dog hearing.
• Did not test the O’Gee’’s temperament or behavior.
• Adopted out O’Gee after only five days in the main kennel.
• Overlooked signs of abnormal temperament during a playdate and on a leash.
• Authorized adoption to the public despite available rescue groups.
• Did not tell the Alvarados any of this.

Violated California “Truth in Pet Adoption” law

“Mrs. Alvarado, who now lives with severe disabilities,” Phillips explained,  “sued the city for violating the California ‘Truth in Pet Adoption’ law.”

“The city challenged the law,”  despite having endorsed it “a few months before her mauling. The court ruled in her favor.”

O’Gee was euthanized after the attack.

“Signs of trouble for many years”

“Public animal shelters have shown signs of trouble for many years,”  Phillips told ANIMALS 24-7.

“Overcrowding,  financial woes, and unsafe working conditions are common,”  Philips said.  ”

Cities like Los Angeles adopted the ‘no-kill’ philosophy, which has been corrupted by financial incentives to mean releasing 90% of the animals impounded.  This goal compromises public safety.

“As a result,”  Phillips emphasized,  “shelter dogs from cities like Los Angeles have mauled many innocent people—adopters,  fosters,  shelter workers,  and volunteers. The situation is worsening.

“ I have advised shelters and rescues since 2005 to be honest with adopters and fosters about a dog’s bite history,”  Phillips recalled.  “I told them to disclose all known bite incidents in writing and make adopters sign it.  I called this the ‘Truth in Pet Adoption Law.’

“Every state needs this law”

“Virginia in 2019 became the first state to make these duties mandatory.  California passed a more comprehensive ‘Truth in Pet Adoption Law’ in 2019, effective January 1, 2020.”

It was this law that facilitated the Argelia Alvarado case award.

“Every state needs this law,”  Phillips said,  “because every foster or adopter deserves the truth.  People adopting pets must be treated with honesty.  We deserve full disclosure about the animals we bring into our homes.

“Yes,  the ‘Truth in Pet Adoption Law” might make it harder to rid shelters of pit bulls,”  Phillips acknowledged.  “We need to address the excess numbers of unwanted pit bulls from backyard breeders.  These dogs can’t be housed forever in shelters.  It is inhumane,  creates poor working conditions for employees,  and worsens the dogs’ temperaments. Injuries like Mrs. Alvarado’s can result.”

Award exceeds previous record award to shelter volunteer Kelly Kaneko

The Argelia Alvarado award surpassed the $6.8 million jury award issued on May 31,  2023 to former Los Angeles Animal Services shelter volunteer Kelly Kaneko,  36.

“Back in October 2019,”  explained KCAL,  a CBS affiliate,  “Kaneko was putting Jaxx,  a 100-pound German shepherd mix,  inside of a kennel when he bit her,  nearly ripping her arm off.

“As she searched the facility for help,  Kaneko dragged herself and the dog,  still latched onto her arm,  for more than five minutes,”  KCAL said.

Among the indications of gross negligence by Los Angeles Animal Services,  KCAL detailed,  were that “Jaxx’s intake card had no information on his history,  which could have warned [Kaneko] of prior aggressive incidents,  which included biting his previous owner.”

Both the Alvarado award and the Kaneko award reiterate warnings already issued multiple times to Los Angeles Animal Services and the Los Angeles City Council about the reckless irresponsibility and fiscal foolishness of indefinitely housing dogs of dangerous history while trying to rehome them.

Best Friends Animal Society

About half of the lawsuits known to have been filed against Los Angeles Animal Services over the past dozen years have resulted from a 2011 deal with the Best Friends Animal Society,  of Kanab,  Utah,  whereby Best Friends was allowed to manage the city-owned Northeast Valley Shelter facility in Mission Hills as a pet adoption center.

Offered for adoption were dogs transferred from the six other Los Angeles Animal Services shelters,  including “hundreds of dangerous pit bull dogs,”  according to Los Angeles Animal Watch blogger Phyllis Daugherty,  “many of whom had no histories or backgrounds,  and had either been abandoned or owner-surrendered.”

Magnet for lawsuits

At least seven lawsuits were filed against Los Angeles Animal Services and the Best Friends Animal Society between 2016 and 2019 as result of dog attacks,  Daugherty reported.

Among the first,  Daugherty detailed,  came in 2016 “after a savage attack on a 13-year-old girl by a 52-pound pit bull named Bleu,  reportedly adopted to a family as ‘good with children.’

“One week later,”  Daugherty wrote,  citing court documents,  “the dog,  without warning or provocation,  charged the child,  who was in the family’s living room doing her homework.  The child suffered serious facial injuries and underwent reconstructive surgeries.”

That case,  according to Daugherty,  was quietly settled in 2020 for an undisclosed sum.

“Cattle Dog mix” was pit bull

A similar case,  Daugherty recounted,  involved a pit bull who was rehomed as an “Australian Cattle Dog mix.”

Los Angeles Animal Services quit identifying pit bulls as such in late 2017.

            (See Pit Bull Federation of South Africa rips rescuer denial of what a pit bull is.)

“A notice of settlement in this case,”  Daugherty wrote,  “was posted on January 13, 2020,  just before it went to trial;  and, of course,  the amount was [also] not disclosed.”

There was also reportedly a “severe” attack at the Northeast Valley Shelter on Best Friends’ watch on January 15,  2017,  only one day after a “severe” attack on a shelter worker at Los Angeles Animal Services’ North Central Shelter.

Henry the eighth pit bull to maul someone on Best Friends’ watch

Possibly the last of the attacks at the Best Friends-operated Northeast Valley Shelter before Best Friends gave up the management contract came in 2021.

“Eve Karasik, a [Best Friends] volunteer, was asked by another volunteer to take a large male pit bull named Henry into a locked outdoor yard/enclosure attached to the building,” Daugherty wrote.

Karasik played with Henry “for a brief period,” Daugherty summarized, until “without provocation, he clamped his jaws onto her right arm, and ‘mauled, tore at, and shredded her right arm, while twisting his head violently back and forth, thereby irreparably damaging tendons, ligaments, muscles, nerves and bone in her right arm and hand,’ according to court documents.”

More victims

Victims at other Los Angeles Animal Services shelters during the same time,  Daugherty listed, included ten-year animal care technician Priscilla Romero,  mauled by a pit bull at the Los Angeles Animal Services North Central shelter on January 14,  2017;  foster volunteer Tori Jasso,  mauled by a pit bull on July 11, 2019;   a seven-year-old boy who was mauled by a German shepherd with prior bite history on July 20, 2019;   an October 31,  2019 attack on a volunteer at the North Central shelter by a pit bull who was surrendered for aggressive behavior;  and a December 15,  2019 attack on an employee by a bull terrier at the South Los Angeles shelter that sent the employee to a hospital by ambulance.”

Brenda Barnette

Brenda Barnette,  the third-longest-serving general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services since World War II,  announced her retirement in mid-May 2021,  shortly after claiming to have taken the agency to “no-kill” status,  including achieving a 90% “live release” rate,  albeit at appalling cost.

During Barnette’s tenure,  reported Daugherty,  “A safety analysis by Los Angeles Animal Services executive management showed a 47% increase in dog attacks/bites in the shelters,  according to reliable City of Los Angeles sources.”

            ANIMALS 24-7 found that the Los Angeles Animal Services shelters had been among the U.S. leaders in known disfiguring attacks by shelter dogs getting extra chances to be rehomed in every year since 2016,  leading the U.S. in 2019 and 2020.

Attacks by L.A. shelter dogs continue

Attacks by Los Angeles Animal Services’ dogs continue,  however,  nearly three years after the exits of Barnette and the Best Friends Animal Society.

On April 3,  2023,  for instance,  Daugherty reported the saga of Wilfred,  “a tan-and-white,  71-pound pit bull who was impounded at the South Los Angeles shelter on January 31, 2023.”

Demonstrated dangerous behavior multiple times,  Willard was finally euthanized after mauling a 43-year-old female shelter volunteer on March 21,  2023.

Currently,  24-year Los Angeles Animal Services employee Leslie Corea,  58,  kennel supervisor at the Harbor Animal Shelter in San Pedro,  is reportedly recovering from a May 31,  2024 in-shelter mauling by a Dogo Argentino pit bull variant named Brie.

County paid $1.1 million to survivors of Pamela Devitt

Los Angeles County Animal Care & Control supervisor Marcia Mayeda,  serving since 2001 and now among the longest-tenured animal control directors in California ever,  unlike Barnette and the Best Friends Animal Society,  has never committed to a “no kill” goal.

Nonetheless,  despite Mayeda having had a conspicuously better safety record than did Barnette and Barnette’s two successors,  Los Angeles County Animal Care & Control in 2019 paid $1.1 million to survivors of Pamela Devitt.

Walking for exercise,  Devitt,  63,   was on May 9,  2013 fatally mauled by four pit bulls who had often run at large for as long as eight years,  despite repeated complaints from neighbors about dangerous behavior.

Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care & Control was successfully sued by Devitt’s husband and two adult children for contributing to Devitt’s death by repeatedly failing to impound the pit bulls.

The owner of the pit bulls who killed Devitt,  Alex Donald Jackson,  was in 2014 convicted of second degree murder for allowing them to run at large,  and is now serving 15 years to life in state prison.

(See $20.8 million jury award for California dog attack.)

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