We, the animal welfare volunteer and rescue community of the City of Los Angeles will suspend all support for Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS) on FRIDAY, MARCH 15TH, 2024.

Pending the immediate termination of General Manager, Staycee Dains, we will not volunteer, foster, or perform rescue operations for the City's six animal shelters. 

This is not a decision entered into lightly. 

Not a single one of us wants to abandon the animals in our City's shelters. Our community is left with no choice, as Staycee Dains has silenced our voice. We are left to weigh which is ultimately worse for the animals: 

a walk-out by the shelter's support system at a time of true crisis

OR 

subjecting the animals, staff, volunteers, and rescue community to the continued rudderless leadership, defined by knee-jerk reactions, dishonesty, hostility, and all-around unprofessionalism?

Since taking office in July 2023, Staycee Dains has proven herself, daily, to be unqualified to hold the position of General Manager of the Nation's largest municipal animal services department.

Her actions on and since  Friday evening, March 1st cannot go unanswered. 

Jake Miller is a dedicated shelter employee of twenty years who follows orders. That is what Jake was doing when he "took one for the team" and sent the email he did on the morning of March 1st that set the animal welfare community on fire.

Jake sent an email outlining, in great detail, a new LAAS policy to mass euthanize dogs; the email was sent to the volunteer program he oversees from his department email account. 

Jake Miller would never take sending an email about mass euthanasia lightly. He would never write an email going into great detail about new, official shelter policy unless he was directed to do so. If you know Jake, you know this to be true.

This extremely unpopular email went viral and made its way to the press. General Manager Staycee Dain’s plan to mass euthanize dogs resulted in an across-the-board response that was deafening!

What Staycee Dains did next defines who she is as a leader and for this poor decision and the many, many, poor decisions she has made since taking on the role of GM, among them: refusing the intake of cats over 8 weeks, Dains has earned a vote of no confidence from the Los Angeles Animal Welfare community!

Friday evening, March  1st, GM Dains took to email and stated the email Jake Miller sent to shelter volunteers earlier that day shocked her, was irresponsibly and inappropriately sent, and contained false information; she went so far as to refer to the information contained in the email as conspiracy theory. Dains has doubled down and allowed the media to report that not only was the information inaccurate, that it was sent by a volunteer.

GM Dains proves once again that she lacks the leadership skills and business acumen required of a General Manager of a City Department.

Staycee Dain's word is meaningless,nothing she says is to be believed.

Staycee Dains has no support inside, or outside of Animal Services. Morale has never been lower.  Dains has demonstrated that she is incapable of delivering LA Animals Services out of the current crisis.

It is for all of these reasons that we will not resume our support roles with Los Angeles Animal Services until Staycee Dains is removed as General Manager, before more harm comes to the department.

A nationwide search for her permanent replacement must be agreed to by Mayor Bass. An interim GM must be put in place while the search is conducted. 

To the LAAS staff, we wish to extend our appreciation for all you do, and offer our condolences for abandoning you at this time of need. It is our sincerest wish that Mayor Bass takes swift action so that we may return to assist you and the animals in your care however we can!

SIGN THE PETITION & LEARN MORE AT: STOPSTAYCEEDAINS.COM

We call upon our community to unite and exercise our collective power. We urge everyone to sign and share our petition, contribute not just in social media networking but in the field; let's raise our voices to stop Staycee Dains - Let’s come together to save shelter animals on scale that is deeply impactful - this IS the moment.