Campus, Long Beach, News

‘No Kill’ advocates flock to city council

Animal rights advocates lined up Tuesday to plead with the Long Beach City Council to address concerns about the spcaLA Long Beach shelter.

During the meeting, animal rights advocates spoke up and held signs that read “No Kill.”

Several residents asked the council to turn the shelter into a no kill shelter during the public comment session. One of the residents who spoke up was Naomi Kwast, a third grade student at Lowell Elementary.

“I am here today because you are not caring for our shelter animals,” Kwast said. “I cried when I saw the dogs and cats scared and sad. I do not want to live in a city that kills animals. I think it is mean and rude.”

Alex Armstrong, a resident of 40 years who has been going to the city council meetings since last year also spoke about the shelter.

“Let our shelter do their own adoptions,” he said. “ It’s obvious to everybody that gets involved that [Madeline Bernstein president of spcaLA] wants to control our shelter so there is no competition for adoption money. Not only that, she feels that a lot of animals need to be put down if they don’t fit into a certain category.”

Long Beach resident Laura Sellmer said she had seen the animal rights protestors at city council before. Although Sellmer did not call herself an advocate, she said she wanted to understand why they were going to the city council meetings each week.

“This city loves animals,” Sellmer said. “I went to the animal village because I wanted a cat, a Long Beach cat, because I knew they killed cats. I found a wonderful cat, his name is Hank. When I came home I found out that Hank came from Culver City not from Long Beach and I found the answer to the problem and its that spcaLA has contracts with Culver City.”

Armstrong and Joanne Kwast of the Spay and Neuter Foundation, said all they want the city to do is to implement the No Kill Equation program which would raise adoption rates for animals and also provide better care for the animals within the shelter.

“With the culture of saving lives instead of killing them can turn around a facility,” Armstrong said. “You may have a large intake but at least you’re doing everything you possibly can instead of just turning around and saying, ‘Oh this is too much let’s just kill them’ and that’s unfortunately what a lot of shelters do.”

Attempts were made to reach out to the Vice President of the scpaLA, Miriam Davenport for comment but she did not respond for comment.

The next city council meeting will take place March 19 at Long Beach City Hall.

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