Scratch This: ‘Change impacts everyone'

Visitors confused about which part of the spcaLA PD Pitchford Companion Animal & Education Center belongs to Long Beach Animal Care Services and which is part of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles may not be puzzled in a few weeks.

On Monday, Feb. 24, the city of Long Beach ended the shelter’s 26-year partnership with spcaLA by terminating its lease-and-leaseback agreement with the organization. The city gave several areas of noncompliance with the agreement as reasons.

“We did not make this decision lightly,” City Manager Tom Modica said in a press release. “This comes after years of diligently trying to work with spcaLA to agree on a collaborative arrangement and to implement higher-quality care for our animals ... After careful review, we determined we must step away from this partnership. We express our appreciation to spcaLA for their partnership and wish them well in their future endeavors.”

The city identified three violations of the lease-and-leaseback agreement, among other concerns. One of them is a takeover by spcaLA of more than 50% of the campus, which officials said caused a strain on LBACS’ operations and affected the health and well-being of shelter pets. Currently, LBACS is permitted to use only about 19% of the campus, including shared areas. The remaining 32% is considered shared space but is controlled by spcaLA.

The release stated that LBACS must ask spcaLA for permission to reserve shared space two months in advance. As LBACS grows in its operations, the current amount of space is too limited to support the quality of care and services to the community.

“We just don’t have access to any kind of proper isolation area, so our vets are constantly trying to treat sick animals among healthy ones, playing this kind of cat-and-dog Tetris on a regular basis,” said Dr. Melanie Wagner, LBACS’ bureau manager. “We’re looking at increased medical concerns, higher rates of contagion that we probably should have because of this lack of proper isolation areas, deterioration in kennels because of lack of proper space, the lack of visibility for many of our animals. It all means a longer stay for the animals.”

A second concern was a violation of Long Beach Municipal Code, which requires reporting animal adoptions, transfers or sales. SpcaLA submitted its last recorded report on or before April 1, 2020.

“Animal adoption reports are an accountability measure required by the City to ensure proper reporting and transparency of operations within City limits,” the news release read. “SpcaLA has neglected to submit these reports for nearly five years, which is required by law. They have also been unwilling to provide any insight into their operations, which has caused ongoing strain on our partnership.”

Finally, spcaLA drastically decreased their intake of adoptable LBACS animals over the years. For example, spcaLA’s 2011 intake of 2,856 adoptable animals and the 2024 intake of 76 indicates a decrease of over 97%. 

This forced LBACS to increase animal adoption efforts along with its other responsibilities. The numbers from 2019 through 2024 showed that the municipal shelter rose to the challenge, which is notable because the original contract between the two entities states that animal adoption was spcaLA’s primary responsibility.

City officials said they had made many efforts, including legal correspondence, over the last few years to address these and other specific violations, but the requests were not fulfilled.

“The City of Long Beach stands by its reasons for termination as set forth in its notices,” city officials clarified via email. “This decision comes after years of an inequitable partnership that has negatively impacted our operations, affected the safety and wellbeing of animals, and after multiple attempts to work with spcaLA to positively move forward in our partnership.”

Instead of the legal standard of three days, the city is allowing spcaLA up to 30 days to relocate. 

“While we appreciate aspects of our longstanding partnership with spcaLA, the time has come to embark on a new journey to better serve our animals and communities,” Mayor Rex Richardson said in the news release. “This transition will allow us to provide a higher level of care and quality of life for the animals who come into our space as well as enhance the critical animal care services we provide for Long Beach and other adjacent cities [Signal Hill, Los Alamitos and Cerritos].”

If spcaLA’s relocation goes according to schedule, the Pitchford campus will fall under city control and LBACS’s pets and programs will have access to the entire area. Animals housed in the spcaLA adoption center remain under spcaLA’s purview, and the organization has the authority to take them after relocation. Renaming the campus will be a later consideration.

Partnership history

Long Beach and spcaLA entered a contract in October 1998 to address the overwhelming euthanasia rates that LBACS, then Long Beach Animal Control, had. According to the contract, spcaLA would construct and operate a modern state-of-the-art campus that provided both animal control facilities, led by LBACS, and an adoption center, managed by spcaLA. SpcaLA would take responsibility for groundskeeping, maintenance and animal adoptions, leaving LBACS to focus on critical animal control issues, licensing and animal intake. 

SpcaLA paid the city of Long Beach $120 annually, with a lease-back agreement to the city effective through July 1, 2053. Each party would pay half of the operating costs of the Pitchford campus.

It was a promising partnership. Then-shelter manager John Keisler announced the name change from Long Beach Animal Control to Long Beach Animal Care Services, and visitors filed in to both shelter entities to admire the bacteria-resistant floors, the spacious play areas, the spanking-new condos for kitties and kennels for doggies, and of course, all the pets. 

But after a few years, cracks began to show in the relationship.

Pamala Machado volunteered for 11 years at spcaLA, starting in 2003, and then went over to LBACS and volunteered for six years before retiring and moving out of the area. Machado was also a member of then-mayor Robert Garcia’s Long Beach Animal Care Vision Task Force, which comprised rescue organization representatives and animal activists with the objective of creating a shelter structure according to recommendations from a shelter audit.

“I thought that spcaLA at first was a great partner because when I started there, LBACS was not adopting out dogs — spcaLA was doing all that,” Machado said. “As time went on, LBACS hired an adoption coordinator — that’s when they started having adoptions at LBACS. That would have been 2014 or 2015. At that time, spcaLA was still taking LBACS pets and adopting them. They were still a good partner.”

Around 2017, when the animal community was up in arms about shelter euthanasia, spcaLA was taken to task at City Council meetings for cherry-picking more adoptable animals from the shelter and allowing dogs that were perceptively less desirable to be placed on the euthanasia list.

“They did cherry-pick to some degree, but that still left kennel space for animals so they wouldn’t be euthanized for space,” Machado said. “I was supporting spcaLA at City Council because the year before [2015 or 2016], spcaLA had taken between 1,000 and 2,000 animals. People wanted to get rid of spcaLA, and I said, why do you want to get rid of them when they’re good partners? Since I left, they’ve had empty kennels all over the place. That’s because they stopped taking LBACS animals.”

Eventually, with different opinions about sheltering practices flying around social media and the management on both sides at loggerheads, the partnership rapidly deteriorated. Both parties, Machado said, had a role in the demise. It seemed like a bitter divorce where children are involved — with the animals caught in the middle.

“Basically, LBACS and spcaLA were broken,” Machado said. “At that point, [spcaLA’s] response was to not take as many animals. So, they cooked their own goose by allowing a contentious relationship to get in the way of animal welfare.”

Machado praised spcaLA for their programs and services, including Teaching Love and Compassion, a pet-based violence-prevention program for juvenile offenders; animal cruelty investigations; and Animal Safety Net, which boards pets of domestic abuse victims until the humans find a safe haven.

“They do a lot of good things — they’re not horrible people, but they did become a bad partner,” Machado said.

SpcaLA responds to the dissolution

At spcaLA, business goes on as usual. On a morning a few days after the announcement of the partnership dissolution, an employee at the front desk was discussing microchips, pet insurance and feeding with a woman who’d just adopted a puppy.

Interviews with staff and photos were not permitted, but spcaLA posted two responses to the city’s claims, including a defiant statement from spcaLA president Madeline Bernstein.

“During the tenure of the City’s last Bureau Chief, Staycee Dains, spcaLA raised significant concerns to the City Manager, regarding the care of animals at the facility that the City leases back from spcaLA in Long Beach,” Bernstein wrote. “Today’s surprise announcement seems to be a pre-calculated act — perhaps because the City was embarrassed by what was discovered. Citing petty and already-resolved issues, the City is now attempting to terminate an agreement set to expire in 2053. The City’s actions are retaliatory, frivolous, and in the worst interest of the animals and people of our community.”

The statements also said that the city’s claims were manufactured in a control grab after spcaLA spent millions of dollars building and developing the Pitchford center and after “devastating press coverage” of the failures at LBACS. 

SpcaLA added that they’ll defend their right to maintain possession of the Long Beach facility.

LBACS’ plans for the near and far futures

LBACS will remain open and keep its same hours of operation. About 4,000 animals enter LBACS every year, and for the short term, the city’s Maintenance Operations Bureau will take over duties while the city works to identify medium- and long-term operational plans. But taking on a property of this size will involve more than grounds maintenance.

LBACS currently operates with a full-time staff of 51 and a $7.8 million annual budget. There is an expectation that taking over the entire campus will augment LBACS’ budget. The city needs to assess the entire space and operational expenses before determining specific amounts.

”This will be reviewed as part of the development of the City’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget process and may involve one-time funding and additional structural funding to the bureau’s budget,” city officials said.

Wagner is already looking into ideas for use of the space for enhancing their health and adoptability, using the Compassion Saves service model and her own creative energy as her compasses.

“Compassion Saves is our model at Long Beach Animal Care Services, and it is reflected in every action we take to better the care and services we provide our animals and community,” Wagner said in a city-produced video. “And while I am so proud of the work that we do to reflect that model, this transition will allow us to take even more meaningful action — it means we can expand our operations, give these animals the best chance for a happy and healthy life outside of the shelter, and adapt new and innovative ways to support our community that relies on us.”

Wagner said that the staff needs to assess the space to see what they have to work with and engage with rescue partners about proposals.

“There’s a lot of voices to be heard,” she said. “Big picture: our long-term plans are to have some sort of affordable veterinary medical care center. That’s been one of our biggest challenges — people turning their pets in because they cannot afford basic veterinary care.”

At present, LBACS accepts owner-surrendered pets that are ill or have bitten someone, but Wagner said that there’s a long list of people who have made appointments to surrender healthy, well-behaved animals.

“We have an ethical requirement to help those people,” Wagner said. “As the ideas are put into being, they’ll help people keep their pets.”

Wagner also wants to work with rescue partners to increase adoption events. The rescues affiliated with LBACS pull pets from the shelter, some of them too ill or too young to live without special care. Making the adopted pets visible will increase their chances of a forever home and thus make space for more pets to be pulled. She also wants to include affordable dog training, which will reduce owner surrender for behavior.

To deal humanely and effectively with cats born on streets, in alleys and in backyards, Wagner hopes to create an in-house spay/neuter program, which will augment the grassroots Long Beach TNR and Community Cat Coalition, and include an education component for community members. The program would provide affordable or free resources for Long Beach trappers.

And importantly, Wagner wants to fill the gap that lacks low-cost or affordable high-volume spay and neuter by making it part of the facility. She noted the recent efforts by the Helen Sanders CatPAWS mobile clinics and the new spay/neuter facility that The Little Lion Foundation developed, but there’s an ongoing need among the half-million Long Beach residents for this service.

Wagner’s enthusiasm isn’t diminished by the upheaval in the shelter’s structure, but she markedly feels it. She was spcaLA’s humane education program director for 11 years and taught dog training. She has fond memories of her time there.

“It’s been an emotional experience,” she said. “Change impacts everyone. Whether it’s good change or negative change is irrelevant. The impact is still felt.”

For transparency and clarification, the City of Long Beach created a list of Frequently Asked Questions, available in English, Spanish and Khmer at longbeach.gov/acs. The FAQs will soon be available in Tagalog. Questions from community members may be directed to LBACSCommunications@longbeach.gov.