Evan Thomas
Inactive
According to this story from the Los Angeles Times, there is a bit more to this than reported in the article linked in the OP.
The seizure is part of a larger ongoing investigation into corruption in the animal services department, which has found evidence of paycheck fraud, employees' stealing animals and selling them for profit, and... missing guns. They think no more than three guns are missing, but they're not sure.
The article also said:
But as to the rest of the article, they seem to have had fairly good reasons to want the guns out of the custody of (possibly corrupt) shelter employees.
And maybe the anti-gang unit just doesn't have enough to do. [/sarcasm]
The seizure is part of a larger ongoing investigation into corruption in the animal services department, which has found evidence of paycheck fraud, employees' stealing animals and selling them for profit, and... missing guns. They think no more than three guns are missing, but they're not sure.
The article also said:
Barnette said she is also looking into reports from her shelter managers that department employees used guns to euthanize small animals that were injured or ill, including turtles, squirrels and birds. She said such a practice is dangerous because bullets could ricochet off pavement or another surface.
She said weapons should only be used to euthanize large animals that cannot be treated medically, such as a deer caught in a fence. “If you’ve got something as small as a turtle or a squirrel or something like that, it just seems to us that the correct procedure would be bring it back to the shelter, so it can be taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center or it can be euthanized,” she said.
Hmm. I spent almost three hours the other day catching a very sick squirrel and taking it to the local wildlife rehabilitation center. I was really wishing that city ordinances allowed me to use a .22, or even a pellet gun, to dispatch it, which would have been at least as humane as putting the poor beast through the stress of being trapped, pinned, and transported. She said weapons should only be used to euthanize large animals that cannot be treated medically, such as a deer caught in a fence. “If you’ve got something as small as a turtle or a squirrel or something like that, it just seems to us that the correct procedure would be bring it back to the shelter, so it can be taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center or it can be euthanized,” she said.
But as to the rest of the article, they seem to have had fairly good reasons to want the guns out of the custody of (possibly corrupt) shelter employees.
And maybe the anti-gang unit just doesn't have enough to do. [/sarcasm]
