Stop L.A. County Wild Animal Killing

I am blessed to live in a beautiful neighbourhood, a peninsula with a hill surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, lots of trees, many wild living animals, peacocks, squirrels, raccoons, opossums, skunks of course and many more.

Two days ago I came home and noticed an Animal Control truck stopping behind my car in front of a neighbour’s home. The Animal Control officer took a cage and went into the home’s back yard. Shortly after he came back out with a little squirrel in the cage. Out of curiosity and because my inner voice told me to, I asked the officer, why he had the squirrel in the cage. This is what he told me:

The woman living on this property trapped the animal, because she was bothered by it. She then called Animal Control to send a truck for the pick up of this little critter. At this point I had to ask, what would happen to the squirrel now and was then told, that it would be brought to the Animal Control station to be put down.

I took a deep breath and asked if there was anything wrong with the squirrel, maybe it was sick or so. The officer then said, that there was nothing wrong with it, the woman just did not want the squirrel in her back yard and so, according to Los Angeles County policies, it had to be put down. I looked at the woman still waiting to see the animal go and she quickly closed her gate.

At this point I did what I had to do and started negotiating for the poor squirrel’s life. If this officer wouldn’t have released the squirrel in a park in the neighbourhood, I may have ended up in a straight jacket that evening. This lucky squirrel is still alive today but many other wild living animals, trapped by mean and selfish residents, who obviously still don’t understand the importance of a healthy ecosystem, are not anymore.

Thanks to the City of Palos Verdes, California, which allows residents to trap wild living animals. L.A. County offers support by renting traps to people for a fee, which also includes education and training on how to trap wild living animals properly. People then call Animal Control, they come, pick up, take along and kill.

A decision of the Board of Supervisors of L.A. County and the permission to trap make it possible.

We desperately try to save this planet and an ecosystem, which can collapse at any minute and this country fights the worst economy since the last depression.

And here Los Angeles County pays to kill wild animals that have done nothing wrong, not hurt anyone and are no danger to anybody - just because these animals are unfortunate to call their home some mean resident’s back yard, who has nothing better to do than to destroy our environment. Squirrels too are part of a sensitive ecosystem and so are raccoons, opossums, skunks, rattlesnakes, insects and many others.

California is bankrupt and our tax money is spent on Animal Control officers, having to go, get and kill. Did the L.A. Board of Supervisors get too much of the Californian sun before they came up with this?

I intend to fight this insanity, if you agree with me, please help and sign.

You can also help by investigating your own City/County’s policies to find out, if there are more such rules in other places. Together we can make a difference. It may take an effort and it may be inconvenient, but it is worth it. Not acting and accepting a madness like this is not an option for me. Hopefully it is not an option for you either.

Let’s get the ball rolling!