Forwarded to me by ADL-LA:
Watch this link to just ONE of the weekly opportunities Barnette has implemented
to get more of the public to adopt animals instead of buying from a breeder or
Pet Shop. These are the sorts of creative things we need in Los Angeles to Stop
The Killing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ8SRD_FkjI (there is already a famous
male entertainer who has offered to do these Pet of the Week
'youtube' video's for Barnette and LAAS when she gets here!)
Below is another positive quote, (we'll continue passing them on to our readers)
from individuals who have WORKED along side Brenda Barnette. These are the
individuals who we should be relying on for the TRUTH about Barnette, not a few
jealous and vindictive welfarists who are spreading false rumors and showing
malicious ill will and a desire to hurt Barnette motivated by spite and/or a
lack of knowledge about her that they should have gathered from those who have
worked beside her. ADL-LA took FOUR DAYS to research Barnette and spoke to
dozens of people about her after Mayor Villaraigosa announced her appointment as
the next General Manager for LAAS; the naysayers should have done the same!
The disputants are now even spreading rumors about ADL-LA and the fact that we
are "battle weary" and that's why we're NOT going after Brenda Barnette. This is
simply delusional thinking. ADL-LA isn't battle weary; we've fought animal
campaigns for longer then the one to STOP THE KILLING at LAAS. In fact, if any
of the city council members vote NO on her appointment, we are fully prepared to
take our protests to THEIR neighborhoods!
The reason why we are supporting and giving Brenda Barnette a chance to "show
her stuff" is that we did a thorough, in depth check on her and spoke to DOZENS
of people who work and volunteer for her in her current position as CEO of
Seattle Humane as well as other animals organizations she has worked in.
We did the SAME type of research on Ed Boks and even though everyone we spoke to
told us negative things about him i.e. cooking the books, inept, disorganized,
etc., ADL-LA STILL gave Boks a six month to one year "grace period" because we
thought he may be able to do what he couldn't do in NYC and AZ. Obviously when
ADL-LA learned he was doing EXACTLY the same 'shit' (excuse our French!) here in
LA as in NYC and AZ we began posting this to our readers and dusted off our
protesting shoes.
Surely those of you who are undecided about Barnette owe her as much of a chance
as ADL-LA gave to Ed Boks! Another big difference in our research between Boks
and Barnette is that NONE of the people we have spoken to have stated anything
but positive things about Barnette; even though some may disagree with a few of
her "personal views " they have all stated that she has done an AWESOME job and
has single-handedly inspired a city and the SHS employees to get the LIVE SAVE
RATE to 92% and has implemented the most progressive, creative programs ever
seen in Seattle on behalf of lost and homeless animals.
ADL-LA doesn't have the time nor the energy to decipher how and why Jim Bickhart
and Mayor Villaraigosa chose Brenda Barnette to be our new GM for LAAS, all we
have the time to do is to be thankful to them because this time they and their
interview committee have chosen someone who LA should be REJOICING about. KUDOS
to Bickhart and the Mayor; that's all we have to say.
(The next three council members we want you to call and go on record backing
Barnette are at the end of this post:)
************************************
"I wanted to take the time to write to you today, not as a representative for
the organization where I currently work, but as a personal supporter of Brenda
Barnette, who was recently hired by the City of Los Angeles to head up the
animal services division. I worked for Brenda from 2003-2006 and have also had
the pleasure of continuing to follow her life-saving work. When I first learned
that Brenda was being considered for the position in L.A., I had my fingers
crossed that she would get the position. The work that Brenda did at the San
Francisco SPCA under No-Kill visionary Rich Avanzino, and as the CEO at Pets In
Need and Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation were incredible in their own
right. But Brenda has made the biggest impact on a community during her recent
tenure at Seattle Humane Society. The investment in saving animals’ lives that
the City of Los Angeles is making by hiring Brenda is the absolute best one that
could be made at this time – I have great hope for the animals of L.A.
Brenda’s best approaches have been collaborative ones. I have seen her take a
creative approach to solving animal issues in the community, with individuals
and with the animal welfare community. While Brenda is an extremely competent
people and business manager, she is driven and never accepts excuses for killing
– her integrity is absolutely above reproach. When faced with a question of
whether to take the easy way out, or to challenge those in her organization (and
the community), she always acts on behalf of the animals. This act of
questioning the status quo can be frightening when you’re in the thick of it
(How will we ever do that? Who will help us do it?), but for those animal
advocates who want to actually move the dial on life-saving, it can also be one
of the most inspiring reasons to follow Brenda’s lead. Simply put, Brenda makes
all of us think about alternatives to killing and then sets us on a course to
finding solutions instead of offering excuses. It is why I have continued to
follow her career path – she is taking steps that methodically help communities
to save more animals’ lives. I am still continually learning from her.
Of all of the programs and services offered at Seattle Humane Society, I was
most excited to see free spay/neuter offered for the pit bulls of Seattle! I was
also impressed to see how significantly the foster program at Seattle was
expanded under Brenda’s direction, and the number of lives that were
incrementally saved as a result of that growth. And I also noticed that the
focus on increasing spay/neuter efforts and funding, combined with strong
education programs for the public have made a huge impact on the number of
incoming animals in the Seattle community. A year ago, I had the opportunity to
visit Seattle Humane Society and was extremely impressed by the loyalty and
professionalism of her executive staff. Their work, under Brenda’s leadership,
is proof positive of her ability to grow a team of people to work efficiently
and effectively to achieve a common goal of saving more lives.
The City of Los Angeles is fortunate that Brenda is willing to completely
upheaval her life to take on this challenge. I have heard people say that they
think taking the General Manager role for the City of Los Angeles Animal
Services would be career suicide, or that they would rather set their hair on
fire than deal with the L.A. Animal Welfare Community. I don’t know about the
validity of those comments, but I do know that if the City of Los Angeles wants
to see change and wants to save many, many more animals’ lives, Brenda is the
perfect one to lead the charge."
Sincerely yours,
Stephanie Ladeira
**************************************
PLEASE CALL THE THREE COUNCIL MEMBERS BELOW AND GO ON RECORD BACKING BARNETTE:
We will send out three more council member's contact info in our next Alert!
Paul.Koretz@lacity.org
City Hall Office (213)-473-7005
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 440
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Councilmember.Cardenas@lacity.org
City Hall Office (213) -473-7006
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 455
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Councilmember.Alarcon@lacity.org
City Hall Office (213)-473-7007
200 N. Spring Street, Rm 425
Los Angeles, CA 90012
