On September 22, yours truly reported on the continued mishaps of L.A. Animal Services General Manager Brenda Barnette.

The story told of a possible, strange alliance between the City and radical animal activists Pamelyn Ferdin of the Animal Defense League (ADL-LA); Ferdin was hinted to being behind the City's advertising plan, which put large adoption banners on city animal shelters in August. While both Ferdin and Barnette denied any relationship at the time, a blog post published in February 2011 on LA Animal Watch shows Barnette's department reaching out to the ADL-LA.

Here is an excerpt from the blog post:

The below was forwarded to ADL-LA by an individual in upper management who has worked at Los Angeles Animal Services for over five years:

“I have followed Animal Defense League-Los Angeles and their Stop The Killing campaign for years, and have admired your tenacity in the quest to help the city shelters become progressive, humane and no kill.”

Considering that members of ADL-LA have terrorized people who work for animal services and Ferdin was once sentence to 90 days in jail for trespassing and conducting a “targeted demonstration” on the property of a high ranking animal services official, any admiration of the extremist group seems odd.

The letter ends with a call for help:

“[We] desperately need the humane community's help! Each and everyone in the humane community has some unique way they can help, whether it is working directly with the animals, reaching out to the public, helping to raise funds or volunteering to answer phones. Another really important thing [animal services] needs is contacts with celebrities, etc. Do any of your readers have connections with individuals who will make free banners, paint signs?”

The hypocracies, fall-outs, and implications of this request could mean a big mess for Barnette.

The department says they are overtly seeking help from everyone in the human community, but why are so many organizations, such as The Amanda Foundation and SPCA-LA, say they are being ignored?

The one celebrity group that was already working with the department, Katherine Heigl's foundation, broke off their relationship with animal services in August.

Lastly, the letter shows animal services requesting help from ADL-LA with financing advertising banners. It seems Ferdin (through her puppet – quirky lawyer Steven Bernhiem) jumped at this chance.

The result was the removal of 14 environmentally certified trees at the shelter in Van Nuys (which were then replaced with private and tax-payer funds) and local, proven animal care groups wondering why they are being given the cold shoulder.

To quote the mantra of animal extremists, it looks like Ferdin and Barnette are doing “whatever it takes to save animals.”

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