Tips for Bringing Pets to the Office Last month I wrote about the benefits of pets in the workplace. Improved employee morale and engagement, work-life balance, recruitment and retention, and stress reduction in the workplace are just some of the many benefits to having pets at work. However, to make...

The Covid pandemic rewrote the social contract between employer and employee, creating new opportunities for work scheduling and locations. Employees discovered the benefits of working from home, achieving a better work-life balance by avoiding long commutes and other stressors associated with working...

Working in the animal welfare field can be an emotionally challenging career choice. Dealing with life and death situations, witnessing animal abuse and neglect and struggling with limited resources when there is so much need has caused many in this field to leave and pursue other types of work. However,...

Since the days of Noah some people have been particularly drawn to owning exotic animals. While Noah was ordered to amass his collection to save animals from a flood, these days people obtain unusual pets for different reasons. Some are attracted to the animals’ appearances, others to the novelty and...

Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” There is no better way to ensure the humane treatment of animals than enacting comprehensive, sensible laws to codify and enforce society’s expectations of how they...

Animal sheltering has changed dramatically in the past ten years. What was once a mainly reactive approach to lost and unwanted animals has turned into a proactive model where intervention strategies strive to prevent the separation of pets from their families in the first place. This has had tremendous...

In November I received a delightful letter from a seven year old girl from the Santa Clarita Valley named Madeline, requesting our permission for her to keep a unicorn in her backyard if she could find one. I happily agreed to allow her to keep a unicorn, with conditions. These included compliance with...

One of the most defining aspects of working in animal welfare is that you never know what situations may come your way, especially in a county the size of Los Angeles. These surprises and challenges must be responded to and resolved, while also maintaining our ongoing operational effectiveness and planning...

Like most people who work in animal welfare, there have been animals I have come across in my career who have left lasting impressions on me. I still think about them decades later, sometimes with happiness and sometimes with regret. One animal I still recall vividly was a beautiful black and white tuxedo...

By Marcia Mayeda L.A. County Animal Control Director Recent media reports about overcrowding and lack of exercise for dogs at some other Los Angeles area animal shelters has prompted discussions about animal shelter population management. This is a key operational issue for animal shelters and deserving...