The head of the Los Angeles city agency that oversees animal shelters is resigning, according to a city email sent Monday to shelter volunteers and animal advocates.
Staycee Dains resigned on Nov. 30, deputy general manager Annette Ramirez wrote in the email seen by The Times. Ramirez wrote that she was named interim city manager by Mayor Karen Bass.
Dains, who earned about $272,730, did not immediately respond to an email and phone message.
She had been on paid leave since August. Officials declined to explain why she took leave, leading to uncertainty about the direction of the agency.
Bass, when asked about Dains’ future in October, declined to tell the Times whether she was looking for a new general manager. Bass added that Ramirez, who was tasked with running the agency during Dain’s absence, was “behaving himself perfectly.”
Bass announced Dains’ hiring in June 2023, touting his arrival as part of the mayor’s effort to turn around animal services, which faces chronic problems including overcrowding and understaffing. Agnes Sibal, a spokeswoman for LA Animal Services, said earlier this year that overpopulation had reached crisis levels with “nowhere to house the incoming dogs.”
During his tenure, Dains helped speed up the approval of new volunteers who help care for the animals.
At the same time, she faced criticism as more dogs and cats were put down by the city. From January to September, 1,224 dogs were euthanized at the city’s six shelters, a 72% increase from the same period last year, according to a Times analysis.
Approximately 1,517 cats were euthanized through September, an increase of 17% from last year.
In overcrowded shelters, dogs can go weeks without walks and live in feces-covered kennels, and some animals begin to misbehave and suffer “mental and emotional breakdown,” according to a Best report. Friends Animal Society, a rescue group that has long worked with the city’s shelters.
Animal welfare consultant Kristen Hassen, whose firm was recently hired to evaluate shelters, described the higher euthanasia rates among dogs as “overcorrection” by the department.
Dains previously worked as director of animal care services in Long Beach and as shelter operations manager at San Jose Animal Care and Services, according to her resume.
