The state agency that oversees workplace safety has fined the city of Los Angeles $563,250 after finding that serious injuries to an animal shelter employee were the result of “failures important safety and training measures” that put employees “in danger”.
The city failed to protect and train staff at its San Pedro animal shelter and also failed to “evaluate and correct overcrowding at its animal shelter, which resulted in animal attacks and bites to employees,” the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, said in a statement Tuesday.
In the May 31 attack, the employee’s leg “was severely mutilated, requiring hospitalization,” Cal/OSHA said.
Leslie Corea, kennel supervisor at Harbor Animal Shelter in San Pedro, told the Times earlier this year that she was taking a dog out of its kennel to show it to a rescue group when it “flipped over” and attacked the leg. She underwent several surgeries and told NBC she lost half of her thigh.
At the time of the attack, Los Angeles Animal Services said in a statement that it was housing 1,500 dogs in the city’s six shelters, but only had the capacity to “safely and humanely care for” ‘about 800 dogs at a time.
Overcrowding and understaffing have been a problem for years at the city’s animal shelters, which suffer from chronic underfunding. Dogs are regularly doubled or tripled in kennels or stored in cages in hallways due to lack of space.
Euthanasias have increased in shelters this year. From January to September, 1,224 dogs were killed, 72 percent more than during the same period a year earlier, according to a Times analysis. Some dogs are sentenced to death not because they are seriously ill or exhibit serious behavioral problems, but because shelters cannot meet their basic needs.
The six California Labor Code violations cited by Cal/OSHA in imposing the fine were related to the Harbor shelter’s management of animals, violence prevention, training, personal protection and emergency response. ’emergency.
“Employees and their supervisors were not trained in effective animal handling and safety procedures,” Cal/OSHA wrote in its citation letter.
City employees and supervisors were not provided with personal protective equipment or adequate training, and there was a “lack of an effective communications system” that delayed an emergency response, the citation states. Cal/OSHA.
Cal/OSHA Chief Debra Lee said in a statement that the brutal attack on the employee in May “underscores the serious consequences that occur when employers fail to take appropriate steps to protect their workforce from preventable risks “.
“Even if we cannot undo the damage caused, we can hold employers accountable,” Lee said. “Every employee deserves a workplace that prioritizes their health and safety. »
Representatives for Mayor Karen Bass and Animal Services did not immediately comment on the fine.
Dog bites linked to animal shelters are a serious liability for the city.
In June, the City Council agreed to pay $7.5 million to a Van Nuys woman whose arm was amputated after she was attacked by a dog adopted from a city shelter.
Shelter staff failed to provide written notice of the dog’s bite history before it was adopted, as required by state law, according to the woman’s lawsuit.
Last year, a jury awarded $6.8 million to a Lincoln Heights shelter volunteer after her arm was nearly torn off in a dog attack. The jury found the city liable for gross negligence.
