A year after joining LA, Dains was put on administrative leave. She never returned.
“These debunked municipal no-kill animal shelters seem to recycle shelter directors that should be seeking employment out of the animal welfare sphere,” says Sharon Logan with Paw Protectors Rescue in Orange County. She worked with Dains.
During Dains’ time in LA, she was criticized for inhumane treatment of animals, unsanitary shelter conditions, unsafe protocols and extreme euthanasia rates.
At Front Street, Dains oversees animal care, animal care staff and shelter programs, including spay/neuter, adoption, fostering, and transfer of animals to rescue groups and other shelters.
Under Dains’ leadership in LA, more dogs and cats were killed than in previous years. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis, dogs euthanized from January through September in 2024 increased 72% compared to the same period in 2023.
A volunteer says LA staff made up “crazy reasons” to label a dog with behavioral problems. “That was how they were getting away with killing dogs,” she says. A second volunteer said the majority of euthanized dogs were adoptable.
Since Dains joined Front Street in May, the Sacramento city shelter has killed 233 dogs and 553 cats—a 38% increase from last year over the same period.
One LA volunteer called the shelter conditions “horrific.” Dogs were lucky to get out of their kennels once every two to three weeks, sometimes once a month. They were “sleeping, eating, peeing and pooping” in filthy kennels and cages, some barely large enough to turn around in.
A 2024 assessment by Best Friends Animal Society, an animal welfare organization that assists shelters and rescue groups nationwide, confirms LA’s “failure to even meet minimal humane standards of care.”
The procedures were “deplorable and inexcusable by any reasonable standard,” the assessment states.
Best Friends reports the “biggest barrier” to improving LA animal shelters was leadership, “specifically the general manager.”
Paul Darrigo, a leader in animal advocacy with Citizens for a Humane Los Angeles, researched Dains when she joined LA Animal Services. “I didn’t hear good things about her, so I went down to Long Beach to talk to staff,” he says.
Darrigo notes the shelter tried to save more animals by lining hallways with cages. “The problem was [Dains] wasn’t managing their welfare,” he says. “That’s putting your finger in the dyke. Animal rescue and animal advocacy needs community outreach, spay and neuter, and law enforcement.”
The Best Friends assessment reveals improper kennel cleaning, including not removing excrement, not using cleaning solutions, and leaving dogs and food in place while hosing down kennels. Volunteers witnessed staff spraying down dogs while cleaning kennels.
The assessment cites these “unacceptable” cleaning procedures were performed under the “common knowledge” of the general manager and direct supervisors.
Darrigo documented 30 broken “guillotine” doors, which separate dogs into the back of kennels so the front can be cleaned. “Anybody in business anywhere else gets fired for this kind of stuff.”
Best Friends cites a lack of customer service, noting the public struggled to find staff to assist them and often left without adopting. Shelter volunteers say staff were on their phones watching videos instead of engaging with potential adopters.
LA and Long Beach volunteers say they offered their time, resources and community contacts to help increase adoptions and promote spaying and neutering, but management ignored them.
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Dains said she felt “powerless to solve entrenched problems,” such as severe understaffing, employees who abused and neglected animals, and push back from the shelter employee union.
But, as one LA volunteer notes, “the way those dogs were living, the way they were being treated, at some point you have to take a stand.”
City Council Member Phil Pluckebaum, whose district includes Front Street Animal Shelter, expressed no concern with Dains’ hiring. Front Street Manager Phillip Zimmerman and Staycee Dains declined to be interviewed.
Cathryn Rakich can be reached at cathrynrakich@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
