The Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is taking the city of Long Beach to court for what they claim is a wrongful 30-day eviction order directing them to leave the facility they built near El Dorado Regional Park.
Attorneys for spcaLA filed court papers in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday seeking a temporary restraining order stopping the eviction for now, pending a future hearing on whether a preliminary injunction should be issued against the city.
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"Absent injunctive relief, spcaLA will suffer immediate and irreparable harm in that it will lose possession and use of a property in which it has invested over $10 million for an indeterminate period of time until the matter is able to be resolved by this court," the organization's lawyers state.
The same attorneys further contend in their pleadings that absent immediate relief, the charity will not be able to continue providing life- saving animal care to Long Beach and surrounding communities to the detriment of the animals, who will endure stress from having to be moved to another facility.
A hearing on the organization's motion is scheduled for Wednesday.
In late February, the city announced changes to its services for the roughly 4,000 animals who come under its care each year. After a 26-year partnership, the city terminated its lease and lease-back agreement with the spcaLA due to what it calls "several areas of non-compliance" with the pact, which since 2001 has seen the organization oversee operations of Long Beach's animal adoption center at 7700 E. Spring St.
Long Beach and the spcaLA signed a contract in October 1998 to address the overwhelming euthanasia rates that Long Beach, among other municipal shelters, was experiencing at the time. The intention of the partnership, according to the city, was for the spcaLA to construct and operate a modern, state-of-the-art campus that provided both animal control facilities, led by LBACS, and an adoption center, managed by the spcaLA.
Mayor Rex Richardson said in February that the time had come "to embark on a new journey to better serve our animals and communities. This transition will allow us to provide a higher level of care and quality of life for the animals who come into our space as well as enhance the critical animal care services we provide for Long Beach and other adjacent cities."
In addition to Long Beach, Long Beach Animal Care Services provides animal care to the communities of Los Alamitos, Cerritos and Signal Hill.
According to the spcaLA's court papers, the organization and the city "enjoyed a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship" until 2019, when the city hired a new manager for Long Beach Animal Care Services.
"Almost immediately, LBACS' side of the facility quickly deteriorated into a hoarding situation, with issues of overcrowding, poor animal husbandry, hazardous conditions and more," the spcaLA lawyers contend in their court papers, adding that the city "has no right to terminate" the spcaLA's lease, which has almost 30 years remaining.
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