Animal Services manager's goals are a handful
Ed Boks says he runs the Los Angeles city department that "most people love to hate."
Taking over as general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services a little more than a year ago, he became the fourth person in four years to oversee the care of thousands of animals in city shelters.
The turnover rate alone illustrates the political pressure that historically hangs over the department as it manages the population of unwanted pets whose treatment people care about deeply -- even radically.
In his first six months, Boks tried reaching out to all shades of animal activist and rescue groups, but he has since become more cautious.
Boks (rhymes with spokes), 55, does not reveal where he lives, and recently changed his cellphone number to stop the steady flow of threatening calls he was receiving from some of his most dedicated critics.
He presides over an agency flush with $155 million in city bond money, which is being used to renovate all six shelters and build two more.
His unconventional approach has helped raise his own profile.
Boks' arrival was heralded by many in the Los Angeles animal welfare community because he was identified with the "no-kill" movement, which seeks to stop the practice of destroying healthy shelter animals because of a lack of space. But his bold pledge to achieve that goal within five years has invited criticism, including charges that he has not taken significant steps to meet it.
Karen Dawn, who runs an Internet-based animal advocacy group, said Boks' hiring was a relief. "He's one of us, he's an animal person," she said.
Boks has an unlikely background: He never graduated from college, worked as a minister and fought an allergy to cats much of his life.
A near-vegetarian (he eats fish), he admits to a predilection for boxers, which he calls the "clown prince of dog breeds" because of their goofy expressions.
As a high school freshman working at an animal shelter in his hometown of Harper Woods, Mich., he was asked to take an ailing spaniel to be euthanized. The experience haunted him, he said.
In Los Angeles, the "kill rate" at city shelters is the main yardstick for measuring Boks' effectiveness.
The euthanasia rate for dogs dropped to an all-time low of 28% last year, according to department statistics. But the rate for cats has gone up since Boks started.
