LA residents protest budget cuts that could shut down half of city's animal shelters

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Under a new budget proposal, major cuts could be coming to the city of Los Angeles, which means nearly half of the city's animal shelters would close.

As the L.A. City Council Budget and Finance Committee met Friday to discuss the proposed budget, more than 100 people gathered to protest the cuts to the city's animal shelters.

"Threatening to shut down three major shelters out of the six that we have," said Heather Michaels. "In the West Valley, this is where this old boy came from... that is the only shelter that takes farm animals. So God forbid we have another fire, and we will... we don't have a place for the farm animals to go."

This comes as the city faces a nearly $1 billion deficit for the next fiscal year.

Inside the committee meeting room, Angelenos came in and implored the committee not to cut funding to animal shelters and other services.

"Each year, 42,000 lives hang in the balance and a $30 million budget, or the currently proposed $25 million budget, is simply not enough," one woman said.

Another woman who spoke before the committee said the proposed budget cuts 122 positions from L.A. Animal Services, "which is a 33% reduction to an already underfunded department," she said.

Mayor Karen Bass' budget proposal includes cutting more than 2,700 city positions and 1,647 layoffs.

Friday's budget committee meeting was the first in a series. The full City Council will vote on the proposed budget in June.