LA found she bullied Black staff. Now she manages Sacramento’s animal shelter
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- LA investigation upheld racial discrimination and abuse claims against Staycee Dains.
- Sacramento hired Dains in May 2025 despite documented past misconduct findings.
- Critics urge Sacramento to reconsider Dains’ employment.
Before she was hired to help lead Sacramento’s animal shelter, Staycee Dains left behind a trail of complaints alleging racial discrimination, workplace bullying and abuse of power during her turbulent tenure as general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services.
The complaints, obtained by The Sacramento Bee through a public records act request, were deemed credible by a law firm contracted by the city of Los Angeles. They are likely to deepen criticism of Dains, who had already drawn backlash from animal welfare advocates.
Dains, hired last month by Sacramento’s Front Street Animal Shelter, spent much of her previous role under heavy scrutiny, with advocates blaming her for overcrowding, shelter conditions and increased animal euthanizations.
The public records reveal she was also the subject of multiple internal complaints — nearly all of which were substantiated by the third-party investigation completed last September.
Among the upheld allegations were that Dains referred to Black workers as “ghetto” and “lazy,” authorized a welfare check on a Black employee based on suspicion and seized a dog from its Black owner without evidence. In their report, investigators also said that Dains made inappropriate comments to the staff on multiple occasions including that she would “stomp” on the knuckles of employees and “throw them off of the boat” if they did not follow her direction.
In the last detailed complaint — seven months before she resigned in November 2024 — Dains reportedly fostered a critically ill puppy, a violation of department protocol. When told she was breaking the rules, Dains erupted in anger and shouted: “You don’t know who you’re talking to. I’m the GM. I’m making the rules,” according to the investigation report.
Dains, who denied nearly all of the allegations to investigators, declined interview requests through Sacramento animal shelter spokesperson Ryan Hinderman. She began as the city’s shelter operations manager on May 19 and is already creating “much-needed policies and procedures,” Hinderman added in an email statement last month.
When asked if the city knew about the Los Angeles investigation prior to hiring Dains, Hinderman said he could not comment on personnel matters and referred The Bee to a previous statement.
“The city’s hiring process is competitive, and amongst all applicants, Staycee Dains was the most qualified for this important role, bringing over 25 years of extensive experience in animal sheltering,” Hinderman wrote in the email.
Nearly two weeks after her start date in Sacramento, Dains was featured in a story by the Los Angeles Times defending her time at the Southern California animal services department. Dains, who said she was told to resign, blamed lack of city funding, chronic understaffing and employees who mistreated or neglected animals.
Now, just weeks into her new role, Dains is facing calls to step down from critics in both Los Angeles and Sacramento.
“Why Sacramento hired her again makes absolutely no sense,” said Shira Scott Astrof, founder of Los Angeles-based Animal Rescue Mission.
‘Decades of experience’
In June 2023, Dains joined the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services with both praise and skepticism trailing her.
She had garnered a reputation among animal welfare experts after nearly two decades serving and managing in private and municipal shelters in California. While working for the city of San Jose, she established one of the nation’s first municipal neuter-and-return program for cats.
“She was a pioneer in many ways,” said Lorance Gómez, the operations manager of the Santa Clara County animal shelter, who worked with Dains in San Jose.
Mandy Newkirk, director of communications for UC Davis’ Koret Shelter Medicine Program, met Dains through university-led training sessions held throughout the last decade. Dains joined bootcamps and webinars to advocate for more resources in animal welfare.
“While I haven’t worked directly with Staycee, I know her as someone who participated in community calls, workshops and webinars hosted by our program,” Newkirk said. “She has shown consistent interest in the systemic issues affecting shelters and in advocating for increased support for shelter staff.”
However, Dains’ reputation with animal welfare advocates differed significantly when she arrived in Los Angeles. Many leaders of rescue groups protested after learning Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass appointed her to the position, said Haze Lynn, founder of Take Me Home Rescue.
Their concerns mostly stemmed from issues at Long Beach’s city shelter, which Dains oversaw at the time. In 2023 — similar to other animal shelters following the COVID-19 pandemic — the Long Beach shelter was overcrowded and considered euthanizing healthy, adoptable dogs. Animals were forced to live in conference rooms, offices and other makeshift spots, according to the Long Beach Post.
Lynn, prior to Dains’ hiring, met with Bass’ office and urged them to conduct proper research for a new head of department. Lynn said she worried about Dains’ ability to oversee Los Angeles’ six city-operated shelters when she struggled with one.
“They were having the same crisis as we were having in Los Angeles, except Staycee only ran one shelter in Long Beach,” Lynn said.
In announcing the appointment, Bass said Dains would “bring strong leadership and a true passion for animal welfare to LA Animal Services.” The department had been under scrutiny for years for its staffing shortages, crowded shelter conditions and clashes between volunteers and staff.
“I know that Animal Services is challenging and I know Los Angeles is facing their own unique set of challenges,” Dains said in an interview with The Los Angeles Times following her appointment. “But I’m absolutely confident that I’ll be successful because of my decades of experience in this field.”
’Plays the race card’
In August 2023, less than two months after Dains started her position in Los Angeles, two employees reported she used racial epithets to refer to Black employees, according to the investigation.
The incident occurred during a visit to the South Los Angeles Animal Shelter, which is staffed by mostly Black and Hispanic employees, according to the investigation records. Two employees, in separate conversations with Dains, said she referred to the clerical staff, all of whom are Black, and the environment of the shelter as “ghetto.”
One of the employees reported that Dains also referred to the staff at the shelter as “lazy” and said that some of the staff “needed to be fired.”
Dains denied using such language, according to interview transcripts in the investigation.
In the same month, Dains met with a female Black employee following an altercation with a shelter volunteer and allegedly declined her request for union representation. Later that day, Dains approached the same female employee after she claimed the worker used a water hose to spray two dogs in the face.
The details of the hose incident differ based on two accounts, per the investigation, but a male employee corroborated the details of the female employee. Dains later put the female employee on administrative leave and recommended termination of her employment, according to the records.
“Which further supports the notion that Ms. Dains was seeking to conjure up a reason to enforce disciplinary action,” investigators wrote in their report.
One month later, according to the investigation, Dains came under fire again for allegations of abusive conduct and bullying another Black employee.
That incident centers around Dains’ insistence to investigate a male employee of 18 years who had allegedly stolen donated dog food. The theft was later determined to be a misunderstanding and no disciplinary action was taken.
Per the investigation, Dains later inquired if this same employee had stolen two puppies though she acknowledged having “no proof.” At one point, she used the department’s software database to search his personal records.
After determining the missing puppies were not listed in his private records, Dains continued her investigation. Her probing eventually led to a welfare check of the employee’s dog at his home, which he said “alarmed” his wife.
Dains took these actions despite it not being “common for a general manager” as such interviews are the primary function of an employee’s direct supervisor, according to the investigators. The investigators also determined that based on Dains’ own description of the employee when first meeting him — “unkept and disheveled” — there was a basis for her signling him out and unfairly pursuing him.
In interviews with investigators, Dains said she did not have confidence in the employee’s supervisors to handle an investigation. She claimed that the employee’s former supervisor said he was “difficult to supervise” and “plays the race card.”
The supervisor denied making such statements during his interviews with investigators.
‘I’m making the rules’
Beyond the employee complaints, investigators also found multiple instances when Dains appeared to overstep her authority — making decisions that targeted individuals and violated city policy.
In one case, she engaged in a verbal altercation with a Black man who was attempting to retrieve his French Bulldog from shelter care. She told him that he was not competent to care for his dog, citing its pregnancy and fleas, according to interviews in the investigation.
Dains ordered the seizure of the dog, which a hearing officer deemed “not valid and justified,” according to the public records. She later directed another employee to conduct a “thorough investigation” and possible criminal referral. The city attorney’s office rejected the case due to “lack of sufficient evidence.”
The dog owner eventually retained an attorney to retrieve his dog from a rescue organization, but the investigation found that the dog and its puppies were never returned to him. The dog remains listed in department records as “stolen,” according to investigators.
Per the records, Dains admitted she “didn’t want to give the dog back” to the owner though she told the organization they needed to return the dog.
“Dains directly ordered and influenced the events that led to Mr. (redacted) dogs not being returned to him, and she lacked the evidence and the authority to do so,” investigators wrote in the records.
The investigation found Dains violated city foster policy when she personally took in a critically ill puppy at the East Valley Animal Shelter. The puppy was suffering from a virus and scheduled to be euthanized if not released to a rescue organization that day.
Dains chose to foster the puppy even after she was told it was ineligible. She then requested medication, citing she did not want to pay for the puppy’s medical expenses upon its release from the shelter. The request, a Veterinary Medical Board license violation, was denied.
The decision led Dains to erupt in anger, according to staff.
“Do you know who you’re talking to...You don’t know who you’re talking to,” she allegedly shouted “I’m the GM. I’m making the rules, and if you don’t want to get the animals out of the shelter, maybe you shouldn’t be working at a shelter.”
Dains took the puppy, and signed a medical form that specified it needed veterinary care within 24 hours. The investigation could not verify if Dains followed the requirement in the medical form, but noted the puppy later died.
The investigation also documents a consensus among employees that Dains made inappropriate comments to staff multiple times. The most recounted statement by workers came from a department meeting in early 2024.
Multiple employees said Dains made a remark along the lines of: “We’re on a boat, and if you don’t like the direction you’re working on, you could jump off or I’m going to kick you off, and if you don’t fall off the boat and you’re hanging on by your little fingers, I’m going to stomp on your fingers and make sure you’re off the boat.”
Dains said she did not recall that exact statement during her interviews with investigators, saying they were in reference to staff “hosing dogs” and using a “poop scoop shovel to bang on the kennels.”
“I probably did use the boat analogy, like, ‘We’re leaving the shore of where we are and we’re on a new adventure and you’re either on, or you’re off, but you cannot continue to do these behaviors,” Dains recalled. “They’re not acceptable.”
“I don’t think it was unprofessional,” Dains added, while laughing, per the report. “I got the example out of a leadership book.”
Around early 2024, public outcry against Dains continued to grow. Animal activists, including Astrof, had already begun to call for her resignation and pressed for stricter enforcement of the city’s spay and neuter policy.
In August of that year, The Los Angeles Times reported that Dains had begun an unexplained two month leave of absence. The absence was expected to last until mid-October, though no other information was provided.
A spokesperson for Bass’ office and the Los Angeles personnel department did not respond to questions asking if Dains’ leave of absence was related to employee complaints or the investigation.
In last month’s Los Angeles Times article, Dains said a Bass adviser told her Nov. 30 would be her last day but she was free to resign earlier. Dains informed the city of her resignation five days before the end of that month.
‘Public trust has been violated’
Even before the release of public records, some Sacramentans had demanded the city terminate Dains.
Among the loudest voices are those from Fix Front Street, a group of local animal advocates who have criticized the leadership of Sacramento’s sole city shelter for years. Like many cities across the country, the shelter deals with severe overcrowding.
Members of the Fix Front Street pointed to Dains’ leadership in Southern California, which they say led to increased animal killings and worsened shelter conditions. Their critiques of Dains have been heard at recent Sacramento Animal Wellbeing Commission meetings and on social media.
“What’s Googleable alone should have been enough to stop the hiring,” said Elyse Mize, who co-founded Fix Front Street and called the Los Angeles investigation and findings into Dains sad, but not surprising.
The group’s Facebook page continues to demand the city terminate Dains. As of Monday, Mize said she and other residents have sent hundreds of emails to the City Council and city manager.
“Public trust has been violated over and over again at Front Street, and this is just the cherry on top,” Mize said.
Mayor Kevin McCarty was unavailable to answer a question on Monday asking if he believes the city should reconsider Dains’ employment, said spokesperson Geneva Hutcheson.
Paul Hefner, chair of the city’s Animal Wellbeing Commission, reserved judgment of Dains given that he had not viewed the complaints nor investigation. Hefner, a Los Angeles native, noted his hometown’s animal welfare issues are problematic and decades long.
“Obviously, allegations like that are serious and need to be taken seriously,” Hefner said. “But the responsibility to make personnel decisions rest with the internal management of the Animal Care Services Division, and they’ve got to make their best choices.”
This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
