Pal Probe Unleashes Territorial Instinct

The truth about cats and dogs in Los Angeles is not all warm and cuddly.

In Tarzana the other day, the city’s Department of Animal Services seized 45 cats, three dogs and a pigeon from a home that one police officer described as “the worst-smelling place I’ve ever been in.”

The elderly woman whose home was soiled with excrement and swarming with fleas was arrested for allegedly making threats against neighbors. At least there was no gunplay. A few days earlier in Hawthorne, an argument over a dog fight escalated into a gun battle between families that left one man dead, a boy wounded and another man arrested for homicide.

Homeless canines are another problem. In the inner city, hundreds of feral dogs roam in dangerous packs and keep procreating. Now funding has been proposed to strengthen efforts to catch these dogs and transport them to shelters, adding their numbers to the tens of thousands of unwanted pets destroyed every year. The unsettling picture would not be complete without mention of L.A.’s clandestine pit bull prizefights and the occasional ritual sacrifice.

Animal control has been an emotional, contentious political arena long before the curious case of Pal the pug. But now the divisions within the self-described “humane community” have reached extraordinary proportions. Suspicions are mutual and recriminations rampant. Let it be said that Pal, for better or worse, did not die in vain.

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Three weeks and two days have passed since Pal was discovered, close to death, with much of his pelt missing outside the Encino home of his 84-year-old owner. It has been an interesting 23 days.

Dr. Melvyn Richkind was the first veterinarian to examine Pal. He concluded that Pal’s wounds could only have been caused by a person wielding a very sharp knife. But when the Department of Animal Services’ chief veterinarian and a consulting vet performed a necropsy, they concluded that a coyote had attacked the pug. Then the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (spcaLA) had two other vets examine Pal. They agreed with Richkind.

By then, you may recall, Hollywood had gotten into the act. Pugs are a placid, affectionate breed and are popular among celebrities. They put up $21,000 in reward money, they held news conferences. There was City Hall testimony and a candlelight vigil. Some activists suggested that the city agency was quick in its judgment because it wanted to promote coyote trapping efforts, which animal rights activists oppose. The activists had an ally in Councilman Nate Holden, whose office had been assembling a file of complaints against the Animal Services Department.

Pal was already famous, the stuff of news-at-11. Just when it looked as if cooler heads might prevail, animal control officers executed a search warrant at Richkind’s Pet Family Planning clinic in Northridge on the night of April 18 in hopes of finding evidence of a felony.

Now, this seemed strange. Animal Services had already concluded that Pal’s killer was a coyote--that no human was responsible for the death. So why investigate Richkind? Officials later explained that his office was searched because he claimed to have evidence of a crime and had refused to cooperate with their investigation.

In a news release titled “LA Animal Services Denounces Obstruction of Justice,” General Manager Gary S. Olsen said: “The pug allegedly received medical attention by Dr. Richkind and died in his care. This case raises many disturbing questions and we are going to get to the bottom of them.”

Richkind angrily likened the search to “Gestapo tactics” and contends that his records are confidential and copies could be obtained by subpoena. The officers, he said, had been hostile toward him, his staff and his clients. And while Richkind says he has no inclination to help the city agency, he says he shared his records with spcaLA, a nonprofit agency with law enforcement responsibilities that overlap the city’s.

As if public relations weren’t bad enough, the Animal Services Department took another hit last week, when the City Council came out against its own animal control agency by approving Holden’s motion to add $5,000 to the bounty for Pal’s killer. This raised the reward to $26,000--$1,000 more than the council often approves as a reward in human slayings.

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“I’m very offended by it,” Steve Afriat, president of the Animal Regulation Commission, said of the council’s action. “That’s a slap at the city employees who made a finding to the contrary.” And in a recent hearing, Afriat accused spcaLA Executive Director Madeline Bernstein of “despicable” actions in the Pal case.

I’m not sure if that was before or after Bernstein responded to Olsen’s news release with a letter advising him to “back off” because “spcaLA has law enforcement jurisdiction in this matter.”

Bernstein says her agency and the Department of Animal Services usually have a decent relationship. She and Afriat agree that animal control is a horrendous problem in Los Angeles. But people keep getting in each other’s way.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth CA. 91311, or via e-mail at [email protected] Please include a phone number.

Three weeks and two days have passed since Pal was discovered, close to death. It has been an interesting 23 days.