Other Coyote Attacks Cited in Dog Deaths

The unresolved saga of an Encino pug dog that was skinned alive continued Friday, when the city’s Animal Services Department released new information bolstering its contention that the dog was killed by a coyote.

The agency reported 109 coyote sightings and attacks since 1990 in the area where the pug was killed, including the case of Tootsie, a West Hills poodle found skinned and mauled Thursday.

“All of this has brought us to the conclusion that Pal [the pug] had been attacked by an animal and that resulted in the death of Pal,” said Dena Mangiamele, the department’s head veterinarian.

In another twist to the case, the Animal Services Department confirmed Friday that it sought animal cruelty charges against Pal’s 84-year-old owner.

Louise Wilkinson, who is deaf and nearly blind, found her 35-pound dog at 7:30 a.m. on April 7, cowering in its fenced backyard with a large swatch of skin missing from his back. But Animal Services officials said she and her daughter, Carol Johnson, did not take the injured dog to a veterinarian until 2 p.m. The pug later died.

“We feel that waiting from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. to seek a vet’s care is inappropriate,” said Animal Services spokesman Peter Persic.

But the city attorney’s office declined to file cruelty charges against Wilkinson and Johnson.

*

The effort to charge Wilkinson and her daughter has only aggravated the dispute between the department and animal rights groups, which believe the dog was killed by a human.

Both Tootsie and Pal suffered bite wounds around the neck and torso, a sign of a coyote attack, Mangiamele said while displaying necropsy photos of both animals.

Mangiamele’s conclusion was supported by Patrick Ryan, Los Angeles County’s chief veterinarian, who examined Tootsie the poodle, and Christopher Deam, the private veterinarian who helped Mangiamele examine the pug.

Mangiamele said she released the new information in an attempt to repair her department’s image in the wake of harsh criticism by animal rights groups. “We have been trashed in the media, and we are tired of it,” she said.

But the new evidence was immediately denounced by the Los Angeles chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and by Councilman Nate Holden, who contend that the dog was killed by a human.

Madeline Bernstein, the executive director of the local SPCA chapter, called the attempts to charge Wilkinson and her daughter a “publicity stunt to deflect attention” from the department’s problems.

Holden alleged that the new evidence is part of “a continuing cover-up” by the department. He charges that the agency wants to scapegoat coyotes to justify trapping and killing them.

Animal Services officials, however, say they support the current policy of educating the public on coexistence with coyotes.

Despite the findings of the Animal Services Department, the Los Angeles City Council voted last week to contribute $5,000 to a reward pool for information to solve the attack on the pug. The pool now totals $26,000.