BOND MEASURE CRITICIZED BY PET ACTIVISTS; CITY PLAN IGNORES NEED TO UPGRADE ANIMAL SHELTERS, CRITICS CONTEND.

Byline: Peter Hartlaub Daily News Staff Writer

A zoo upgrade and a new aquarium are headed for the November ballot, but some local officials and animal activists questioned on Thursday why Los Angeles isn't offering anything for the thousands of cats and dogs on death row.

Voters will decide in November whether to approve a $47.6 million bond measure for Los Angeles Zoo upgrades and $46.5 million to improve Exposition Park, including a new aquarium.

Voters will not have the option to put money into the city's animal shelters, which are forced to euthanize thousands of adoptable pets each year because they don't have space to keep them.

Although he wouldn't criticize the zoo or aquarium, State Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, said it is ``extremely unfortunate'' that support for the city's Department of Animal Regulation wasn't part of the bond package.

``For far less money there could be a really significant upgrade to the shelters,'' Hayden said. ``Improvements to allow animals to live longer, have more room and have more sanitary conditions.''

The Department of Animal Regulation's budget last year was $7.205 million. After asking for more than $10 million for 1998-99, it was allocated $7.85 million.

If nothing changes, another 58,000 animals will be put to death in city shelters this year.

Laura Chick, one of three on the City Council who opposed both the zoo and Exposition Park measures, said her colleagues need to do a better job of prioritizing before asking the voters for bond money.

``If we're going to focus on animals in our city, which we need to, it should be first and foremost for our pets,'' Chick said. ``If we're going to ask the public to help us, let's let the shelters be a higher priority.''

Steve Afriat, president of the Board of Animal Regulation Commissioners, said this year's budget will not come close to meeting the agency's needs.

``We're basically standing there with our finger in the hole of the dike,'' he said.

L.A. Animal Services spokesman Jeff Prang said there have only been ``conceptual discussions'' about a much-needed third shelter in the San Fernando Valley - in part because the budget doesn't allow for new facilities.

Afriat echoed Hayden and Chick's statements that the department should have been considered for funding with other agencies.

``I have no problem with the bond measures that they've put on the ballot,'' Afriat said. ``I am upset that the council didn't see the full picture and represent all animal services. I would like to think that the animals we care for in our shelter would be a greater priority.''

Local animal activists also would have liked to have seen a bond for animal shelters. Ironically, many support the zoo measure as well, although they don't support keeping animals in cages.

``I would just as soon there were no zoos,'' said Joyce Pieper, director of Woodland Hills-based The Fund for Animals. ``But any way we can make their lives better is good for me.''

The Exposition Park measure elicited a less positive response.

``We don't need an aquarium any more than we need a hole in the head,'' activist Lois Newman said.

Hayden said it takes persistent supporters to get a measure on the ballot - something the L.A. Zoo and Exposition Park had over the past year, and the Department of Animal Regulation did not.

``I think the concern for the humane treatment of animals is supported by a large contingent of people,'' Hayden said. ``I think the zoo has more lobbyists.''

Activists, City Council members and department officials were pointing fingers at each other Thursday to explain why shelter upgrades didn't make it on the November ballot.

Michael Bell with Citizens for a Humane Los Angeles said the board members ``don't have either the interest or the time or the imagination'' to lobby for a ballot measure.

Chick said neither the department nor the commission has stepped forward during bond discussions to say, Hey, what about us?

Afriat criticized some of the humane organizations for spending time pushing a state ballot proposition that would ban the use of leg-hold animal traps instead of concentrating on local issues.

All three groups expressed optimism for the future of the department, which just hired a new general manager.

L.A. Animal Services General Manager Dan Knapp has only been on the job two weeks, but already has set a goal - a citywide ``no kill'' policy regarding adoptable animals. He said a change in image and increased volunteerism is the department's best chance to meet that goal within the budget.

That attitude will start with the renovated South Los Angeles shelter, scheduled to be completed in December 1999, which Knapp promises will be a ``fun place to visit.''

``The negative image of the dog catcher can't continue,'' Knapp said. ``We're building our shelters to be community places.''

With little organization among the masses who support better animal services, Hayden said a push for volunteerism, not a bond measure, may be the best hope for the future of unwanted cats and dogs in Los Angeles.

``I think the public wants to do something about the shelters, but they don't have a blue-ribbon committee,'' Hayden said.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1) A dachsund looks out from the bars of his cage at the East Valley Animal Shelter in North Hollywood, one of thousands of dogs and cats in L.A. facilities.

(2) Jim Wyrozumski shows where kennels at the crowded North Hollywood shelter have recently been painted.

(3) A woman's hand engages two kittens at the shelter. Although some new lighting was installed at the facility, no new space has been provided.

Phil McCarten/Daily News