COUNCILMAN OPPOSES PLAN TO EXPAND ANIMAL SERVICES.

Byline: Anne Burke Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Animal Services Department wants to provide services to Simi Valley, but a critic says the L.A. city agency has enough problems of its own.

City Councilman Nate Holden said his office has received more than 100 complaints from Los Angeles residents claiming that the department's Chatsworth shelter is crowded and that animals are cruelly treated or euthanized too soon.

``We have too many problems of our own without taking on the problems of another community,'' Holden said.

The Simi Valley City Council is expected to take up the matter at a meeting May 5.

Ventura County and Los Angeles County animal-control departments also have submitted proposals to provide services to Simi Valley, which pays for them. Los Angeles municipal officials would have to approve the deal if their city department got the job.

City department officials said their agency won't have any problem providing service to both Los Angeles and Simi Valley if the deal is approved.

``We think Simi Valley is a great area and deserves good service. We feel we can do that very effectively and efficiently,'' said Gary Olsen, general manager of the Los Angeles Animal Services Department.

Earlier this month, Holden called for an investigation of the department.

The councilman said that the department's recent insistence that a pug dog was fatally skinned by a coyote, rather than by a human, amounted to a cover-up to avoid a time-consuming investigation.

In February, the city Animal Regulation Commission proposed a major overhaul of the department, hoping to reduce the number of animals euthanized by making spaying and neutering more available.

The city euthanizes 43,000 cats and dogs each year.

Gini Barrett, an Animal Regulation Commission member, said a deal with Simi Valley might be a good way for the department to make a little money.

``Frankly, every local government agency should be looking at and exploring any avenues that increase revenue, increase service or reduce cost,'' said Barrett, who also is a regional director for the American Humane Association.

L.A.'s Animal Services Department ``is not in nearly as bad a shape as it is perceived to be,'' Barrett said.

``I am the first to tell you it has a lot of problems. But its critics are a small handful of people who are frankly . . . pushing their own agenda. They have no interest in telling the truth or working to solve the department's problems,'' she said.

Simi Valley is located in Ventura County and now uses that county's animal shelter in Camarillo, but the Chatsworth facility is closer.