COUNTY MUST HALT ANIMAL SHELTER TORTURE LAW'S MISGUIDED ATTEMPT TO SALVAGE ADOPTABLE DOGS GOES HORRIBLY AWRY.

Byline: Phyllis M. Daugherty Local View

THE haunting death of Diane Whipple, her body shredded and throat crushed in the jaws of a dog bred to kill, may be for many their first glimpse into the sordid and depraved world of organized dog fighting.

It is hard for a person of normal sensitivity to imagine that aficionados of this and other gruesome blood sports number in the millions throughout the world and that California is a major supplier of these tortured animals, forced to fight to their deaths while sadistic, cheering onlookers place their bets.

The remorseless response by the owners of the dogs that murdered this vibrant young woman - that she brought it on herself or somehow deserved it - illustrates their lack of value for life and their entitlement to inflict pain and death on any living creature. It also makes us wonder who might be next.

It is ironic that this particularly savage attack occurred in San Francisco, the touted ``no-kill'' city, where major humane interests promote an ideology that no animal should be euthanized because of aggressive behavior, and all can be rehabilitated for adoption, regardless of genetics or violent propensities.

This unrealistic idealism, also espoused by some extremists in the Los Angeles animal-rights movement, produced the misguided animal legislation by Tom Hayden which is causing local shelters to be packed with dogs often as vicious as those which attacked Diane Whipple.

Hayden's statewide policy also prohibits animal control agencies from humanely euthanizing violent dogs before they ravage each other, kill gentle or weaker pets jammed into overcrowded kennels with them, or injure shelter employees.

Although the dogs in the San Francisco attack are not a breed commonly seen in Los Angeles shelters, dogs bred for aggression are being impounded in alarming numbers. Many are severely scarred and wounded - the obvious discards of local dogfighters. Many are brought to shelters by owners who naively purchased a cute little pit bull or other pup from a fighting line, thinking it would grow up to guard them, only to discover they have a lethal time bomb when it later begins attacking animals, neighbors or even family members.

Under new California law, the shelters must make even these animals available for adoption unless their history of viciousness has been documented by reports to the animal control agency.

Since Los Angeles City Animal Regulation Department has no accurate listing of dog attacks on either animals or humans, no systematic record-keeping regarding dangerous, vicious or fighting dogs and where they are kept, and no statistics on who is breeding and selling aggressive dogs, the residents of Los Angeles are in constant danger of attack, and the defenseless animals in our shelters are experiencing it daily.

Los Angeles residents and the City Council deserve more truth and more protection from our Animal Regulation Department manager and the very vocal ``humane community'' of this city.

Too often, animal activists with little or no vicious/dangerous dog experience speak as experts, and their opinions are accepted to shape local animal control policy without questioning their credentials. Many refuse to accept that genes are a greater determiner of canine behavior than training.

They agree that pointers point and Australian shepherds herd because of genetics. But they blindly reject that dogs of any breed specifically produced for fighting are genetically engineered to attack and kill.

This buy-in to the ``no bad dogs'' myth is out of touch with reality.

Animal Regulation Department General Manager Dan Knapp should admit that, as long as the city adheres to the Hayden policy, even with the recently passed $154 million shelter-bond measure, every new kennel built will soon be filled, and the abhorrent conditions in our animal shelters will continue to place this department and this city in violation of California Penal Code Section 597, which states that anyone who has custody of any animal and allows it to be subjected to needless suffering, or inflicts unnecessary cruelty upon it, is guilty of a crime punishable as a misdemeanor or felony.

The helpless and innocent animals we place in cages in our shelters must be safe from the cruelty and needless suffering inflicted in savage and torturous attacks by vicious dogs, and so must the innocent and helpless in our streets.