DOGS GIVEN DOOR TO NEW LIFE RESCUE NETWORK CARRIES CANINES FAR FROM L.A.'S CROWDED KENNELS.

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

At the North Central Animal Shelter, dog No. 30821 was hours away from being euthanized, but she was one of the few lucky ones.

Rescuers got to her first.

The California Rescue Railroad, an Internet-based adoption agency for unwanted pets, took the 5-year-old Dalmatian out of Cage 16 at the North Central Animal Shelter in Lincoln Heights, where she had been held for more than a month.

The euthanization date had been set, but Gail McKenzie came to the rescue just in time.

``There are so many dogs who are killed even before they get a chance to be adopted,'' said McKenzie, 41, the Brentwood woman who runs the underground railroad for pets facing euthanasia.

Saving No. 30821, now named Beauty, proved difficult and her future still isn't certain. She bit a child in her first foster home near Modesto and now lives with a family in Sacramento while McKenzie searches for a permanent owner.

Relentless searches don't come easy for McKenzie, who typically saves Dalmatians, but often rescues other breeds. Fortunately, she gets a little help from the Internet. Her e-mail lists contain 150 names of people who carve out whole weekends to drive dogs out of L.A. shelters to homes up and down the West Coast.

The dog she saved last month could have been just one of the tens of thousands of dogs that are euthanized every year. Of the 73,032 dogs brought into the six animal shelters across the city from July 1998 to July 1999, 51,637 were killed and 11,998 were adopted, according to the latest department records.

Shelters are brimming with strays. There are only 386 kennels in six shelters across the city. Officials estimate that 1,533 more kennels are needed.

The California Rescue Railroad is one of dozens of groups that have stepped up efforts in the weeks since the general manager of the city's Animal Services Department proposed an aggressive sweep of strays during the Democratic National Convention. The L.A. rescue movement - with hundreds of Internet sites and scores of volunteers who will give up just about anything for a little pooch - also highlights the unceasing conflict between animal rights and human rights.

``Why are the animal rights people concerned about sweeps of dogs and not about the sweeps of the homeless during the DNC?'' asked David Grunwald, the chief executive officer of the L.A. Family Housing Corp., a North Hollywood nonprofit that provides services for the homeless.

Though the city has no plans for clearing the streets, police and business owners have made overt suggestions for homeless people to move along, to the dismay of Grunwald. ``Very simply put, human rights are more important than animal rights.''

But animal activists don't see it that way. They believe that as a result of the sweeps, more dogs will have to be killed.

``I look at my own Dalmatian, who I love so very much, and know that there are thousands of wonderful dogs just like her dying in Los Angeles shelters every month,'' McKenzie said. Since her work began in January, her group is responsible for saving more than 30 dogs. But it's not enough.

``You rescue one Dal and the next time you go into the shelter, two more have taken her place,'' she said. ``The ones we save seem like a drop in the bucket.''

The Southern California rescue movement has gained so much attention that even people from as far away as Washington state are helping out.

``They're always desperate in California,'' said Britt Trisler of Seattle. ``The homes just aren't there. There are too many breeders in California. We don't have as many breeders here in Seattle.''

After bailing out Beauty, McKenzie, two other rescuers and a few other lucky dogs met in the parking lot of a veterinary clinic in Highland Park. The vet visit was for the other dogs, which were spayed and neutered, and one needed antibiotics for a urinary tract infection.

Joining that trip were a hairy white Tibetan Lhasa apso, and two puppies - a rare lemon Dalmatian and a Chihuahua mix. Each would be dropped off at different spots along the route at either temporary or permanent homes. Volunteers would drive about 100 miles of a leg each.

Eventually the caravan wound up at the home of Audra Taylor, another volunteer in Salida, a small town north of Modesto, who was working with rescuer Laura Sommerville to find Beauty a permanent one.

``When she came to us, she was a rack of bones,'' Taylor said.

But it was nothing that a high-calorie diet of raw meat and oatmeal couldn't fix. Days later, Taylor noted, ``She's starting to put on a little weight. She's doing pretty good. She's starved for attention.''

That was the good news. The bad news was that a San Jose couple backed out of a deal to adopt Beauty for another dog closer to their home, and an antsy Beauty had to be moved to another temporary home in Sacramento after she bit Taylor's son.

This was the first biting incident involving a dog that McKenzie has saved.

``This can happen with any dog,'' she said. ``It's always a crap shoot when you rescue dogs from a shelter. You just do the best you can to evaluate the temperament while the dog is in the shelter, but you never know how they're going to be with kids.''

Sommerville is out about $250 from Beauty's vet bills, which included antibiotics for a urinary tract infection. McKenzie also put up money for the rescue - $61 for the release that covers vaccinations, sterilization, taxes and a follow-up vet visit. Sometimes the new owners will reimburse rescuers, but ``we're almost always working in the red,'' Sommerville said.

Beauty came to the attention of McKenzie through Marsha Perloff, a 43-year-old dog rescuer from Echo Park, who surveys the North Central shelter regularly for adoptable dogs.

``All the time, I'm worried that I'll be too late,'' Perloff said. ``I could not get up every day and do this if I thought about all the dogs that are no longer there. If I do, I think of them in homes, as opposed to the other alternative.''

The department plans massive adoption outreach programs, and is hoping voters will pass a $140 million bond measure in November that will go toward building new kennels.

Jackie David, the department's spokeswoman, said that without the construction of the new kennels, ``The sad reality is that we would then have to euthanize some adoptable animals.''

Added Taylor: ``We have such a disposable society. People don't think about the fact that this is a living creature.''

The California Rescue Railroad can be found on the Internet at www.onelist.com/community/Dog-Rescue-Railroad.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) Outside a Highland Park vet, Gail McKenzie coordinates transport and a home for a Dalmatian she's rescued from a Los Angeles animal shelter.

Dave Nielsen/Special to the Daily News

(2) Debra Hitchcock of Marysville, Calif., pats Beauty, who was rescued from the North Central Animal Shelter in Lincoln Heights.

Marsha Perloff, left, and Sharee Teegarden hold their rescued dogs while Gail McKenzie tries to get a puppy into a travel cage.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer