EDITORIAL : DOG DAYS OF AUTUMN; RUNAWAY REGULATORS ENDORSE OVERKILL PLAN AGAINST PET OWNERS.

THE city Animal Regulation Commission gave its preliminary approval this week to an enforcement plan that some people will blow their stacks over and call Pet Nazism.

Others, heartsick over the thousand or so unwanted dogs and cats euthanized every week in Los Angeles, will see it differently and argue that the city would be right to raise the cost of a license for an unspayed or unneutered dog to $500 a year.

There are legitimate arguments and honest passions on both sides, but this is one debate that should never have been taking place if the Department of Animal Regulation weren't the worst-run agency in a badly run government.

For many years, the department was mismanaged, had its budget stripped and became infamous as the bureaucratic dumping ground for city employees who held on to their jobs solely because Civil Service protection is an iron-clad guarantee of job security for incompetents and do-nothings.

Now, Mayor Richard Riordan is trying to change the department. Members of the Animal Regulation Commission, which oversees the department, are conscientious in their efforts to attract good employees and straighten out the mess.

However, all is not going smoothly. Because the department doesn't have the resources it needs, activists are pushing this new plan for dog and cat owners to spay and neuter their pets, to reduce strays.

The city puts to death more than 50,000 unclaimed and unwanted dogs and cats each year. For the county as a whole, the yearly total is at least three times as high. Also, untold numbers of dogs roam the streets and cause problems for pedestrians, children at play and others.

The answer, of course, is to clamp down on strays and sock it to people who can't control their animals and allow unwanted breeding. But that would cost money and who wants to spend the $40 million it would cost to be humane to people as well as animals.

Instead, we got a plan that is heavy-handed. Law-abiding residents who follow the rules but who prize unspayed or unneutered pets are treated the same as people who act irresponsibly.

The proposal calls for a license for a spayed or neutered dog to cost just $10 a year, or $500 for an unneutered one, although that would drop to $35 if the owner shows evidence of responsible pet ownership - for example, by participating in the types of organizations that are behind this proposal. That reeks of elitism, which everyone who follows the shenanigans at City Hall is familiar with.

The proponents don't seem to recognize, and don't take seriously, the effect of such punitive measures on law-abiding pet owners who just want to be left alone on their own property. And such a sky-high fee - a new tax, really - wouldn't increase the rate of compliance.

The problem of stray dogs and cats should be addressed and many supporters of the plan may have their hearts in the right place, but it needs more work. If this flawed scheme becomes law, it will just go to show that Los Angeles needs a leash law for government.