EDITORIAL : GONE TO THE DOGS; DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL REGULATION HAS A RESPONSIBILITY TO LAW AND ORDER, NOT TO THE WHIMS OF BUREAUCRATS AND POLITICIANS.

SOMETHING'S wrong with this picture:

The Department of Animal Regulations earlier this year wanted to prosecute an 84-year-old Encino woman because she waited too long before seeking treatment for Pal, her beloved pet pug that was skinned alive, possibly by a coyote.

However, when neighbors of an illegal pet kennel in Van Nuys complained about stench, noise and unsafe conditions, the department looked the other way. Not days, not months, but more than a year.

In July, a disgruntled pet owner broke into Romeo's Pets for Life shelter to retrieve a cat and reported the squalid conditions to police.

Neighbors had complained for months. A cable installer had become ill after going inside and reported it to the department. There were 589 cats and 28 dogs at Romeo's Kennel, making it the biggest illegal shelter in the city's history.

But not until police showed up did the department take action.

What does this tell us about the department? That it favors dogs over cats?

What it says in volumes is that the Department of Animal Regulations is symptomatic of a city governed by privilege, influence and class.

Rules are enforced on people with no clout, no friends in high places, no special pull.

A house full of smelly, stinky, half-dead animals? No problem. Not if you're a friend or ally of the former department General Manager Gary Olsen. From the record, Olsen approved of the illegal kennel in Van Nuys run by Doris Romeo, a West Hollywood resident and owner of a catering business and maid service.

When complaints from the public were mounting against Romeo's Pets for Life kennel, the department was under Olsen's order to ``take no action.''

On the other hand, Avis Wilkinson, the 84-year-old Encino woman, had no special friends in the department. So when her pet pug was found near death, the department wanted to skin her alive.

This is not a city governed by laws and order, but by the capricious whims of bureaucrats and politicians.

Ultimately, the mayor is in charge of this deplorable situation. He should initiate a full and total investigation of all city departments to determine every example of whether the law is one thing but the practice is another.

This is not a fight over the appalling mistreatment of dogs and cats. This should be a complete review of all city departments.

The public has a right to know what the laws are in L.A., and the bureaucrats and officeholders have a responsibility to enforce them equally.