EDITORIAL : REALITY BITES; NEW LAW CREATING STANDARDS FOR ANIMAL SHELTERS WILL COST MILLIONS.

THE Los Angeles Animal Regulation Department spends a large chunk of its $8 million annual budget to catch, house and then kill stray dogs and cats. But a new law scheduled to take effect Jan. 1 will drastically alter that approach.

The legislation by Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, sets a new level of care for animal shelters around the state, forcing them to spend more time and money to treat animals and find them homes.

The measure is expected to hit Los Angeles particularly hard, since the city has been so incredibly lax in picking up and housing stray dogs and cats.

Officials estimate they will need an additional $5.5 million in the next two years to comply with the law and make substantial gains on the problem.

It's been more than a year since the Daily News reported on the scope of the problem and the challenge facing animal shelter authorities.

An estimated 1,135 animals are put to death in a typical week in Los Angeles, about 73 percent of the animals that come into city shelters.

Currently, shelters are 150 percent over capacity. Since each shelter houses between four and seven dogs per kennel, instead of the normal one or two, that means sick animals are housed with healthy ones, which exposes them to viruses fast.

Because the city has neglected to fully fund shelters for years, it's going to have a devil of a time playing catch-up under the Hayden bill, SB 1785.

Besides building better facilities, the city must spend more money to treat animals that are not too ill to kill so they can put them up for adoption. And hire more staffers to try to track owners or find homes for animals.

Considering that pet owners currently reclaim only 9 percent of all animals entering city shelters, that's going to require quite an infusion of money and manpower.

Or maybe, the mayor and the City Council will decide just to get out of the shelter business altogether and turn those animals loose on L.A.

In the East Valley and South Central Los Angeles, wild dog packs already are creating health and safety risks to residents. Animal regulation officials estimate there are 44,000 dogs living at large in Los Angeles, roaming the streets in packs and attacking residents.

To solve the problem, department officials have asked for an allocation of $13 million in 1999-2000. Most of the $5 million increase would go for shelter improvements and care required under the Hayden law, while the rest would go toward adding more officers to chase feral dogs and cats. The rest of the Hayden compliance funding will be asked for the following year.

That would be the simple solution, if the money is available.

The other option is one quite familiar to the city of Los Angeles - ignore the problem until it's forced to pay out huge legal fees and award million-dollar settlements when animal rights activists sue, which they will under this new legislation.

Anyway you look at it, L.A. has gone to the dogs.