KILLING MAN'S BEST FRIEND: LAST YEAR 139,000 UNWANTED PETS IN THE L.A. AREA WERE DESTROYED; EVERY DAY 70,000 PUPPIES AND KITTENS ARE BORN NATIONWIDE.

Byline: Amy Collins Daily News Staff Writer

This is the last morning of dog No. 594870's life.

He's a black Labrador mix who never had a name, never had a home. Muzzled on a stainless steel gurney, he has 30 seconds to live as a needle pierces the skin above his paw.

The black Lab mix has spent the last 10 days of his life in a metal cage at a Los Angeles city animal shelter in Chatsworth. His final morning, a Wednesday, is spent alone in a locked room marked ``Employees Only.''

What goes on behind those doors is Los Angeles' dirty little secret, one that costs taxpayers $4 million a year. Typically, photographs are prohibited because the image is so strong. But animal regulation officials made an exception so the Daily News could chronicle as completely as possible the pet overpopulation problem, including the end result.

Of the 182,878 dogs, cats and other animals that entered Los Angeles city and county shelters last year, 138,929 did not leave alive. These numbers, increasing each year, have driven the city's animal commission to propose a $500 license fee for unaltered dogs, to persuade owners to have them spayed or neutered.

``Shelters have been doing the public's dirty work,'' said Gini Barrett, who is director of the American Humane Association's western regional office and a commissioner for the city Department of Animal Regulation. ``It's time we brought this issue out in the open and face the fact that we're spending millions of taxpayer dollars to kill man's best friend. Do we really want to do that?''

Nationally, 5 million unwanted animals were killed last year, a shocking number in itself, yet a decrease since a peak of 17.8 million in 1987.

The decline is attributed to national spay and neuter education campaigns, a strategy that has met with mixed success in Los Angeles. And the city isn't alone in its problem: Although 17 animals are euthanized for every 1,000 residents here, it is slightly less than the national average of 19.5.

San Francisco kills the fewest - 5.9 per 1,000 population - with San Antonio euthanizing the most, 55.6, according to figures compiled by the Washington state-based organization Animal People.

``It isn't getting any better,'' said Jamie Pinn, the president of the Southern California-based Pet Assistance Foundation, a spay and neuter referral service. ``It's like emptying the ocean with a teaspoon.''

Behind these numbers, the dark side of animal control is largely obscured for those who drop off unwanted pets. Strays are put to sleep in as little as five days if they are too sick, injured or dangerous. Otherwise they remain for adoption or reunification until the shelter fills, which happens quickly in the summer.

A crisis

Ten minutes after a tranquilizer is given to the black Lab, animal care technician Rachelle Mando arrives. Speaking in a reassuring voice, she opens the cage.

Still, the dog shakes.

``He's a little bit nervous,'' said Dena Mangiamele, chief veterinarian for the department.

Mando continues talking to the dog as he attempts to escape from the table. He responds to her voice, stops shaking and looks up to her face as she wipes his runny nose. She holds him still on the gurney and muzzles him with a rope.

On one end of the room is Ed Loria, a registered veterinary technician, filling a syringe with pentobarbital sodium. At the opposite end of the room is a walk-in freezer.

Unlike the black Lab, about 25 percent of the animals in shelters are purebreds, said Madeline Bernstein, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Los Angeles.

A month ago, a woman turned in a Dalmatian that she said had been used in a McDonald's ``101 Dalmatians'' commercial. Bernstein said the woman had obtained the dog from a trainer, not the fast-food restaurant, but failed to continue training the canine, even though the breed requires constant attention.

``It didn't act like the dogs in the movie'' was the woman's reason for turning the dog into the SPCA, Bernstein said.

Many activists and animal regulation officials blame dog breeders for contributing to the pet overpopulation problem. Unaware of the dangers caused by improper breeding, people take home the animals to find they require continued training and are sometimes fraught with congenital medical problems.

``People breed anything to anything,'' said Beverly Berger, whose Rottweiler Rescue each year accepts hundreds of expensive, purebred but unwanted dogs. ``Everybody thinks, my litter won't hurt. But that's not true.''

The lure of purebred dogs and the possibility of profit lead many people to a breeder rather than the shelters where spaying and neutering is mandatory.

``It is cheaper to bypass the shelter, so you go to the breeder who will charge you $75 for a so-called purebred St. Bernard with papers,'' said Frank R. Andrews, the director of Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control. ``Then he tells you you can recoup your $75 by having a litter.''

Unwanted innocents

Ten days earlier, the black Labrador was picked up in Reseda near Shirley Avenue and Ingomar Street. Probably 2 or 3 years old, he had an upper-respiratory infection, skin problems and old gashes, was losing weight and coughing, and was highly infectious to the other dogs.

``He's been around,'' Mangiamele said.

In many ways, this dog is typical of the animals that end up in shelters: Many come in with bite abscesses, cuts and pelvic fractures. The most common way a dog lands in the shelter is being hit by a car.

``You can sometimes see the tire mark on the dog,'' Mangiamele said.

Typically, they aren't wearing identification tags and seldom have been spayed or neutered.

All of this leaves animal shelters with the difficult task of being part kennel, part veterinary triage and part executioner.

Running the city's six shelters cost $2.78 million last year, more than a third of the $7.2 million set aside for animal regulation. Of that, $75,000 was spent on animal food, $110,000 on in-house medical supplies and $40,000 on outside veterinary care.

The city Bureau of Sanitation also spends $614,000 a year disposing of carcasses, including the ones that don't make it to the shelter. The animals end up at West Coast Rendering in Vernon, where their bodies are recycled and used in fertilizer, according to city officials.

The budget does not provide for animal blankets, food dishes, toys or leashes; those all are provided through donations, if at all.

Despite the enormous, growing financial drain and tragic fate of unwanted pets, Los Angeles shelters are forbidden from turning away anyone who drops off an animal - regardless of the reason.

Animal rescue activists urge people to view pet ownership as a lifelong commitment, like raising a child.

``Last year, the city spent $4 million to kill animals,'' said Lois Newman of the Cat and Dog Rescue Organization. ``What a terrible, terrible example for our children: If you don't like something, kill it.''

Shelter workers say they have a hard time listening to the excuses people give for turning in their pets - everything from ``we're moving'' to ``my boyfriend doesn't like the cat.''

Some admit they just got tired of the animal.

Reluctant farewell

Alicia Barragan and her father, Francisco, arrived at the West Valley shelter with grim faces last week with their two Australian shepherds. They'd had the dogs only four months.

``I don't feel good about it, but I have to do it,'' Francisco Barragan explained.

Mando, who had to assist at the euthanizing of the sick black Labrador, is the one who was at the front door to accept Bubbles and Candy from Alicia Barragan. When Mando asked why they don't want the dogs anymore, Barragan explained that they were chewing up things in the family's Canoga Park house and yard.

Mando told them they should not get any more dogs, and that the dogs should get obedience training.

``Well, it's too late now,'' Barragan said, her hands empty.

``No, it's not,'' Mando replied.

Barragan said her parents made the decision about the dogs, and then she was silent. Mando waited a few seconds, turned and carried the second dog toward the kennel.

The last breath

In the euthanasia room, the black Lab lies in the gurney. Loria reaches for a paw and moves his fingers along fur to isolate a vein. The Labrador tries to pull away, but Loria finds a vein and slowly presses the fatal fluid into the unwanted dog.

The black Lab squints his eyes shut and tries again to pull away. Seven fast seconds pass and he is released from Mando's hold and lays down on the gurney.

``And that quickly,'' Mangiamele says, ``an animal becomes incapacitated as the solution filters through their body.''

His eyes now open, almost all movement has ceased.

``And then the heart stops,'' Mangiamele says.

``And the other organs stop functioning.''

The body lies on its left side motionless, its black eyes open with four paws barely hanging over the edge of the gurney. Loria places a stethoscope to the black lab's torso and confirms the death of dog No. 594870.

UNWANTED PETS

Los Angeles area euthanized more than 180,000 last year. The numbers rise not only when the animal population rises, but also when budgets allow for more pick ups of strays. The city has employed fewer animal control officers in recent years. Here are the numbers for the city and county:

L.A. County:

Total numbers of animals admitted / destroyed for past 10 years.

96 - 97: 102,615 / 81,061

95 - 96: 98,005 / 75,636

94 - 95: 86,160 / 62,044

93 - 94: 84,525 / 60,774

92 - 93: 96,622 / 70,612

91 - 92: 100,978 / 78,102

90 - 91: 95,429 / 67,058

89 - 90: 98,992 / 70,800

88 - 89: 95,901 / 71,460

87 - 88: 96,554 / 71,458

L.A. City:

Total numbers of animals admitted / destroyed for past 10 years.

96 - 97: 80,263 / 57,868

95 - 96: 76,548 / 52,409

94 - 95: 74,003 / 49,884

93 - 94: 78,287 / 52,821

92 - 93: 81,128 / 56,323

91 - 92: 91,861 / 63,211

90 - 91: 87,697 / 56,088

89 - 90: 89,595 / 58,737

88 - 89: 101,369 / 58,599

87 - 88: 108,045 / 57,497

SOURCES: Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation and Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control.

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos, Chart

PHOTO (1--color) A sickly two- to three-year-old Labrador mix is put to sleep at the Chatsworth animal shelter after being held for 10 days.

(2--color) Animal shelter adoptees are spayed or neutered before heading for homes.

(3) The owners turn in an unwanted Australian shepherd at the West Valley animal shelter.

(4) Animal control officials hope continuing efforts to educate owners on the importance of spaying or neutering their pets can someday make a dent in the seemingly endless number of strays put to sleep in city shelters.

Photos by David Sprague / Daily News

CHART: UNWANTED PETS (see text)

Dionisio Munoz / Daily News