Supervisors request investigation into animal carcasses' destination.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has asked the state's Department of Food and Agriculture to investigate allegations that a Vernon animal disposal firm is selling carcasses and byproducts to U.S. companies as cattle and chicken feed.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich called for the investigation of D&D Rendering Co., which also uses the name West Coast Rendering, in response to complaints raised by Delta Rescue, a local animal rights group. The five-member board made the formal request in late October.

Bill Gorman, president of West Coast Rendering, did not return calls. But in an interview with the Business Journal in March, he said the company had been stockpiling 600 tons of dead dogs and cats in silos at its facilities in Vernon because of a ban on selling the animal parts to Asia after the mad cow disease scare. The ban has been lifted since then.

State food and safety laws prohibit rendering companies from selling animal byproducts for use in animal feed, though those regulations do not extend overseas.

The supervisors were persuaded to request the investigation after Delta Rescue's founder, Leo Grillo, sent hundreds of newsletters to donors last month telling them to complain to the supervisors about D&D's practices.

William Hess, a lawyer for Delta Rescue, said investigators he hired found that D&D Rendering was selling processed animal products to U.S. companies.

"We know for a fact that they were shipping protein meal to several companies in Texas and they use tallow, which is the fat from the animals, as a dietary supplement for cattle in California."

The county did not launch its own investigation because it does not have jurisdiction, said Tony Bell, a spokesman for Antonovich.

D&D Rendering collects several hundred thousand dead animals every year--euthanized animals from shelters and pets that have been put to sleep at veterinary hospitals. Last year, the county paid $80,000 to dispose of 80,000 animals from county shelters.

Animal remains, sometimes called dry rendered tankage, typically sell for up to $100 a ton in countries like China, Thailand and Vietnam, where they are used as bait and feed at shrimp and salmon hatcheries.

Grillo, who has rescued 1,500 pets that are housed at his sanctuary in Acton, sued D&D Disposal in 2002 for fraud, breach of contract and violation of unfair business practices after his horse, Peaches, was sent to the facility to be cremated.

"I got a five-gallon can back that was supposed to contain the remains of a horse that weighed 2,000 pounds," he said. "The county needs to inform the public about what is really happening there."

Madeline Bernstein, president of the Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, has been pushing for the county to fund a crematorium that would meet environmental standards and eliminate the need for rendering firms like D&D.

"It's a disgusting subject," she said, "But they're still the only game in town. They pick up from everybody, including private veterinarians and public animal control facilities."

D&D Disposal is the only animal rendering plant in Southern California and has contracts with 14 government agencies. The company also disposes of a variety of other animals including whales that wash up on the beach and those killed on city streets.

Because of environmental laws, animal remains cannot be dumped in landfills since they have the potential to pollute groundwater. Delta Rescue has raised concerns that the company has no way to extricate drugs used to euthanize pets from their remains and that those drugs could be harmful if they are digested by other animals.