Evolution of Pet Owner to Protector : Hunt for Dog Finds Scheme to Furnish Animals for Research

Lani Ciarlo did not consider herself an animal rights activist eight months ago, but that was before she uncovered what authorities say was a scheme by two Sun Valley kennels to sell household pets to medical research laboratories.

Today, the Tarzana resident is a member of Last Chance for Animals and says she has stopped eating meat and buying leather goods. She won’t even drink milk.

“I won’t take anything from animals,” she said.

Ciarlo’s example may be extreme, but it is symbolic of reactions from some San Fernando Valley pet owners who, authorities said, were duped into giving dogs and cats to kennels dealing in research animals. Scores of pets that had been offered to good homes through classified ads later were found by animal regulation authorities at the Sun Valley kennels and three research laboratories.

A seven-month investigation into Comfy Kennel and Budget Boarding by the Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation and the city attorney’s office is nearing completion, Deputy City Atty. Norman T. Wegener said. He said officials expect resolution of the case soon.

Many pet owners, Ciarlo among them, said they are anxiously waiting for the investigation to conclude. They also said disturbing memories of the case linger.

“I don’t trust anybody right now,” said Frieda Marchese of North Hollywood, who gave away two dogs later recovered from Comfy Kennel.

“We used to trust people,” said Nancy O’Weger, a West Hills resident who gave away Suzy, a 4-year-old malamute. “But I told my husband I’m never going to trust anybody about anything.” She never found her dog.

Sought Home for Mason

Ciarlo’s life as an animal activist began in January, when a man telephoned about Mason, a black springer spaniel she had owned for six months but was offering to a good home through the classifieds. Within 15 minutes, he drove to Ciarlo’s hillside home. A cat cage and a dog were in the back of his blue Mazda RX-7, Ciarlo said, but she did not think it unusual then.

The man said he was a pilot and a law student. He promised that Mason could romp with horses at a 10-acre ranch he owned in Agua Dulce. Ciarlo, 29, was impressed and let him take Mason, whom the family had decided to give away because he always growled at her husband, Chuck. “I couldn’t ask for a better home for my dog,” she recalled.

Intuition later told her that something wasn’t quite right. At her husband’s urging, Ciarlo called a phone number the man had left. It was disconnected. She grabbed the newspaper and began calling others who had sought homes for their dogs. “The first person I called up, he had been at her house that day,” she said.

That was Gayle Sovia of Agoura Hills, who had given Sparky, a border collie mix, to the same man a few hours earlier. “I didn’t want to believe it,” Sovia said.

Ciarlo soon found five other people who gave their pets to a man with an RX-7.

Ciarlo grew angry and then frightened. Why was this man collecting dogs? The thought of research laboratories crossed her mind, but so did satanic rites. She thought of Mason. “I had thoughts of him being cut open,” she said.

Through persistent calling, she found more people who said they gave their pets to a pilot and law student driving a Mazda. Finally, a friend had Ciarlo call Last Chance for Animals, which began investigating and learned that a woman was also responding to the ads.

A break came when a woman seeking to adopt two cats left a Sylmar address with a pet owner.

Bill Dyer of the North Hollywood-based Last Chance for Animals said the group traced a van at the Sylmar home to Budget Boarding. Authorities said later that Budget Boarding and Comfy Kennel were owned by the same person, and was licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to sell animals for research.

On Jan. 24, Ciarlo said, she went to Comfy Kennel and, finding it deserted, hopped a fence to look for Mason. She found him in a dirty pen with three other dogs. His black fur was filthy. “It was like having a living skunk in my car,” she said of the ride home.

After Ciarlo’s discovery, about 20 angry pet owners broke into Comfy Kennel the next night and retrieved their pets. Some found only collars or dog tags.

Investigators later determined that the kennels had sold 49 dogs and 29 cats to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Loma Linda University and the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda. Ten of those animals were reunited with their owners or put up for adoption.

Dyer said there is no way of telling how long the scheme might have continued if Ciarlo had not grown suspicious of the man who took her pet. “She was the first one who opened that door, and Last Chance is indebted to her for that,” he said.

So is Mason, who has since found a new home.

Investigators have not publicly acknowledged the activist group’s role in the case, but they were unaware of the problems until Ciarlo helped bring them to light.

Ciarlo, the mother of two young children and the owner of two dogs, Adrienne and Matesse, said the experience has made her a firm vegetarian and a believer in protecting animals.

Dyer said he has watched the growth of Ciarlo’s awareness and commitment to animal rights. He said Ciarlo often called him, at times in tears, as she read books the group provided about animal research. “I know this turned her life around,” he said.

Said Ciarlo: “It just woke me up.”