Local News in Brief : Another Dog Missing From County Shelter

A month after a Los Angeles County audit reported 200 animals missing at two shelters run by the County Department of Animal Care and Control, another dog has disappeared from one of those shelters.

The year-old Pomeranian, called “Pouff” by its owner, Mercy Miller of West Covina, was taken to the county’s Baldwin Park shelter after it ran away from home and was found by a school custodian. But then, department spokeswoman Gail Christensen said, “The dog disappeared. . . . No one knows what happened.”

According to the audit by the county auditor-controller--the fifth critical survey of the department in the last year--animal staffers at the Baldwin Park and Lancaster shelters lost track of about 200 animals in a one-month period, unable to say if they were destroyed or stolen.

Miller, a nurse’s assistant, said her four-pound, $250 dog ran out of her yard last Thursday. It was found by the custodian shortly afterward. When Miller tracked it to the shelter four days later, however, the staff could not find it.

“My kids are heartbroken,” Miller said.