New Animal Laws Permit Lawndale to Impound, Kill Pets

The Lawndale City Council has approved a set of animal control laws that allow the city to impound and, in the worst case, destroy an animal that has attacked a person or another animal.

The laws, which were approved Thursday, also allow the city to suspend an owner’s license for up to a year if the animal prompts too many noise complaints from neighbors.

The changes, which take effect Nov. 5, were prompted in part by a pit bull attack last month on a husky, which ended when sheriff’s deputies shot and killed the pit bull, said Bart Swanson, community safety supervisor. The husky, which suffered severe injuries, was later destroyed, he said.

Each year the city receives an average of 12 reports of people being bitten by dogs and 200 complaints about barking dogs, Swanson said.

Ravaging Neighborhood

Mayor Pro Tem Larry Rudolph, supported the law, saying it would help resolve a problem in his neighborhood caused by a dog that has been ravaging the area.

He said the dog has killed two other dogs and regularly chases the mail carrier. “This dog has a rap sheet longer than anyone in the state prison,” Rudolph said.

Councilwoman Carol Norman cast the only dissenting vote because of a provision that will prohibit a person from owning any animals for which a license is required if that person fails to control one violent or noisy animal. The person should be allowed to keep those pets that were not a problem, she said.

Rudolph disagreed. “I think the law is fine the way it is,” he said.

A hearing, which could involve eye witnesses, sworn testimony and attorneys, would have to be conducted before an owner’s license could be revoked or suspended.

A community safety official will preside over the hearings and consider such things as whether the attack was provoked, the severity of the bite, the animal’s history, whether the animal was permitted to run loose and whether the animal can be effectively retrained, Swanson said.

Right to Appeal

The presiding officer can then decide to revoke the owner’s animal license, have the animal destroyed or require the owner to put the animal through obedience school. The owner has the right to appeal the decision to the city manager and ultimately to the City Council.

Under current law, if a dog bites a person the city can impound the animal for 10 days to determine if the dog has rabies, Swanson said. The dog must then be returned to its owner, he said.

“We can’t take (the dog) away,” Swanson said. “That is the whole crux of the ordinance.”

Currently, if a barking dog or other noisy animal prompts at least three complaints to the city from neighbors, the owner can be served with a petition signed by five neighbors requiring the owner to address the problem, Swanson said. If the noise complaints continue, the city can ask the Los Angeles County district attorney to prosecute the owner, he said.

In the last 1 1/2 years, he said the district attorney has only prosecuted three such complaints.

Swanson said the new laws are comparable to those in surrounding cities. He said the laws were modeled after those passed last year in the city and county of Los Angeles during a rash of pit bull attacks.

Inbred Instincts

He said a dog is killed by another dog about a dozen times each year. No single breed of dog is more prone to attack, Swanson said, but pit bulls cause the greatest harm because of their inbred instincts and powerful jaws.

“They are out to kill,” he said.

Anna Dufault , whose 7-year-old son, Joey, was bitten last year by a Doberman pinscher, said in an interview last week that she supports the new laws.

She said her son was riding his bicycle through an alley near 166th Street last June when he was bitten on his upper right leg by a Doberman that stuck its head through an opening in a wrought iron fence. Joey’s wound required several stitches, but Dufault said he recovered quickly.

She said the dog was taken away for a few days by city officials but was then returned to the same enclosure.

“This Doberman was just . . . oh, he was mean,” she said.

Dufault said that in some cases the city should have the power to destroy an animal. She said she owns a pit bull, which is “nice and everything, but you never know what they will do.”