Rescuer of Stray and Unwanted Dogs Gets 5-Month Jail Term

A self-styled savior of unwanted dogs was sentenced Monday to five months in jail for violating probation by keeping as many as 40 dogs in an old school bus and makeshift wooden kennels on a vacant piece of land in Chatsworth.

“God, oh God, it’s terrible. It’s going to be hell not being with the dogs,” cried William Long, 59, after Van Nuys Municipal Court Judge Isabel R. Cohen ordered him to report to jail on Friday.

A jury convicted Long on Sept. 12 of eight misdemeanor counts of violating city animal control laws.

The violations occurred between May, 1988, and April, 1989, on vacant land near Canoga Avenue and Devonshire Street. Animal control officials said the 40 dogs were kept in unsanitary conditions and fed a nutritionally deficient diet of dog food mixed with bread and water. The dogs were dehydrated and suffered from diarrhea and worms, the officials alleged.

Previous Violations

Cohen sentenced Long to three years probation for the eight animal control violations but imposed a jail term because he had violated probation on a past conviction by keeping the animals.

Animal control officers seized the dogs when he was arrested in May, 1988, and again in April, leaving him only three dogs.

Deputy Public Defender Peggy Loveman argued for probation, saying: “His whole life is devoted to taking care of animals. I’d rather be kept in the conditions Mr. Long keeps his dogs in than in the County Jail.

Long, who is unemployed, said he has kept 17,331 dogs in his lifetime, including more than 516 at one time in his native state of Montana. He said he picks up strays or takes them from kennels so that they will not be killed.

With credit for good behavior and time served, Long could be released in about two months, Loveman said.