They’re Out to Protect Animals : Rights: The Ventura Humane Society tries to ensure that people treat their pets properly or face citations or criminal charges for abuse.

The director of the Ventura Humane Society can spin a tale of animal woe for every day of the week--flea-infested cocker spaniels, abandoned cats, horses on the verge of starvation.

In a noisy Ojai office where squawking birds provide constant chatter and a dog or two roams about, the phone rings incessantly with such stories.

Twenty of every 100 calls offer legitimate tips about animal abuse. Five of those 20 often entail animal abuse severe enough to report to the district attorney’s office. Others come from pranksters or people retaliating against their neighbors for various slights.

But the animal investigators check into all of them. Armed with badges and bestowed with peace officer powers by the state, they maintain a constant load of 50 or so cases each, driving the freeways and back roads of the county, knocking on doors, issuing tickets and rescuing animals.

The society’s van, complete with body bag and gloves in cases of dead or dangerous animals, could be mistaken for an ambulance. And because its investigators have patrolling rights, their jobs often resemble those of animal police, although they say they are educators who have a unique relationship with the district attorney’s office.

“There are so many people that don’t realize animals have rights,” animal investigator Lee Jones said. “We’re just trying to see that their owners are going to care for them not only legally, but humanely.”

Operating on a $412,000 annual budget supplied mostly by its thrift shop and donations, the center employs about 25 staff members including 10 state humane investigation officers, kennel workers and administrators. Volunteers help walk, groom and bathe the animals.

A group of volunteers founded the organization in 1932 and helped it expand from people’s homes to a shelter in Santa Paula, then to its current shelter in Ojai in 1982. At the Ojai shelter, said society President Joyce George, the employees became feistier about their profession.

“I think we have become a little more aggressive about our cases since we’ve been in Ojai,” said George, in her 11th year as president. Officers are trained by the state in search and seizure procedures and firearms use. In addition to the state’s arrest and training program, they also attend a private training academy.

“I think along with all that professionalism comes a more assertive program,” George said.

Animal investigators are legally able to enter a person’s home and confiscate abused pets. When investigators follow up on a call, they can issue a citation or impound the animal, depending on the severity of its neglect. Usually, Jones said, she operates on the “three chances” rule. If she issues a citation, the pet owner usually has three opportunities to change the situation before she will impound the animal.

“A lot of it falls on our judgment and our expertise,” Jones said. “If we get a thin horse that’s not thin enough to pull we keep going back.”

In early June, a call led shelter workers to a ranch in Piru where they confiscated more than 100 starved animals. They found two sheep and 21 rabbits dead at a leased ranch on Piru Canyon Road and took seven horses, 34 sheep, 69 rabbits, three dogs and a cockatiel back to the shelter for care.

Less than two weeks later the society completed a second major rescue, impounding 18 birds and 11 rabbits from a one-acre farm on Yerba Buena Road near the Los Angeles County line.

It has been a hectic summer. When the temperatures rise or a big animal abuse case stirs public interest, other cases flood the office, Director Jolene Hoffman said. Fires in Ojai and in Santa Barbara and the usual “dogs locked in cars with the windows rolled up” have kept workers on overtime.

The workload has increased 8% since last summer, and some days office workers field as many as 10 legitimate calls. “As the population grows in the county, that ups our workload here,” Hoffman said.

George added: “I think we’re going to have a real tough time with the drought. . . . People’s budgets are stretched out, and the animals pay the price.”

The society, which also runs pet therapy programs in convalescent homes and humane education programs in schools, houses about 70 dogs daily in its 48 kennel rooms and at least 60 cats.

The Humane Society of the United States, a national organization that oversees animal issues, commends societies that attend national meetings and are active in education, as well as pursuing legal action, said Charlene Drennon, director of the West Coast office. She said Ventura’s society participates in those events and called the society progressive.

“They’ve been very good at compiling their cases,” she said. “They have a good reputation.”

Drennon said some of the praise needs to go to the county’s political system. In some counties, including San Joaquin and San Bernardino, politicians have not actively pursued animal abuse cases, she said.

“I’ve never heard of Ventura complaining about the district attorneys,” Drennon said. “There are some places where the D.A.s won’t file a case.”

The Ventura County district attorney’s office has taken on the Piru case, the most severe case of animal neglect in the county this year and one of the few that warrants consideration as a felony crime.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Donna Thonis said she hopes to make a filing decision about the Piru case soon. If she files it as a felony, the owner could face a maximum of three years in prison and a $20,000 fine. Misdemeanor charges can also generate fines between $200 and $20,000, with a maximum jail sentence of one year, she said.

“It’s rare that we have a factual situation that falls within the category of felony conduct,” Thonis said. “I guess because most times people are pretty good to their animals.”

Of more than 700 cases last year, the society turned about 12 over to the district attorney’s office. This year it has filed seven cases in as many months. Hoffman said the number is low because the group turns in only the cases it believes can be proved.

Ninety percent of the cases the society files are misdemeanors, said Amanda Sanderson, the deputy district attorney who decides which cases warrant prosecution.

“Usually they’re cases where the animals aren’t fed properly” or if the owner shows a failure to provide medical attention, Sanderson said.

Many cases never reach court because people plead guilty. On Tuesday, though, a misdemeanor charge will go to trial, and Sanderson said “the whole office has taken an interest in it.”

The case of Louie the Cockatoo differs dramatically from the drunk driving and drug cases Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Brown ordinarily handles.

The case charges owner Tracy Davidson with one count of failure to provide the pet with proper care, Brown said. In December, Louie’s leg was operated on, and Davidson failed to change its leg wrap as instructed or return to the veterinarian for weekly checkups, Brown said. Louie has had a few toes amputated as a result.

“It’s interesting to have an animal as a victim,” Brown said. “The Humane Society’s performing a legitimate function. It’s kind of gratifying to be a part of that process.

“It’s a matter of conversation and debate amongst the office. I think most people feel very badly for the bird.”

Another case that made it to court this year generated similar public sympathy. But it stirred controversy, as well.

In March, a Municipal Court jury convicted Ojai newspaper publisher Darrow (Duke) Tully of a single misdemeanor count of animal cruelty and placed him on probation for six months. Tully shot a neighbor’s small terrier between the eyes with a pellet gun.

He faced a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $20,000 fine, although Judge Bruce A. Clark imposed neither, placing him on probation and ordering him to pay restitution of $240 for the wounded dog’s surgery.

Afterward, jury members questioned whether Tully should have been tried at all.

“These are things that can be settled between neighbors,” without costly court cases, juror John McCarthy said at the time. But the Humane Society disagreed.

“I think our critics should come in and take a look at what we see and then tell us we’re extreme,” Jones said.