Couple Denied Dogs Accuse Shelter of Bias : Discrimination: A state agency is following up the pair’s own investigation of a private Canoga Park animal shelter.

Shortly after buying a house in Inglewood, newlyweds La Wanda and Ronnie Blackwell decided to get a couple of dogs.

“It’s all a part of the American Dream . . . a house, kids, a dog,” La Wanda Blackwell said.

But their trip to the Pet Adoption Fund’s private animal shelter in Canoga Park turned into a bizarre ordeal.

In a matter that started 13 months ago and is still not fully resolved, the couple have alleged that they were denied a dog because they are black. Instead of shrugging it off, the Blackwells organized their own investigation. Later, they turned the case over to the state, which is investigating.

Their story, partly corroborated by the Pet Adoption Fund and the volunteer worker involved, is that they were subjected to offensive remarks, were closely questioned about their suitability as pet owners, were told a home inspection was part of the process and then were told that they could not adopt a dog.

Ronnie Blackwell, a New Yorker who served in the Marines for 10 years and is now a McDonnell Douglas Corp. analyst, said that in his travels abroad and in the United States, including the South, he had never been subjected to racial prejudice as open as that he experienced at the shelter.

“That’s their way of saying black people aren’t even capable of caring for a dog,” he said.

La Wanda Blackwell, a state Health Services Department investigator, said she was shocked even though it was not her first experience with racial discrimination. She was once told that she could not rent a Fairfax-area apartment because none was available, despite seeing a “For Rent” sign on the building and being told by phone later that an apartment was open, she said.

The couple’s quarrel with the animal shelter has taken far more time than they expected, they said. La Wanda Blackwell said she would have been satisfied “if when I called I could have spoken to someone who was concerned enough to say, ‘That wasn’t supposed to happen’ or, ‘Let me look into it.’ ” But her calls were not returned, she said.

“I’d rather go through daily life and not have to deal with these negative issues,” she said. But, she went on, “it was the principle of them treating African-Americans like they’re not citizens.”

The Pet Adoption Fund director, Kay Duffy, refused to comment on the case. Her attorney, Dale L. Grimm, said the dispute was between the couple and a volunteer, Peggy Burdick, who no longer works at the shelter.

“When we were apprised of this particular situation, she was told never to come back,” Grimm said, speaking of Burdick.

However, he said home inspections are routine.

Burdick denies the allegations of discrimination, although she acknowledged saying some of the things attributed to her by the Blackwells.

“I just don’t think it was the best home for the animals,” she said, explaining her decision not to let the Blackwells have a dog.

When the couple went into the private shelter, according to La Wanda Blackwell, “Peggy Burdick said, ‘Some of our dogs don’t like black men, and some don’t like black women.’ Then she just walked away. If my husband hadn’t already chosen a puppy, we would have left then.”

The Blackwells said they were questioned by Burdick with Duffy present part of the time.

“They were interrogating us,” La Wanda Blackwell said. The couple said they were asked repeatedly if they had owned dogs before, if they knew how to care for animals and if they had jobs.

Having passed that test, they signed an agreement, paid a $100 “donation” for two puppies and were told that their home must be inspected.

That evening, Burdick saw their large back yard. They said she called it their “40 acres and a mule,” a reference to a widespread belief among freed slaves after the Civil War that they could expect land from the government.

The Blackwells found Burdick’s comment derogatory and told her so, they said.

Burdick called the next day and told the Blackwells that they would get no dog because their house was “too neat and clean,” La Wanda Blackwell said. “I was thinking, ‘This person can’t be serious.’ ”

In an interview with The Times, Burdick said that her remark about some dogs not liking black people was an attempt at humor, and that she had not known the origin of “40 acres and a mule” and does not remember saying exactly that.

According to Burdick, the Blackwells’ new carpet and linoleum suggested that the dogs were destined for life in the yard. “We want the dogs to be part of the family,” she said. “To put a dog in the back yard and only let him in occasionally is very cruel to the animal.”

She said she returned the $100. The Blackwells said that they never got the money and that their calls to Duffy to clear up the problem were never returned.

The Blackwells went first to the Fair Housing Council, a nonprofit group that investigates complaints of discrimination in housing. The organization is not authorized to look into non-housing cases, but personnel there helped the couple organize a private investigation.

Four undercover “testers,” two black and two white, visited the shelter in August. One of the whites, Steve Sturla, said he was not asked about employment or told about a home visit. “They made it very clear that I could take a dog immediately,” he said. Sturla is employed by the Fair Housing Council.

Jannette Stewart, a co-worker of La Wanda Blackwell’s who is black, also visited the shelter as part of the investigation and said she was grilled about her background and told that a home inspection would be necessary. She had the impression that shelter workers were “trying to think of different ways to discourage me rather than to encourage me” to get a pet, she said.

The Blackwells then filed a complaint with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which does have the ability to look into such general complaints of discrimination. If the department finds that there has been a violation of state law, it could order the Pet Adoption Fund to allow the Blackwells to adopt a dog, department spokesman Steve White said.

The Blackwells, however, have not waited for officialdom to grant them the right to acquire a pet.

First they got a Great Dane from a San Fernando Valley couple.

Then a hungry stray they named Hobo showed up in their front yard. It was an easy transaction. No paperwork. No interview. La Wanda Blackwell “fed him and that was it,” Ronnie Blackwell said.