Officers Raid Reseda Pony Ride, Petting Zoo : Animal rights: Authorities say they were rescuing mistreated creatures. But their owner says she took good care of them.

They raided Linda Menary’s petting zoo and pony ride in Reseda the other day. The authorities said they were riding to the rescue of mistreated animals. Menary described the occasion as an operation straight out of Desert Storm.

“We’re considering bringing forth a criminal complaint through the city attorney’s office for cruelty to animals,” said Gary Olsen, city animal regulation district supervisor.

He said the zoo had a ram with an ingrown horn, a horse with a swollen eye, and a lack of shelter for other animals.

Furthermore, he said, Menary had too many animals, lacked equine licenses for her ponies and did not have permits to charge for pony rides and keep wild animals, specifically llamas.

“My llamas are not wild,” Menary said as one of her three llamas ambled up to a visitor to nibble tentatively at a sleeve.

Menary denied there is anything wrong with her operation and heaped scorn on the raid. As she told it Friday, six or seven trucks, 10 officers, a building and safety inspector and a veterinarian rolled up to her place on Thursday, pushed her friends aside, cut the gate locks and chased her sheep around their pens until one of them fainted from fright.

“I’ve been in business 27 years, and I love my animals,” said Menary, 47, absently holding a hen to her breast and stroking its neck. “We take good care of them. In fact, most of my animals are overweight because we feed them too much.”

She said rams with ingrown horns are common.

“Sometimes the horn just grows at the wrong angle.”

She said a veterinarian had cut the tip off once and was coming back for another trim on the day of the raid.

At Menary’s petting zoo and pony ride, in a residential area near Roscoe Boulevard and Tampa Avenue, goats trot around and roosters crow from tractors, hay bales and fences. In addition, there are sheep, ponies, reindeer, pigs and rabbits.

It’s the only pony ride in the city outside Griffith Park, Menary said.

Menary has been involved in disputes with the city over permits for the operation but has managed to survive. She charged that her real problem is that developers want the land.

“Joy Picus’ office has always been against me as long as I can remember,” she said.

Joy Nuell, a spokeswoman for Councilwoman Picus’ office, said that is not true. “I’ve known Picus a long time, and that’s not the way she operates.”

Olsen said, “We just want her to comply with regulations, and then we can get along with our business.”