Galanter Calls Animal Shelters ‘Deathtraps,’ Asks for Inquiry : Pets: Councilwoman says dogs and cats are sometimes destroyed within hours of arriving at city facilities. Officials deny the charge.

City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter on Friday denounced the city’s animal shelters as “deathtraps” for lost and abandoned pets and called for a grand jury investigation of the Department of Animal Regulation.

She also advocated a change in the City Charter that would give more power to the five-member commission that advises the agency, which Galanter described as no more than a killing factory.

Galanter said her staff, prompted by citizen complaints, recently investigated the shelters. She said they found that animals are treated inhumanely and are sometimes destroyed within hours after arriving--in violation of city rules--instead of being aggressively pushed for adoption.

An animal rights activist who appeared at a City Hall news conference with Galanter complained that 61% of the 38,000 dogs taken to the city’s six shelters last year and 80% of the 34,000 cats were put to death.

Department officials said the percentages of animals destroyed were slightly lower, but acknowledged that they often are forced to kill animals because of shelter overcrowding.

However, department spokesman Dyer Huston insisted that no animals are destroyed before the end of a prescribed seven-day waiting period.

He suggested the number of abandoned pets may increase if the economy remains depressed and people do not have the money to keep animals. Galanter, however, said city shelters were were not meant to be used “as crematoriums and not as concentration camps.”

“Enough is enough,” she added. “As we say in the Jewish community--never again.”

Later in the day, the City Council agreed to discuss her grand jury investigation motion Tuesday. Her request for a charter amendment was referred to the council’s Rules and Elections Committee.

The council also asked Robert I. Rush, general manager of the Animal Regulation Department, to respond to Galanter’s charge that he has failed to use $300,000 donated to an animal welfare fund to improve the lot of shelter animals.

Rush, who has been general manager of the department more than two decades, was not at work Friday and could not be reached for comment. Department spokesman Huston said Rush has sent Galanter a response, which should reach her desk by Monday. He did not know what is in the response, he said.

On other counts, Huston defended the department.

No healthy animals, he said, are put to death before the minimum seven-day waiting period for the owners to reclaim them, and only then after the shelters become severely overcrowded. No animals are treated inhumanely, he insisted.

But Huston acknowledged that in the fiscal year that ended last June, the department found it necessary to destroy 22,552--or 58.4%--of the 38,609 dogs it impounded. For cats, the figures were 34,654 impounded and 27,019--or 78%--destroyed.

Rita Hoisch, a 12-year member of the city’s Animal Regulation Commission, said she and other officials of the department deplore the high numbers of animals destroyed. But, she said, workers must kill sick or injured animals for humane reasons, and destroy others when overcrowding reaches crisis levels.

At one city shelter near downtown, an animal control worker said 50 animals are impounded in an average day and as many as 200 during peak seasons. The shelter has 41 cages for dogs and 37 cat cages. Unless they are in litters, no more than three or four average-size animals are kept in a cage, workers said.

Activists who appeared with Galanter claimed that city shelters killed more animals than those run by the county.

But statistics show that the county is more likely to destroy animals picked up by its Animal Control Division. Kaye Michelson, an administrative assistant for the county agency, said 62.8% of 47,035 dogs and 83.8% of 39,337 cats were destroyed last year.

Animal Control CITY

Here are the numbers of animals collected by the city’s Animal Control Department during the fiscal year July, 1990 to June, 1991 * : DOGS:

Total Impounded: 38,609 Sold: 8,334 21.6% Reclaimed: 5,257 13.6% Destroyed: 22,552 58.4%

CATS:

Total Impounded: 34,654 Sold: 5,034 14.5% Reclaimed: 331 1.0% Destroyed: 27, 019 78.0%

* Figures may not equal 100% because some minor categories not included.

SOURCE: City of Los Angeles Department of Animal Control

COUNTY

Here are the numbers of animals collected by the county Animal Control Division during the fiscal year July, 1990 to June, 1991: DOGS:

Total Impounded: 47,035 Sold: 9, 865 21.0% Reclaimed: 6,510 13.8% Destroyed: 29,544 62.8%

CATS:

Impounded: 39,337 Sold: 4,573 11.6% Reclaimed: 320 0.8% Destroyed: 32,983 83.8%

SOURCE: County of Los Angeles Animal Control Division