Complaints About Dog Packs on the Increase : Ventura: Officers will crack down on leash-law violators. They will also check homeless encampments for roving animals.

Alarmed by increasingly bold attacks from marauding packs of dogs, police and animal control officers plan to sweep homeless encampments in the Ventura River bottom and nearby Ventura neighborhoods later this month and impound all animals found off leash.

City and county officials said they have received an escalating number of complaints about unleashed dogs challenging cyclists and runners on the beachfront promenade and the bike path next to the river bottom.

A rancher reported that large packs of dogs killed a dozen calves and either killed or maimed 11 full-grown cattle on Taylor Ranch last year, said Kathy Jenks, director of the county’s Animal Regulation Department.

“They have a bull up there that the dogs castrated by chewing,” Jenks said. “We have a picture of one cow, its ears were chewed off. They chewed off the front half of its tongue.”

Cowboys shot a few of the dogs during one recent raid on Taylor Ranch west of Ventura and followed them on horseback down a well-worn path leading into the thick brush that grows in the adjacent river bottom.

“We’ve seen what they do to cattle,” Jenks said. “If that were ever to switch to children, we’d have a real mess on our hands.”

Authorities issued public warnings Friday of the upcoming strict enforcement of the county’s leash laws.

Ventura police officers and sheriff’s deputies will escort animal control officers into the river bottom during the series of sweeps for free-roving dogs. The teams will also canvass the bike path, the county fairgrounds and Ventura Avenue neighborhoods, said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Richard Purnell.

“It’s not strictly a problem of dogs from the homeless area,” Purnell said. “Some of the dogs are coming from homes in the vicinity.”

Authorities will seize any dog that is neither confined nor leashed and take it to the pound in Camarillo. To retrieve a dog, owners would have to pay at least a $30 impound fee and $8-a-day boarding charges.

The concern over unrestricted dogs is the latest issue to surface as Ventura city leaders struggle with what to do with the 200 or so homeless people who have been allowed for decades to live in camps along the Ventura River.

Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said she and her husband were attacked by a “vagrant” dog while riding along the bike path just before Christmas. The dog, which looked like a small mixed-breed shepherd, tried to nip their rotating pedals until they sped away, she said. They were not bitten.

Measures now plays down her close encounter as more annoying than threatening. Still, her recounting of the incident helped gel the resolve of city and county officials at a recent meeting on the dog issue.

“It has to do with our health, welfare and economic vitality,” Measures said. “If you have loose dogs threatening tourists, they may not return. We think it is something that needs to be addressed right away.”

Authorities have lined up Project Understanding, a social service agency for homeless and poor people, to help spread the message that leash-law violations will no longer be tolerated.

Executive Director Richard Pearson said the agency is working on a flyer to explain the law and responsible ownership of dogs.

Pearson said he sees the dog packs’ nocturnal raids on Taylor Ranch livestock as a significant problem that must be solved. But he said dogs from homeless encampments may be unfairly blamed for the increase of daytime confrontations with pedestrians and cyclists on the bike path.

“For the most part, the purpose of homeless having dogs is to protect their campsite,” he said. “So it doesn’t do a whole lot of good to bring them out.”

Jenks said she and her animal control officers receive sporadic reports from ranchers in Somis, Piru and elsewhere about dog packs killing or maiming cattle. But Taylor Ranch is the only place where it happens with such regularity.

She and other law enforcement officials grew more concerned with an increase in reports from residents spotting packs of five or more dogs running in the city.

For now, Jenks said her department will continue to send a veterinarian monthly to Project Understanding to offer free rabies vaccinations for the pets of the homeless.

“Our primary goal is public health,” she said. “We wanted to make sure the dogs were vaccinated so rabies are not a problem.”

Yet, she said, “It makes me wonder if we have created another problem.”

Active vaccination records show at least 60 dogs living in the river bottom, she said. “Those are the ones we know about.”

Jenks agrees with the Sheriff’s Department that dogs from more conventional homes compound the problem. No matter how sweet their disposition at home, a dog’s behavior can change when it runs with a pack.

“If you allow Fluffy to run the streets at night,” she said, “he’ll join his cronies and be back in the morning and you’ll never know the difference.”

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FYI

Under the strict enforcement policy of county leash laws, animal control authorities will impound any dog not confined to a yard or tethered on a leash in western Ventura. “It doesn’t matter if the owner is right there, it’s still a leash-law violation,” said Kathy Jenks, director of the county’s Animal Regulation Department. To retrieve a dog, owners will have to pay a minimum $30 impound fee plus $8-a-day boarding fee. Unlicensed dogs will be held at the county’s animal shelter in Camarillo for seven days. After that, the dog will be made available for adoption or euthanized. Authorities will keep licensed dogs an extra 10 days. Fees escalate dramatically for dogs impounded more than once. For more information, call 388-4341.