Budget Cut May Shut Van Nuys, South-Central Animal Shelters : Strays: Officials say closings would make other facilities overcrowded and accelerate process of killing dogs and cats.

Under proposed cuts in next year’s Los Angeles city budget, animal shelters in the San Fernando Valley and South-Central Los Angeles may be closed, forcing animal control officers to speed up the process of killing stray cats and dogs to avoid overcrowding in the remaining facilities, animal control officials said Wednesday.

The proposed closure of the East Valley Animal Shelter in Van Nuys would leave the entire Valley with only one shelter, in Chatsworth.

Under the proposal, residents now served by a South-Central shelter would rely on those in San Pedro and Downtown Los Angeles.

Representatives of humane groups criticized the proposed closures, saying animal regulation officials would be forced to reduce the time stray animals are kept in the shelters before they are killed, thus reducing the chances of reuniting lost animals with their owners.

“It’s distressing because animals are typically the first thing to go in the budget,” said Madeline Bernstein, executive director of the Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The closures are one option that the Animal Regulation Department is considering to meet a proposed $1.7 million cut in the department’s current $7.6-million budget under Mayor Richard Riordan’s tentative 1995-96 fiscal plan.

The proposed cuts are the first detailed example of the severity of the city’s budget woes. Riordan faces an estimated $200-million deficit in the fiscal year that begins in June. He is scheduled to present his budget to the City Council for final approval in April.

A Riordan spokeswoman said that the budget cuts are only tentative proposals and that there is still time for adjustments before the budget is completed.

Under a second budget-cutting option, the department’s 24-hour animal control service, which provides care for injured or vicious animals citywide, would close from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m.

A third option calls on the department to close the South-Central shelter entirely and cut operations at the remaining five shelters from five days a week to four.

Gary Olsen, the department’s general manager, said the options he is considering to meet the budget cuts are severe. But he said he has been meeting with Riordan’s staff and continues to hope that Riordan can provide the department some relief from the budget ax.

“My goal is to keep the shelters open,” he said, “and what is proposed by the mayor’s staff would reduce our care for the animals and I can’t have that.”

Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents parts of the northeast Valley, noted that closure of the Van Nuys shelter would mean that most of the 1.5 million residents in the Valley would be served by only one shelter.

“That’s an incredible burden for one facility,” he said, adding that he would look into the proposed closures.

Councilwoman Rita Walters, who represents parts of South-Central, said her constituents would also suffer under the proposed closures because her district is plagued by packs of stray dogs that terrorize residents.

She added that residents of South-Central would have trouble driving all the way to the shelter in San Pedro for spaying and neutering services.

“That leaves the whole broad section of the city uncovered,” Walters said.

City policy requires the shelters to keep stray animals for a minimum of seven days before they are offered up for adoption or destroyed. If the shelters are not crowded and the animals are healthy, they are kept longer than seven days.

But if the shelters become crowded because there are fewer of them, they may be forced to kill the animals as soon as the seven days are up, officials said.

Last year, the department impounded 78,287 dogs and cats and destroyed 52,821 of them, according to animal regulation officials. At the East Valley and South-Central facilities alone, the department took in 35,975 dogs and cats and destroyed 26,456, officials said.

Jamie Pinn, president of the Pet Assistance Foundation, a spaying and neutering referral program founded in the Valley, said cuts to the animal regulation department will reduce public safety because the department will have fewer resources to respond to animal bites.

“It’s just not acceptable,” she said.

Lois Newman, president of the Fairfax-based Cat and Dog Rescue Assn., said the proposed cuts would actually increase the city’s costs by forcing the department to pay to destroy and dispose of more animals, at a cost of about $30 per animal.

“The impact is disgusting,” she said.