Overworked Vet Gets Help --for 1 Day

The good news is that after more than a year with only one veterinarian to care for the 74,000 animals that come through Los Angeles shelters each year, the Animal Regulation Department hired a second vet last week.

The bad news is that he quit the next day.

“He was really not here long enough for me to get used to,” said Dena Mangiamele, the department’s lone vet. “What are you going to do?”

Mangiamele said that Grover H. Ford, a veterinarian with 24 years of experience, was hired July 8 but left the next day to take another job.

Ford could not be reached for comment but Mangiamele said he told her he was frustrated by the animosity between the department and the local animal rights community.

Ford’s departure is the latest in a string of embarrassing episodes for the department. During Monday’s Animal Regulation Commission meeting, an angry dispute broke out between Commissioners Gini Barrett and Russ Cook over the goals of the department. Barrett cursed and threw an empty water bottle at Cook, only to miss and hit Commission President Steve Afriat.

For years, animal rights groups have accused the department of doing too little for the thousands of homeless and neglected pets and wildlife in the city.

But department managers defend their efforts, saying they are doing the best they can with a budget that has shrunk 16% over the past five years, and a staff that has been cut 19%.

Animal rights leaders concede that there is animosity between them and the department but reject that as the cause of Ford’s departure.

“I don’t buy it because he was only here one day,” said Michael Bell, president of the Wildlife Protection League and a longtime critic of the department.