Council May Add to Reward in Dog’s Death

City Council will consider adding $5,000 in city funds Tuesday to a growing pool of reward money for information leading to an arrest in last week’s mutilation of an Encino dog.

City officials have not agreed whether a human or animal skinned Pal, the companion of an elderly woman who is deaf and nearly blind. The wounded 35-pound male dog was discovered under a bush in the woman’s yard. It died later at a Northridge veterinary office.

Citing the opinions of animal experts, Councilman Nate Holden has vigorously questioned an initial finding by the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services that Pal had been attacked by a coyote. Holden will introduce a motion today urging the city to contribute the $5,000.

“Our first priority is to put a reward up, our second is to find the person responsible and the third is to make sure the department [of Animal Services] offers up the truth for its gross error,” Holden said Monday.

Holden said he believes a Northridge veterinarian’s original conclusion--now backed up by two independent veterinarians as part of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles investigation--that the pug was the victim of human abuse.

Holden said he is concerned that the animal services department “either doesn’t know how to do its job or is covering up.”

The councilman said he will push for a formal review of the department’s practices on animal cruelty cases.

Peter Persic, a spokesman for the Department of Animal Services, said the department has done “an excellent job,” considering it was not contacted until two days after the attack and that veterinarians and the SPCA have not shared information.

“It’s very mysterious to us why people who believe there has been an animal cruelty have been so unwilling to cooperate with our investigation,” he said.

Persic added that the department stands by its finding that Pal was attacked by a coyote.

The city’s portion would bring the reward fund to $27,000. Already in the fund: $10,000 from an anonymous Los Angeles-area woman who made the offer through her Calabasas attorney; $5,000 from Petsmart pet supply store; $5,000 from Los Angeles-based Little Angels Pug Rescue, donated by actor Mickey Rourke and his wife; $1,000 from actor Peter Berg of “Chicago Hope” and $1,000 from actress Carol Kane.