SPECIAL REPORT: With county’s stray dog population soaring to 45,000, authorities are fighting the public health threat with such tactics as special squads for . . . : Capturing Canines

In the cold predawn hours, a SWAT team of khaki-clad sheriff’s deputies and animal control officers rolled out in a mini-armada headed for the south Los Angeles County community of Florence-Firestone and environs.

Radios in the 12 cars and trucks crackled with intelligence reports from some of the officers who were acting as spotters for that day’s prey and directing the squads where to converge.

Soon a team of animal control officers was out of its truck, sprinting with ropes in hand, eventually lassoing several marauding pit bulls and then gingerly loading them into compartments on board.

Standing at 95th and Grape streets watching the scene was Nancy Watts, asenior citizen who, in the midst of the confusion, was yelling.

“Get ‘em all! Get ‘em all out!” she said to no one in particular.

That recent morning sweep rounded up 120 dogs in about five hours, a tally that pleased residents and officials.

The fight to rid Los Angeles County of stray dogs has taken on aspects of a war in some neighborhoods--and with good reason. In recent years, the estimated number of loose dogs in the county has swelled to nearly 45,000 and the attendant problems have risen just as dramatically.

Somewhere in the county, scores of people are attacked by dogs every day. The animals have scared away police, firefighters and postal workers in some neighborhoods.

Although animal control agencies lack the resources and personnel to eliminate the problems, they are fighting back with new methods and, they say, more determination.

Los Angeles County in the last two years has developed special squads to reduce the number of dogs roaming the streets. The city of Los Angeles has taken similar steps.

Members of the county’s larger Animal Rescue Field Support unit are equipped like wranglers and undergo specialized training to be able to rope their wily prey. Many of those dogs are so used to evading normal attempts at capture that they develop escape routes and hiding places.

In addition, county animal control officials earlier this year commissioned a specially built trailer with air-conditioned compartments to house up to 130 dogs during massive sweeps or after a natural disaster.

And lawmakers have begun to deal more directly with the tremendous costs to public health caused by stray dogs.

A recent state law requires all counties to report the numbers and severity of animal bites. Los Angeles County had practically dismantled its reporting program after a budget crisis in 1995 but this year expanded it and has received more than 2,300 reports in five months.

And there has been movement on other fronts.

* A new state law that takes effect Jan. 1 requires fines for owners of dogs that are impounded and are not spayed or neutered.

* The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is considering a new ordinance that would allow animal control officials to skip an in-house hearing and directly petition a Municipal Court judge to declare a dog vicious or potentially dangerous if it attacks a person or another dog. If the animal is declared vicious, penalties would range from ordering it destroyed to confinement or muzzling. The ordinance also would expedite civil lawsuits against the dog owners.

* The county is exploring the idea of taking preventive legal measures in cases involving dogs that habitually run loose and threaten or menace people, even if they do not bite.

* Many insurance companies now deny coverage under homeowner policies for animals that are considered likely to be dangerous. The firms say the nature of bites has become more serious--as have the legal consequences. The dogs ranked most likely to cause serious injury, according to health officials, are pit bulls, Rottweilers, chows and Akitas.

“Public perception is changing,” said Frank Andrews, director of the county Department of Animal Care and Control. “People are beginning to realize this is no longer something that can be treated casually. You are reading about attacks every day, and there is the real possibility of kids and elderly people being injured significantly.”

During the predawn sweep, Curtis Burns complained to Deputy Arthur Famble on 117th Street in Willowbrook about a black-haired female mutt that has caused havoc in his neighborhood.

“She chases people all night and all day long--and she will bite,” said Burns, who added that the dog had been in heat. “All the dogs around here jump the fence ‘cause of that girl dog.”

Including presumably his own dog Fluffie, who was caught wandering on the street in front of Burns’ home by the dog squad. Burns was given a citation, and grumbled a bit about it, but he continued to complain about the population of loose dogs.

“People come by on bicycles and can’t get through,” he said. “The police came down one night and they had to blow their horns to clear the dogs, there was so many. And that girl dog tried to attack me. I think she’s pregnant and she will attack.”

Turning Over Trash Cans, Menacing People

Famble is a member of the Century station’s Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving team, which has been joining with the unit on a monthly basis to try to stem the numbers of strays.

“I was talking to the director at Athens Park yesterday who was noticing that people are dumping animals there,” he said. “It’s a constant problem. At every community meeting it comes up. The dogs turn over trash cans, menace people. They’re a general nuisance.”

The dogs are also, in most cases, victims of irresponsible owners, authorities say. Left to fend for themselves on the streets, they frequently revert to feral behavior and quickly learn that it is much easier to survive as part of a pack. Without medical attention they contract diseases, some of which--mange, for instance--can be spread to humans.

Some of the dogs are injured by cars or during fights with other dogs and die on the streets. In some neighborhoods where trash-strewn vacant lots act as dumping grounds, the smell of rotting carcasses can be overpowering.

“These dogs did not start out as strays,” said team member Alonso Real. “They were owned at one time, and the owners gave up on them.”

The problems associated with dog ownership appear to be particularly acute in Los Angeles, according to public health officials.

More people here are selecting household animals for protection rather than companionship, and illegal dog fights are spreading. Police report that aggressive dogs are increasingly being used by criminals.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that animal bites have reached epidemic proportions in the United States and are among the top 12 causes of nonfatal injury.

As many as 200,000 people in Los Angeles County are bitten by dogs yearly, according to estimates produced last month by the county’s Veterinary Public Health and Rabies Control unit. The estimates are based on a CDC survey that concluded dogs bite 2% of the U.S. population annually, said veterinary public health chief C. Patrick Ryan.

Extrapolating from national figures, Ryan said an estimated 12,900 people in the county require visits to the emergency room for dog bites yearly--or 35 cases a day. However, relatively few bites are reported, officials have concluded.

“We’re spending much of our time educating people on the mandate to report bites and attacks, especially in some Latino communities where people are sometimes leery of government agencies,” Ryan said.

Walnut Drive in the Florence-Firestone area, just north of Watts, is such a neighborhood. The houses are ordinary but well-kept. The elementary school is only half a block away, and there is always the sound of children playing.

But the street has been a battleground lately, with people on one side and packs of dogs on the other.

Family Feared Going Out the Front Gate

The dogs emerge before the sun comes up and in the coolness of twilight, foraging for food and alarming people and their pets, said Olivia Solis, 48, who has lived on the block with her family for four years.

Solis inherited leadership of the local Neighborhood Watch from her late father, and her family is a conduit for community complaints. Daughter Anna said it was getting to the point where the dogs ruled on the street and the family feared going out the front gate.

“In the summertime, there would be packs of dogs mating on the streets, and you’d have to honk to get by in the car,” said Anna, 32. “You’d have to bring the children inside, ‘cause they were asking what the dogs were doing.”

On outings to nearby Roosevelt Park, the family would take a supply of large rocks to scare off menacing dogs. And they used the garden hose to keep dogs at bay and to wash away animal waste.

Anna wrote letters to county animal control officials and to Supervisor Gloria Molina, and the neighborhood finally got attention. Despite a recent sweep that netted more than 100 dogs, the animals seem to be an ever-replenishing commodity. A week after the unit came out, another sweep by the team captured more than 100 canines.

The Solis family says conditions have improved considerably--at least for now.

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Dealing With an Aggressive Dog

Experts in animal behavior suggest these tips if you ever encounter an aggressive dog:

* Don’t try to run away.

* Hold hands at your side.

* Try to avoid making eye contact and do not try to stare the dog down.

* Slowly back away.

* If the dog attacks, wrap a coat or sweater around your arm to use as a shield and back away as quickly as possible.

* Parents should instruct their children to walk on the other side of the street to avoid aggressive dogs on fenced properties.

* If an attack is imminent, lie in a fetal position, covering your head with your arms.

Source: Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control