(August 31, 2001) -- A stray dog spotlighted yesterday in an LBReport.com article on practices by LB's City Hall-run Animal Control Dept. will not be killed tonight.

This morning, the dog was bureaucratically scheduled for two life or death decisions: first, an evaluation by City Hall's Animal Control Dept. that could have ended her life the next morning, then a judgment by SPCA-LA on whether they would take her in for possible adoption or leave her with Animal Control to be killed.

She survived both.

LB's Animal Control Dept. found no reason to deem her unfit for adoption. That decision gave SPCA-LA the option of whether to take her in and make her available for adoption or to reject her and leave her with Animal Control to be killed.

SPCA-LA chose to take the dog in. When LBReport.com arrived shortly after 10 a.m., she was in the SPCA-LA Adoption facility with paperwork already being processed to allow her possible adoption.

SPCA-LA staff on site told LBReport.com that a person wishing to adopt the dog (or any other animal) will first be screened in accordance with SPCA-LA standards. A fee must also be paid before the animal is adopted out.

Meanwhile, next door at the City Hall-run Animal Control Dept., the stray dog's former cage in building 7 was empty. It was surrounded by cages that we saw occupied by dogs only days earlier.

Most were now empty and silent.

Rather than speculate on what became of these dogs (and cats held in adjoining rooms), LBReport.com has made a state freedom of information (Public Records Act) request for this data and will report the results as received.

Finally, we have no evidence at this point demonstrating that our attention to this particular dog played a role in her life being spared. For her, the system worked. City Hall's Animal Control facility held her for a minimal legal period, then offered her to SPCA-LA, which took her in and can adopt her out.

However, reporting the outcome for other animals will await data we have requested.

Meanwhile, part of City Hall's system may have failed and remains antiquated. As we reported yesterday, despite gleaming new facilities, LB's City Hall-run Animal Control Dept. persists in user-unfriendly practices, in some respects near useless, that make it harder than necessary to reunite pet owners with lost pets and thus make it more likely that animals will be needlessly killed.

As we also reported, LB's Animal Control's antiquated practices contrast with Orange County Animal Control, which puts photographs of lost and adoptable animals on the internet and (it says) updates its web site every 30 minutes. An OC Animal Control spokesperson told us the system was implemented for roughly $100,000.

LB is now home to a multi-million dollar state of the art City Hall run Animal Control facility and a separately run SPCA-LA Companion Animal Village. It's ultimately up to the City Council whether LB's Animal Control Dept. will put pictures of impounded dogs and cats online so owners can find them before tax dollars are used to kill them.

The City Council will vote on the Animal Control Dept.'s budget (and other City Hall spending items) in the next two weeks (September 4 or, more likely, September 11).

As a public service, LBReport.com has a link on our front page so readers can instantly e-mail their Councilmember (on any issue). If you wish to do so on this issue, you may wish to :cc us (mail@lbreport.com) so we can post your message in our letters section.

Just click on E-Mail Your Councilmember.

More to follow.