Expressing Outrage : Activists Call for Tough Treatment for Youths Accused of Torturing and Killing Dog

Dorothy Davis was a lawyer for 40 years, but she seemed a little out of place in Compton Juvenile Court.

The white-haired, soft-spoken Mission Viejo resident, who specialized in entertainment law, drove more than 35 miles to Compton’s towering courthouse Tuesday to express outrage over the torture and fiery death of a dog.

“I haven’t been able to sleep for a long time over this,” Davis said outside a closed hearing for three teen-agers charged with torturing the Rottweiler mix for more than three hours on Aug. 31 in the Hyde Park area of South-Central Los Angeles, and eventually setting it on fire and killing it.

“I’ve seen a lot of abuse with children and animals,” she said, “but this is the worst.” Davis was joined by about 30 Southland animal rights activists, who milled quietly in the halls while a prosecutor argued that the two 16-year-olds charged with the dog’s deathshould be tried as adults.

The hearing will continue Oct. 4, and the activists vowed to return.

“Animals don’t have a voice that will get a response,” said Claudia Ross of the Amanda Foundation, a Beverly Hills-based organization that rescues animals that are about to be euthanized.

“In the bureaucracy, there are groups looking out for children and battered human beings, and all those groups are important, but animals seem to come up pretty low on the scale,” Ross said.

Meanwhile, the parents of the accused say police arrested the wrong youths. One woman said her son loves animals as much as the activists who call for his incarceration.

She said the youth has two dogs and grew up in a house full of cats and birds. “You teach them to love them,” said the woman, who was incensed that the police had gone after her son. “I can’t imagine who would do that,” she said of the torture. “It’s sick.”

The woman and other parents said the true culprits are other teen-agers in the neighborhood.

The 16-year-olds, and a 15-year-old who is too young to be tried as an adult, were arrested after police got a call from a resident who said she saw six youths torturing a dog on a porch.

When police arrived, they saw a burning object hurtling toward their car, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel Wright. Then they saw three teen-agers chase the burning dog, beating it to death with lead pipes. They pursued the youths and arrested them, Wright said.

“I can understand the concern of the animal rights people,” said attorney Elizabeth Wehrmeister, who represents the 16-year-old with the pet dogs. “I’m upset at what happened. I don’t think I have run into anyone who isn’t upset at what happened to this animal. The question is, do they have the right person?”

Wright says they do. “One of the officers smelled lighter fluid on one of (the youth’s) hands,” Wright said. “These are the right kids.”

Wright added that police are trying to identify other suspects, and said he expects at least one more arrest. All face up to three years in either a juvenile hall or state penitentiary, and one of the 16-year-olds who Wright says is also facing unrelated robbery charges could serve up to seven years.

The activists hope the case will deter others from torturing animals, and say it is important to prosecute animal torturers because their next victims could be human.

“Don’t you think these kids are going to be doing it to adults some day?” said Chris DeRose, president of Last Chance for Animals, a West Hollywood-based animal rights group. He and Wright noted that many serial killers, such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Ramirez, tortured animals as youths.

“Your hard-core killers start by being cruel to animals,” said Pat Peyovich, a member of Last Chance for Animals. “If a child has the right kind of environment, the right kind of training, their mind wouldn’t let them do that,” she said.

Nearby, in a waiting area next to the courtroom where their children would soon appear, the grim-faced parents of the teen-agers repeated that they believed the police had knowingly arrested the wrong children.