Report on Dog’s Death Disputed

The Los Angeles Department of Animal Services has declared that a mutilated dog discovered in an Encino yard earlier this week was attacked by a coyote. But a Los Angeles city councilman, backed by a veterinarian who examined the animal after it died, insisted it had been skinned by a human.

Councilman Nate Holden, citing the findings of Dr. Melvyn Richkind, the veterinarian who first declared that the dog had been skinned alive, introduced a motion calling for a $5,000 reward for information leading to the dog’s attacker. Private donors and businesses have contributed about $20,000 to a reward fund.

After Animal Services’ chief veterinarian and a private veterinarian examined the dog’s carcass, they concluded that the injuries were inflicted by a coyote, said Animal Services spokesman Peter Persic.

But other animal welfare activists argued that a coyote would not have left the dog alive.