L.A. Animal Services chief targeted by extreme activists
By Daily Press staff
An extreme animal rights activist group is suspected of defacing the Sunset Park home of Jerry Greenwalt, general manager of the L.A. Department of Animal Services, early Friday morning.
Red paint was poured on the front gate, and splattered above the garage and on the sidewalk next to the house. The word “Dogkiller” was scrawled across the home’s garage door in large letters, and “ALF,” which presumably stands for the Animal Liberation Front, was spray-painted on the front of the house.
“Jerry Greenwalt has no vision for the Animal Services Department because he has no experience running a no-kill facility,” reads a message posted on The ALF Web site, which also lists directions to Greenwalt’s home, his telephone numbers and e-mail address.
“We will not have the kind of department the animals deserve until Greenwalt is gone!”
“We will not have the kind of department the animals deserve until Greenwalt is gone!”
According to its mission statement, “(ALF) is a non-violent group that carries out direct action against animal abuse in the form of rescuing animals and causing financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of property.”
Santa Monica Police Department Lt. Frank Fabrega said detectives pulled information off ALF’s Web site that claimed responsibility for the incident, but said that information has since been removed. Other animal rights groups are also being investigated, Fabrega added.
At 5:40 a.m., officers responded to the house at the southwest corner of Pearl Street and Cloverfield Boulevard. By mid-morning, more than a dozen undercover and uniformed officers were taping off the scene, taking photographs of the damage and interviewing Greenwalt.
SMDP and LAPD detectives are working together on the case, and federal investigators may also be involved, Fabrega said. So far, no charges have been filed.
One long-time neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, described Greenwalt Friday morning as a quiet man who had lived with his wife in the house for years.
Greenwalt did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 4, 2003. Read the original PDF.