Council Panel Supports Adding to Reward Concerning Dog’s Death

At the urging of angry animal rights supporters, a Los Angeles City Council panel recommended Monday offering a $5,000 reward for information on the killing of a dog in Encino.

But members of the Public Safety Committee took the action reluctantly, noting that it is still unclear whether the killer of Pal, a pug that was the only companion of a nearly blind 84-year-old woman, was a coyote or a person.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, the head of the panel, opposed the city reward when the hearing started Monday. She argued that the $21,000 reward pool already offered by private sources--such as actor Mickey Rourke and his actress wife Carrie Otis--is sufficient.

But Chick changed her mind and joined colleagues Mike Feuer and Nate Holden in urging the addition of $5,000 to the reward pool after hearing the pleas of animal rights advocates and Carol Johnson, the daughter of the dog’s owner, Avis Wilkinson.