DATELINE–Los Angeles

Whitney Combs, a professional dog walker, is behind bars.

Because Combs’ offense involved material damages in the neighborhood of $10,000, she will have to spend the next three weeks in a Los Angeles County jail while awaiting arraignment on felony charges. She shares her cramped 8 by 12 foot cell with a female gang member who was arrested for assault. Combs says she is having difficulty sleeping and cries for several hours each night.

Yet it is not so much her own fate which saddens Combs as that of her “fellow” animals. “I may be in a concrete jail,” she asserts, “but the animals I tried to help are in a far worse prison.”

Last week Combs and a male companion were apprehended after attempting to steal three of her charges: a two year-old Norfolk Terrier, a six year-old Rottweiler, and a 3 year-old Papillon. In a statement made to police shortly after her arrest, the dogwalker says she was forced to take custody of the animals when she detected signs of abuse.

However the abuse Combs claims to have discovered was not physical. In fact, it may not even be considered abuse under current law. According to the 26 year-old petcare worker, the animals were suffering because they were being drugged against their will. The dogs’ owners and local authorities did not agree.

But what might have ended as a bizarre contract dispute between Combs and her clients has instead become the flashpoint of a national campaign to ban the prescription of mood-altering drugs for companion animals. Earlier this week, the animal-rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals offered to foot the bill for the legal representation of Combs and her co-defendant.

PETA’s involvement in Combs’ legal defense is the latest volley in what has already become a hot debate within the animal right’s community. Some activists believe that using antidepressant or antianxiety drugs such as Prozac or Xanax as a remedy for pet-related problems is unethical. Others contend that using medical solutions to alleviate behavioral problems is in the best interest of pets as well as their owners.

Richard Taber, a 62 year-old veterinarian in Long Beach, says he has had great success prescribing Novartis AG’s Clomicalm to pets that suffer from separation anxiety. Taber also relies upon a drug called Anipryl to treat senility in dogs. “For pet owners who work away from home,” explains Taber, “there is often little else they can do to alleviate the suffering of their lonely pets.” Loneliness often leads to serious behavioral problems like increased vocalization (barking), hypersalivation, and inappropriate elimination.

Taber is not alone in his use of prescription medications to help owners deal with problem pets. Drug maker Pfizer Inc. estimates the U.S. retail market for pet pharmaceuticals reached $2.6 billion last year, up 10% from 1997. Drugs for animals diagnosed with obsessive compulsive or cognitive disorders, and even depression are all currently available.

Not all animal healthcare specialists share the enthusiasm for doggie drugs. Alice McCandless is an animal behaviorist with the Orange County Humane Society. She believes the rush to dose companion animals is a symptom of greater societal problems. “If your environment is making your pet sick,” asserts McCandless, “you should be thinking about improving your environment rather than distorting your pet’s psyche.”

PETA spokesperson Rahula Isackson takes an even stronger tack. “What’s at stake is more than proscribing Prozac for pets.” Isackson wants to make the Combs case a watershed moment in the fight against animal abuse. Says the PETA official, “We need pet companions – people – to treat animals as individuals with feelings, families, and friendships, not just as toys, possessions,or commodities.”

Rhetoric aside, old school veterinarians like Taber give little credence to the notion that pets are actually worse off when receiving medication. “We’re talking about pets, here, not wild animals,” argues Taber, “they’ve been bred to complement human society. If their owners can benefit from antidepressants why can’t they?”