ANIMAL COPS WATCHING PARIS

THE Los Angeles Dept. of Animal Services is finally paying attention to the plight of pets who have the misfortune to be purchased by Paris Hilton.

The celebutard brought the authorities down on herself when she appeared Wednesday on Ellen DeGeneres' TV show and confessed she had 17 dogs. The ex-con obviously didn't know it's illegal in LA to own more than three dogs unless you're a licensed breeder.

The animal control squad paid a visit the next day to Hilton's house in Beverly Hills. But when they arrived, they found the house vacant and undergoing renovations. All the dogs, cats, birds, ferrets and even a monkey had been placed with "handlers at a ranch" - possibly permanently, said SPCA spokesman Jeff Blodgett, who added that they gave Hilton a card, asking her to get in touch. (Paris has a history of de-acquisitioning her pets).

Earlier this week, the Kris Kelly Foundation repo'ed a cat they let Hilton adopt last year because she never returned to pick up the feline after she had been spayed.

Hilton was also accused of neglect in a thinly veiled blind item this week. Ted Casablanca reported on Eonline.com about a woman who, "upon leaving her house, often locks these pups in one of her many closets, supposedly to prevent them from making messies."

But sometimes the woman "would be gone for hours, days, weeks . . . The animal's existence would simply slip from her mind! Oh, doesn't that happen to everybody? While cleaning the house, [her] staff have - reportedly more than once - opened a closet to discover a tiny, dead dog."

Two years ago, Hilton's pet Kinkajou, Baby Luv, bit the heiress, and her first chihuahua, Tinkerbell, now lives with her mother, Kathy.

Last year, Shelby Segall, whose yard borders Hilton's, told Page Six: "She treats her animals horribly. They are always getting out and running around the neighborhood.

"She had a little orange kitty about a year ago that kept getting out and we kept telling her it was outside. She didn't seem like she cared, and then one day the cat got run over in the middle of the street and died."

Another neighbor said, "I found two little chihuahuas of hers running up and down the street with cars and people going up and down. I put them in my bathroom and called Paris. Her assistant answered and said, 'You can't drop them off! Miss Hilton isn't home!' She took three hours to come get them."