THOMAS Jefferson, who wrote about a wall of separation between church and state, needs to call Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - quickly. Some religious proselytizing was posted on the city's Web site last week, which is both intolerable and unconstitutional.

The city of Los Angeles maintains an Animal Services Web site that should contain only content about animal adoption, spaying, neutering, reporting animal cruelty and breaking news like the new anti-tethering law that went into effect on Jan. 1. But as of New Year's Day, there was no word of the critical new law on the Web site's front page.

Instead, Ed Boks - a former preacher and controversial New York shelter boss whom Villaraigosa hired to run Animal Services one year ago - posted a massive, 3,274-word sermon on the site. The overall point of the piece - in support of no-kill policies for city shelters - was fair enough. However, the religious language violated not only common sense but also the U.S. Constitution.

Far more appropriate for a Sunday church service, Boks' religious rant mentioned God 11 times, Abraham 15 times, Sodom and Gomorrah five times, Darwin four times, faith three times, angels once. Evil was the big winner with

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16 mentions. To take one quote as an example: "If Abraham could prevail upon God to make compassionate choices, perhaps we can prevail upon our community to do the same." This dogma comes courtesy of Villaraigosa's $167,000-a-year dog-catcher.

After complaining to the Mayor's Office, I contacted the American Civil Liberties Union about Boks' using a taxpayer-funded Web site to preach a sectarian religious message. A mayoral aide wrote back to me that, "after extensive review (sic) of Mr. Boks's piece, we have concluded that the piece does not seem to reflect any preaching of any religion."

But Villaraigosa's staffer missed the point. Boks' rant didn't preach a particular religion; he simply posted material that is inappropriate for a government Web site. He's done that before. In early 2006, he loaded the site with misogynistic ads for a Hooters-backed fund-raiser for animal services - an embarrassment that ultimately had to be canceled.

Inappropriate content is unacceptable on the taxpayers' dime, whether it's a famous bar's bikini babes or a religion-soaked sermon.

But the incident does raise an interesting question: If Boks is spending his work time writing religious sermons for the city's Web site, or arranging bikini talent shows, when is he actually helping the animals?

Late on Friday, the Mayor's Office directed Boks to remove the controversial content (which Boks only partially did) and apologize. In true Ed Boks style, it was an oddly worded apology: "I apologize if any religious references (sic) within this message offended anybody. The text has been edited to be less offensive." Since when did "less offensive" become an appropriate benchmark?

Fortunately, City Councilman Tom LaBonge later called to apologize for Boks' latest antics. He said that, while Boks has a right to practice any religion he wants, the workplace and the city's Web site are not the place to do it.

Daniel Guss is a Sherman Oaks-based writer who founded the organization, Stop Torture, Abuse & Neglect of Dogs, www.STANDFoundation.org.