ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide. Founded in 1992, ANIMAL PEOPLE has no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.

 

This site built and maintained by: GREANVILLE ASSOCIATESand CRESCENT COMMUNICATIONS •Rev. 12.1.05 Copyright ANIMAL PEOPLE, INC. 1992--2006

 

 

 

 

 
   

 
powered by FreeFind

ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: October 2007

Court holds Georgia in contempt for allowing gassing

 

ATLANTA--Fulton County Superior Court Judge Tom Campbell on October 3, 2007 found the Georgia Department of Agriculture in contempt of court for allowing Cobb County to continue to kill animals in a gas chamber.

Explained Associated Press writer Dorie Turner, "The state issued a favorable inspection report last May for Cobb County's animal shelter even though the facility was operating a carbon monoxide chamber at the time of the inspection," contrary to the requirements of the 1990 Georgia Humane Euthanasia Act. The act requires that animal shelters must use sodium pentobarbital to kill dogs and cats, and prohibits leaving dying animals unattended.

The Humane Euthanasia Act allowed county animal control agencies that used carbon monoxide gas chambers in 1990 to continue using them, but did not allow new gas chambers to be installed. It exempted counties of under 25,000 residents. Wrote Turner, "Cobb County's gas chamber was installed in 1995, which state inspectors knew when they checked the facility earlier this year, court documents show."

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Cynthia D. Wright in March 2007 ordered the Georgia Department of Agriculture to enforce the Humane Euthanasia Act, but her order was ignored less than two months later.

Wright ruled at request of former Georgia state representative Chesley Morton, who authored the Humane Euthanasia Act, and veterinary technician Jennifer Robinson, whose dog Pacino was gassed by Clayton County Animal Control after being hit by two cars.

At least three Georgia shelters decommissioned gas chambers following Wright's ruling.

Virginia

The contempt of court verdict in Georgia came two months after the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced in early August 2007 that gas chambers must be phased out by year's end.

"The last three areas in the state still using carbon monoxide chambers--Wythe, Lee, and Scott counties--are converting to more humane lethal injections," wrote Virginian-Pilot reporter John Hopkins. "Martinsville discontinued the use of gas chambers earlier this year."

Humane Society of the U.S. media contact Kathy Covey credited the end of gassing in Virginia to work begun in November 2000 by longtime HSUS staffer Kate Pullen and Teresa Dockery, then president of the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies, now legislative analyst for Virginia Voters for Animal Welfare.

Pressure to abolish gassing in Virginia increased through Internet activism after police and animal control officers in Fairfield, Connecticut in July 2006 found 129 dogs and nine other animals, along with three children under age 12, in a house that housed a project called Companions for Life.

"Companions for Life's Web site stated that all of the dogs obtained by the group came from a 'very rural part of Virginia where they are still euthanized in gas chambers at high rates and have no chance at life other than our rescue,'" summarized Fairfield Minuteman staff writer Chris Ciarmiello.

Charged with more than 100 counts of cruelty, Companions for Life founder Robbin D'Urso in October 2006 accepted penalties for seven related counts without admitting guilt. In August 2007 D'Urso, 45, was jailed for her second alleged violation of probation.

North Carolina

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture took comments through August 2007 on proposed new rules for shelter killing, under revision since 2005, that would allow continued use of gas. The department was due to adopt or again revise the rules by the end of September. Instead, exulted North Carolina Coalition for Humane Euthanasia founder Michele King, "They have to scrap the proposed rules and start over! The department received hundreds of letters opposing the rules, and many animal lovers spoke at the public hearing in July to voice their opinons. So there will be a new set of rules drafted, and a new comment period."

Thirty-eight North Carolina counties still gas animals, according to Lisa Sorg of the Independent Weekly, a newspaper serving the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle. Sorg in August 2007 investigated allegations of conflict of interest involving Pittsboro veterinarian Ralph Houser, who both sells gas chambers and conducts three-day euthanasia training seminars for animal shelter personnel.

Wrote Sorg, "Houser says he doesn't profit from engineering and selling his $7,000 chambers because he sells them 'at cost' to public shelters, and that he's filling a need."

Vet tech Kelly Hayward, who took Houser's seminar in 1999, told Sorg that it "was like an infomercial for gas," but Pitt County animal control manager Michelle Whaley, who took the seminar in 2005, wrote to North Carolina Department of Agriculture animal welfare division chief Lee Hunter that "98% of it focused on euthanasia by injection. Never did Dr. Houser approach us about buying a chamber or try to persuade us to use carbon monoxide."