Sales to labs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

“Berkeley County Animal
S h e l t e r in Berkeley County, South
Carolina, has been sending shelter animals
to the Medical University of South
Carolina and University of South
Carolina for years,” Carol Linville o f
Pet Helpers wrote to ANIMAL PEOPLE
on March 20. “I contacted Berkeley
County supervisor Jim Rozier on Friday,
March 13, with a request that this practice
be stopped immediately. I am thrilled to
report that Mr. Rozier contacted me on
Monday, March 16, and announced that
Berkeley County would stop immediately
the practice of selling shelter pets to universities
for teaching and research.”

The halt spares 60-100 shelter cats per year
from laboratory use. Rozier said such
sales hadn’t been stopped before because
no one questioned them before.
In Houston, meanwhile,
where generations of activists have struggled
unsuccessfully to get Harris County
Animal Control to stop selling dogs and
cats to laboratories, the latest effort is a
petition drive by Kathleen Rohm, a pet
owner new to the cause who recently
recovered her lost dog Precious after an
eight-day vigil on a busy street corner,
and Joe Feduccia, of the Houston Ad
Hoc Committee Against Pound
S e i z u r e. On March 31, 1997, Harris
County Judge Robert Eckels b r i e f l y
tipped the balance on the Harris County
board of commissioners by voting against
continued sales of animals to labs, but
reversed himself days later to maintain
the status quo. Currently the shelter sells
about 300 dogs and cats per year to labs,
of about 19,000 animals handled.