Abolition of gas chambers and heart-sticking progresses nationwide

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
RICHMOND–Virginia Governor Tim Kaine on April 13, 2008
signed a bill by Spotsylvania representative Bobby Orrock that
prohibits using a carbon monoxide chamber to kill dogs and cats.
“The bill passed the state senate just as Scott County animal
control officers received final certification in injectable
euthanasia,” Margaret B. Mitchell Spay/ Neuter Clinic chief
operating officer Teresa Dockery told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “Scott County
was the last shelter in Virginia to convert to injectable
euthanasia,” Dockery said.
Dockery, then president of the Virginia Federation of Humane
Societies, and longtime Humane Society of the U.S. staff member Kate
Pullen initiated the drive to abolish gas chambers in Virginia in
November 2000. They obtaining grant funding to provide equipment and
injectible euthanasia training to the 23 shelters then using gas.
But the money ran out before Scott County, Lee County, and the city
of Martinsville were able to make the transition to using sodium
pentabarbital.

Comparative costs of dog & cat sterilization worldwide

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
Nonprofit humane societies in Japan,
Lebanon, and South Korea may pay 30 times more
to sterilize a dog or cat than counterparts in
India, ANIMAL PEOPLE found in an early 2008
survey of more than 35 agencies in 14 nations,
chiefly in Asia and eastern Europe.
The table at right shows the findings,
ordered by nation, city, and the type of
veterinary practice that the reporting humane
societies use.
In-house clinics are included in “nonprofit.”
Column headings describe the costs of
supplies used, including anesthetics, other
pharmaceuticals, and surgical items; the wages
paid to veterinarians and veterinary technicians;
and post-operative expense. The last two columns
state the average total cost of sterilizing male
and female animals.

Caught to eat, then abandoned

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
WINDHOEK–The all-volunteer Cat Protection Society in
Windhoek, Namibia in mid-April 2008 rescued hundreds of cats who
were abandoned in company housing after the Malaysian firm Ramatex
closed a clothing factory that at peak operation employed 7,000
workers. Many other cats died from neglect before the rescuers
learned of their existence, wrote Denver Isaacs of The Nambian.
Opened in 2002 with heavy government subsidies,
Ramatex-Namibia tried to impose Asian sweatshop conditions, claimed
labor organizers. When the Namibian employees unionized, Ramatex
quickly settled a strike, but then hired “trainers” from China, the
Philippines, and Bangladesh to take over much of the work.

The $64 million question: is Moscow building new shelters promised in 1999?

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
MOSCOW–“Moscow Dog Attacks Spur $64 Million Castration
Drive,” the international financial news web site Bloom-berg.com
bannered on April 14, 2008.
The headline, in a publication founded by New York City
mayor Michael Bloomberg, seemed to promise the largest dog
sterilization campaign anywhere, ever.
Bloomberg.com Moscow correspondent Henry Meyer reiterated in
the lead paragraph of his article that the $64 million would be spent
“to castrate as many as 50,000 stray dogs,” in response to dog
attacks now occurring at about an eighth of the U.S. rate.
But reality–as Meyer acknowledged five paragraphs later–is
that Moscow chief veterinarian Natalia Sokolova told a television
audience that the city plans to spend the $64 million to build 15
animal shelters, meant to impound about 2,000 stray dogs apiece per
year. The shelters are to be opened in 2009, ten years after they
were first promised.

What empty cages and night killing mean at animal control shelters

March 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:

LOS ANGELES, NEW YORK CITY–Why do animal control shelters
claim they lack space to hold dogs and cats longer before killing
them, yet have empty kennels and cages when rescuers visit?
Why are animals killed at night, if not to conceal the
numbers being killed?
The Los Angeles County Depart-ment of Animal Care & Control
and the New York City Center for Animal Care & Control are each
killing fewer dogs and cats per 1,000 human residents than ever
before in their histories–under seven in Los Angeles, under three
in New York. Each city is well below the current national average of
12.5.

Shelter intake of pit bulls may be leveling off

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

The numbers of pit bull terriers and Rottweilers in U.S.
animal shelters may have leveled off since 2004, after a decade of
explosive increase, but are not falling, according to single day
shelter dog inventories collected by ANIMAL PEOPLE during the second
and third weeks of January 2008.
ANIMAL PEOPLE compared the data to single-day dog inventories
collected in June 2004 from 23 U.S. animal control and open admission
shelters, then housing 3,023 dogs.
Of the dogs in 2004, 23% were pit bulls or close mixes of
pit bull; 3% were Rottweilers or their close mixes; and 17% were
other purebreds. Counting pit bulls and Rottweilers but not their
mixes, plus purebreds, about 33% of the shelter dog population
appeared to have been purpose-bred, as opposed to products of
accidental breeding. The pit bull and pit mix percentage had
increased fivefold since ANIMAL PEOPLE did a breed-specific survey of
shelter dogs in 1993.

Guest column: Death by economics

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
Guest column:
Death by economics
by Melanie Jackson
In the world of animal welfare the decision to terminate an
animal’s life is often based on economics rather than the animal’s
overall health and welfare needs.
To avoid depleting budgets more than the seasonal rhythm of
animal control contract payments, donations, and revenue from
adoption and surrender fees can be expected to replenish, shelters
have for decades typically maintained limits on how long an animal
may be held. If the animal is not adopted within that rigid time
period, or transferred to a rescue organization that can focus on
placing hard cases, the animal will be killed to make room for
another animal.

Cat-killing bill may be stalled

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
WASHINGTON D.C.–HR 767, a bill that if passed would allow
the National Wildlife Refuge system to authorize hunters to shoot
feral cats, unanimously cleared the U.S. House of Representatives on
an October 23, 2007 voice vote, and entered the Senate without
organized opposition.
Then, after page one exposure in the October 2007 edition of
ANIMAL PEOPLE, HR 767 ran into Lee “The LocoMotive” Zucker, owner
of The LocoMotive vegetarian restaurant in Eugene, Oregon. Zucker
called many of the national animal advocacy groups and regional
humane societies whose first word was that HR 767 could not be
stopped.

Court holds Georgia in contempt for allowing gassing

October 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
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.

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