North Carolina has one of the highest number of shelters that gas in the country. The problem is epidemic. If you live in North Carolina and even if you don't, GET ACTIVE. READ this bulletin. REPOST this bulletin. AND FOR THE SAKE OF THE ANIMALS BEING GASSED TODAY - WRITE TO THE GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA TODAY!!!!!!!!
Officer Speaks Out on Using Gas Chamber to Euthanize Animals
April 26, 2006 : 12:00 AM
Columbus County Animal Control officer is stepping forward to speak out about a practice he calls outdated and inhumane.
COLUMBUS COUNTY -- Columbus County is one of the few places that still uses a gas chamber to euthanize animals.
They sometimes put down more than a dozen animals at a time. A former Columbus County Animal Control officer is stepping forward to speak out about a practice he calls outdated and inhumane.
"You're putting a lot of animals in together, and when you put a lot of animals into a confined area, and you close the door on them and you start giving something where they can't breathe, they're going to be fighting each other," Ralph Gann said. "They're going to be screaming, they're going to be hollering."
Mr. Gann is a retired Animal Control officer from Maryland who worked for a short time earlier this year at the animal shelter in Columbus County. He's was appalled to see Columbus County using a gas chamber to put animals down and says he complained to his supervisors.
Mr. Gann said, "If you can stand the screaming and hollering of the animals when they're fighting each other, trying to get out, then you got a bigger and a tougher heart than I have."
Columbus County Animal Control put down more than 3,000 dogs and cats last year. They adopted out about 600.
The county manager explains the gas chamber is more cost efficient than euthanizing animals with individual injections. Considering that the County's animal control budget for all of last year was only about $150,000, County Manager Jim Varner says there wasn't a lot of extra money to go around.
Mr. Varner said, "The animals are taken care of. We have a new animal control facility for them. We've had suggestions on how to handle things better and we take citizen input. But we can't make everybody happy, particularly when they think animals are more important than humans."
Members of the county's Humane Society have volunteered to work for free at the shelter on weekends so the public has more opportunity to adopt these animals before they're put down.
Contact:
Animal Shelter 910-641-3945 Mr. Hayes
Marianne McBride 919-733-7601( Decision Maker at N.C. Dept of Agriculture)
[b]Mayor 910-642-8759
Governor Michael F. Easley of North Carolina
Office of the Governor
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301
919-733-4240 or 919-733-5811
Fax: 919-715-3175 or 919-733-2120
Governor of North Carolina website
Governor of North Carolina website
See related story of Quentin: The Miracle Dog Who Survived the Gas Chamber
