Loading ...Stop Utah Shelter from Using Gas Chamber: Please Cross-Post
A ThoughtsFurPaws reader sent me an email yesterday and I think the topic is worth bringing up here. When I saw the subject line my heart sank. It said: “West Valley City, Utah-Animal Shelter Gas Chamber.” Although I don’t live in Utah or anywhere near where this is occuring, I nonetheless would like to draw attention to this matter.
The reader writes, “I was unaware that the West Valley City Animal Shelter was going to have a gas chamber in their new facility to kill innocent animals. I am completely appalled about it and I think that you should be too. Animals are living and breathing just like you and me. I wouldn’t want someone to do that to me or any other living thing. It’s one thing to euthanize an animal with a shot. It’s another thing to put live animals in a chamber, close the door and turn on the gas and KILL THEM. Who would think of such a cruel way to kill an animal? Why would the Mayor allow this to happen? This is MURDER! This is CRUEL! This is WRONG! Please help do something about it before it’s too late and they take the lives of innocent animals.”
I must say that I agree with this reader. Although her statements are harsh and a little brutal, they are true. It IS cruel and it IS like murder. I shudder at the thought…
A further note in the email is from another concerned citizen reaching out to animal advocates. She says:
You may be aware that the new West Valley City Animal Shelter, currently under construction, will have a gas chamber for euthanasia. This is not a quick, painless or humane death for our animals that society has discarded.
Over 2,400 dogs and cats are euthanized at just this one shelter in a year. The Humane Society of the United States, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the American Humane Association, and the National Animal Control Association have all determined injection of sodium pentobarbital is the most humane, safest, least stressful and most professional means of euthanasia. Lethal injection is slightly less expensive than carbon monoxide gas chambers and does not entail the inherent human health hazards of the gas.
*We urge you to email, write or call all the elected officials in West Valley City and Taylorsville to register your objections to the installation of the euthanasia gas chamber at the new West Valley City Animal Shelter as soon as possible. Timing is critical. Once the gas lines are installed it will be too late for them to reconsider.
Contact information is listed at the bottom of this email. Your personalized message will be even more powerful. Please be respectful in your communications.
*The following dates are for council meetings at West Valley City and Taylorsville. Please mark these on your calendars and plan to attend. If you are a citizen of West Valley City or Taylorsville, we would appreciate you making a brief statement at the meetings. Please contact me for “talking points” or additional information.
*West Valley City – November 18 – 6:30 pm – City Council Chambers, West Valley City Hall, 3600 Constitution Boulevard, West Valley City. 801-963-3203
For more information, please contact Marylin Segall at 801-949-5991.
*Taylorsville – November 19 – 6:30 pm – 2600 West Taylorsville Boulevard, Taylorsville. 801-963-5400
On a personal note, I would like to say that I am currently working on a strongly worded letter to these folks on the City Council. Please contact me if you would like to cut and paste my letter and also send it with your name. Contact me at thoughtsfurpaws@gmail.com.
**Please cross-post this!**
What in the world is wrong with the people that are running this place – its more like a death camp for animals. We all know the definition of shelter (provides cover or protection; refuge or safe haven). I think they should change their name to West Valley City Animal Death Camp – they are no “shelter”. How can we shut this place down? Please copy me on your letter as soon as possible.
This makes me so sad, and so angry. There has to be some other way to handle this. I did post this on my blog, w/ a request to pass it on.
That is appalling. The shelter my mommy volunteers at (built in 1955 and completely inadequete) has a “gas room” but they don’t use it. They use shots (and this is a very poor shelter). They use the space in the former “death chamber” for spill over cages when needed.
We will write a strongly worded letter too. There is no excuse for this.
Thank you so much for the great toy for my award! I love dangly things with bells. Mommy hung it on the outside of the bathroom door so I have something to play with instead of scratching. Of course this means I have no pics of me playing yet…ha ha ha
I will post those ASAP. Thank you again! I can’t believe I even placed with such great competition.
Hi Jaimie,
First off we would like to thank you so much for posting this horrific story and bringing so much attention to it. We will definitely be writing them a letter and expressing or opposition to this unbelievable kind of animal torture. I use the word “torture” because that’s what it truly is for these poor little animals. Euthanizing animals is hard enough for us animal lovers to bear and the way this shelter is planning on doing it, is plain out inhumane.
We have to put a stop to this immediately!
Thank you so very much again for posting this story. We will also be re-posting this horrific story to our own site, in hopes to bring that much more attention to it. We will also link it to your original post. We pray that together we can help stop them from performing such animal cruelty.
Have a wonderful day and God Bless.
Darrin & Josy
MCPP
I will absolutely send a serious letter to these people. How far behind in technology are they? My God, the GAS chamber? Thats so barbaric. I wonder if this is a Mormom animal hospital (being in Utah).
We posted a link to this post on JFF too. And Jan is going to send your letter off since we hear no one listens to cats and dogs. Too bad. We wouldn’t do something this stupid!
I’ve added this to StumbleUpon as well as wrote a letter online to the mayor of West Valley City to confirm or deny this horrific news. If this is indeed true, we must act – and act fast.
Blessings for bringing this news to animal lovers everywhere.
Anyone contact PETA? They would never stand for this.
Blessings,
RH
Thank you so much Debbie, for e-mailing them and for stumbling this post. We should all e-mail PETA and inform them of this horror.
We just submitted the story to Digg and added the letter Jaimie from ThoughtFurpaws.com provided for our anyone wanting to help. It includes all the e-mail addresses of their elected officials.
Together we can make a difference!
If you or anybody can add the information below to Stumble or anywhere else, it can help bring much more awareness & truly help stop, this shelters horrific plans.
Thank you so much and God Bless you all & all the helpless animals in the world.
Statement:
To Whom it May Concern, [fill in appropriate names below]
I urge you to reconsider the installation of a gas chamber for euthanasia at the West Valley Animal Shelter under construction. Euthanasia by carbon monoxide poisoning is not a humane, painless or quick death for our homeless companion animals. Lethal injection of sodium pentobarbital is less expensive than carbon monoxide gas chambers and does not entail the inherent human health hazards of the gas. It is also more humane as it’s fast and pain-free.
Using a gas chamber to euthanize our pets is taking a huge step backwards in veterinary medicine. Your plan to install a gas chamber is flawed. If there exists a more humane and less expensive way to do it, then why choose the more expensive, more painful option?
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Jaime L. Smith
Cleveland, OH [please list your location in the letter]
http://thoughtsfurpaws.com [please list any affiliation with an advocacy group if you have one]
Darrin & Josy
http://www.mycutepetpics.com
[Your site and/or advocacy group here]
The more sites and people involved & listed, will help strengthen our efforts.
——————————————————————————————————————————-
Please contact each of the following:
Kelly Davis, Operations Director, Animal Services
West Valley City – 4063 South 7200 West
West Valley City , UT. 84044
(801) 963-3364 (tel) (801) 252-7541 (fax)
E-mail kdavis@wvc-ut.gov
Nicole Cottle, Deputy City Attorney / Deputy City Manager
West Valley City – 3600 Constitution Blvd.
West Valley City, Utah 84119
(801) 963-3271 (tel) (801) 963-3366 (fax)
E-mail ncottle@ci.west-valley.ut.us
Wayne Pyle – West Valley City Manager – 801-963-3220
E-mail wpyle@ci.west-valley.ut.us
———————————-
Taylorsville Elected Officials
Mayor Russ Wall
2600 West Taylorsville Blvd. Taylorsville , Utah 84118 (801)963-5400 E-mail rwall@taylorsvilleut.gov
West Valley City Elected Officials
To send a message electronically to each council member click on the link below. You may have to “cut and paste” the link into your browser.
http://www.wvc-ut.gov/index.asp?nid=97
Mayor Dennis J. Nordfelt – 801-963-3346
Councilmember Corey Rushton – 801-963-3346
House/Senate Representatives
Rep. Ron Bigelow (R )- W. Valley City. Dist. 32- E-mail ronbigelow@utah.gov
Rep. Janice M. Fisher (D ) – W. Valley. Dist 29- E-mail janicefisher@utah.gov
Rep. Neal Hendrickson (D ) – W. Valley. Dist. 33- E-mail nhendrickson@utah.gov
Rep. David Litvack (D ) – central SLC, part of W. Valley City, Dist. 26- E-mail dlitvackl@utah.gov
I will post this reply to as many places as possible and hope people will reply to the Mayors bogus letter. He must not be informed of HSUS standards and we need to inform him asap.
Thank you all so much for all your efforts thus far.
We have just received a sugar coated e-mail from the Mayor of Taylorsville.
He states that “I am also told CO euthanasia will only be used in instances
where handling an animal would pose a safety hazard for the handlers”
First of all, the shelter did state any of that in their original plans and also,
the shelter has not stated that to anyone else.
Secondly, there are no accounts of staff in that facility ever being injured by
an animal during their 2,500 murders each and every year.
That they are trying to use that as an excuse, is totally unacceptable!
Now for his other bs excuse “It does clarify this
acceptance based on the equipment being properly installed and the
technicians being properly trained in the use of the equipment”
First of all it is a known fact that this method of euthenazation causes much more pain and also takes much longer to kill.
One simple mistake or lack of training will cause these poor animals to suffer much longer then necessary and in in some case, death will not even occur. The HSUS states “Carbon monoxide (CO) is not an acceptable method of euthanasia where sodium pentobarbital can be legally obtained by shelters” which it is legally obtainable by this shelter. The HSUS also states the following;
“Old, sick, or injured animals may have poor blood pressure or weak hearts, which may delay the effects of CO, causing them to experience distress prior to unconsciousness. Animals under the age of four months may not have the lung capacity to inhale enough CO to be effective. In pregnant animals, it is likely that the mother will die from exposure to CO before the unborn puppies/kittens. Consequently, it is possible that the puppies/kittens will die as a result of the mother’s death (by suffocating to death) rather than from exposure to CO. The HSUS condemns using CO for animals meeting the above criteria.”
Wouldn’t sick animals be considered dangerous animals?!
There are also many risks to the staff for using this barbaric treatment.
“Human Health Risks Posed by CO
Staff must be fully notified of the potential health risks involved with using CO. Carbon monoxide is a hazardous substance: it is highly toxic and has no odor, no color, and no taste. It is one of the leading causes of accidental poisoning in the United States and repeated exposure to CO, even at low levels, can result in long-term effects, including (but not limited to) impaired memory, breathing difficulties, muscle weakness, heart irregularity, and brain damage. Exposure among pregnant women can cause low birth weight in their infants. The use of a CO chamber should be closely monitored and in compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements. Again, CO should be considered only for agencies unable to legally obtain sodium pentobarbital.
The HSUS is working to change the laws to allow all animal care and control agencies to legally obtain sodium pentobarbital (see Direct Licensing Laws for Euthanasia in Animal Shelters). Alert your government officials that the use of CO by animal care and control agencies is being phased out across the nation and replaced with the more humane method of sodium pentobarbital injection. Every effort must be made to ensure the safety of shelter workers and to provide a painless and rapid humane euthanasia for animals.”
Here is the bs letter that we just received.
Josy and Darrin,
Thank you for your e-mail expressing concerns regarding CO euthanasia at
the new West Valley Animal Shelter. I have acquired a report from the
American Veterinary Medical Association from June of 2007 that lists CO
euthanasia as an “acceptable” form of euthanasia. It does clarify this
acceptance based on the equipment being properly installed and the
technicians being properly trained in the use of the equipment. The
report is available online at the website of the AMVA if you are
interested. I am also told CO euthanasia will only be used in instances
where handling an animal would pose a safety hazard for the handlers. We
are continuing to look into the best means of dealing with unwanted
animals but hopefully we can all work towards adoption as a means to
minimize the need for euthanasia. Thanks again for caring enough to
write. Feel free to contact me on this or any other issue.
Russ Wall
Mayor
The City of Taylorsville * http://www.taylorsvilleut.gov
2600 West Taylorsville Blvd. Taylorsville, Utah 84118
Office: (801) 963-5400 * Fax: (801) 963-7891
E-mail: rwall@taylorsvilleut.gov
Please e-mail him back any section of the above comment or article from HSUS.
Thank you all so much and God Bless.
Josy & Darrin
I’ve never given this a try, but I think it’s about time I do.