UPDATE on Utah Shelter’s Plan for Gas Chamber

Please read the below update from Darrin and Josy at MyCutePetPics about the work the three of us have been doing to fight the gas chamber being built in Taylorsville, UT.

From MyCutePetPics: “We just wanted to make a few announcements and explain why we haven’t updated the blog in the last few days.  We have been so busy working with our good friend Jaime, from ThoughtFurPaws, plus many other animal organizations & animal activists.  We have been doing everything we can to stop a shelter in Utah from building a gas chamber to perform euthanasia on all their unwanted pets. This method, as you all know, is barbaric and considered to be cruel by every other animal organization and true animal lover.”

We have spoken with the mayor and one of their council members several times over the last few days, trying our best to put a stop to this.  Tomorrow we have two phone calls to make that will hopefully join all the animal organizations, activists and animal lovers that are involved in this fight.  We will keep you posted on the progress.  For everyone who has written to them to voice your opinion on the matter, we applaud you and thank you so very much.  In case anyone else wishes to help make a difference we will provide the mayors e-mail below as well as the council members’.  If you write an e-mail to one you can just copy and paste it to each one, if you wish.

The mayor Russ Wall seems to be a caring man who really wants whats best for these animals. The only problem is that the shelter’s director, Kelly Davis, is doing everything she can to prove her point, that using gas chambers as a form of euthanasia is painless and good for the pets. (**Kelly Davis has replied to our emails with canned responses, referring us to the city’s website for more information. Darrin, Josy and I have all argued every false claim she has made with facts from the AVMA, HSUS, ASPCA and many other animal organizations.  The problem is we are not there and she is doing everything she can to mislead the mayor and council members.)

Darrin and Josy go on to say that she or someone made the mayor witness 7 acts of euthanasia to prove her/their point. The huge problem is that that person did it by intentionally performing lethal injection euthanasia, against AVMA’s recommended methods. The shelter out there made the Mayor watch one gas chamber euthanasia that apparently went well and quickly.  Experts that Darrin and Josy spoke to (after they have seen all the facts and e-mails) all agreed that she or whomever was responsible may have used a very high dose of the gas to ensure no complications — which no shelter could afford to do all the time when nobody is watching.  Then the shelter performed 6 euthanasias by lethal injections and half or more of them by way of abdominal injections (which is a whole different beast).

What kind of fair argument is this shelter trying to prove by comparing one method with one example compared to 6 examples using the other method? What this shelter did to these poor dogs & cats on purpose to try and prove their point should be considered severe cruelty. They intentionally made those poor animals suffer more so they can continue to build a gas chamber.

Shelters worldwide are known to favor gas chambers because only one staff member is needed for this type of torture, compared to two employees needed for lethal injections. This is an outrage and we cannot allow them to get away with this!

This is the Mayor’s last statement to Darrin and Josy after he viewed what a shelter (we do not know which one at this time) wanted and ill intentionally caused him to see:

“Bottom line for me is that after two days of observation, and after reading much information (and disinformation), and after much discussion with the people who have to deal with this regularly, I believe that most euthanasia procedures could and perhaps should be done by lethal injection. But there are many times when that form of euthanasia causes much more stress on animals (and human handlers) than a 15-30 second procedure in a CO chamber. I know many people may disagree but I saw what I saw and pray to God that I never have to do see any form of euthanasia again.”

**So at least he agrees that lethal injection is the best way, but for God’s sake, this is about the animals being comfortable as they’re on their death beds, NOT the humans being stressed. C’mon. And he still gave way to the other side at the end of his statement by saying there are times when that form causes more stress. So I don’t consider him to be 100% convinced.**

Just for the record the AVMA states that some pets have been known to take as long as 14 minutes to pass away in the gas chamber.  On top of that it is also a known fact that some pets survive all that suffering and then must be put down by other methods.  Include all that, the added pain and risks to health staff and you have to wonder why any shelter that is supposed to love animals more than anyone, would want to partake in such cruelty.

Please voice your opinion on this shelter’s plan and this form of euthanasia.

To voice any strong oppositions and to tell the shelter’s Operations Director, Kelly Davis, how barbaric her plans are for planning on using this form of euthanasia, here is her contact info.

Kelly Davis
Operations Director, Animal Services
West Valley City
4063 South 7200 West
West Valley City, UT. 84044
(801) 963-3364 Office
(801) 252-7541 FAX
kdavis@wvc-ut.gov

To contact the mayor (who is a very nice man) directly to voice your opinion, here is his contact information.

Mayor Russ Wall – rwall@taylorsvilleut.gov  1-(801)963-5400

The nicest person we spoke to thus far is Councilman Corey Rushton, but the more opposition to this shelter’s plan, the better it is for those poor animals. Here is his info:

Council Member Corey Rushton – Corey.Rushton@wvc-ut.gov

Their local news station aired a story but I have to warn you – the images are disturbing.  If you still wish to watch the video, Click Here.

Thank you all so much and any help, suggestions or media contacts, would be greatly appreciated.