The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

October 7, 2012

Gas chamber’s days are numbered

By Joe Pinchot Herald Staff Writer

HERMITAGE — Thomas R. Tulip said he supports a bill that would force Shenango Valley Animal Shelter to change the way it euthanizes dangerous and unadoptable animals, but it could foist new costs on the shelter that would have to be passed on to its member municipalities.

The state House approved the bill 189-6 Monday. Tulip said he expects the bill will pass in the Senate and be signed by Gov. Tom Corbett.

“It’s, to me, a done deal,” said Tulip, executive director of Mercer County Regional Council of Governments, which operates the shelter in Hermitage.

The bill would ban carbon monoxide gas – the shelter’s method of euthanasia – along with drowning, chloroform and decompression.

Instead, kill shelters would have to use lethal injection.

“It’s hard to argue against this method,” Tulip said of lethal injection, which is considered more humane.

The Humane Society of the United States called a gas chamber a “more painful and gruesome option” than lethal injection.

“I’m all for a more humane method,” Tulip said.

The bill also would allow shelters to purchase euthanasia drugs, most likely sodium pentobarbital. Currently, only veterinarians can buy the drugs.

And while the shelter has greatly reduced the number of animals it kills, thanks to an emphasis on adoption and cooperation with other animal rescue groups, Tulip said he has no idea what it will cost for the shelter to make the transition to a new method.

Shelter employees have used a carbon monoxide unit that was donated, and budgets about $2,500 a year for euthanasia supplies.

While the shelter once killed more than 200 dogs a year, it has reduced the number to 52 so far this year. It has euthanized a dozen cats this year.

The shelter limits euthanasia to animals that are dangerous or are unwanted for adoption, such as for the animal’s age. Employees also keep animals longer than they have to in order to give them the greatest opportunity to be adopted, Tulip said.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, gas chambers are more expensive to operate than euthanasia drugs, but that does not take into account transition costs.

The bill would require that the euthanasia drug be administered by a veterinarian, a certified veterinary technician or someone under the supervision of a veterinarian.

Tulip said he would prefer that the shelter contract with a third party but he would have to look at the costs of transporting animals, and the liability implications of employees handling dangerous animals more than they do now, against the cost of training shelter staff.

The insurance implications in handling and storing the euthanasia drug and/or drugs also is not known, he said.

The bill does not include funding for shelters that need to make the transition, although Tulip said he has heard the Humane Society of Pennsylvania might issue grants for training and certification.

A meeting is being set up with the shelter’s seven member organizations – Sharon, Hermitage, Farrell, Sharpsville, West Middlesex, Wheatland and Shenango Township – to discuss the change and what it could mean to them financially.

The communities pay an annual assessment based on their population, with Sharon paying the most, $19,425, and Wheatland the least, $893. The assessments provide 69 percent of the revenue in the shelter’s $80,500 budget.

 

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