Help Stokes County

Saturday, February 9, 2008
Method Dispute: Groups criticize Stokes County animal shelter about euthanizing animals

Animals available for adoption are held at the shelter for five days before being euthanized.
(Journal photo by Jennifer Rotenizer)

Stokes County officials defended the county’s animal shelter yesterday against critics who say that the county doesn’t hold animals long enough before euthanizing them.

State law requires shelters to hold animals picked up without rabies or other identification tags for at least 72 hours, and says that animal-control officers should first make an effort to find owners.

Shelter logs for 2007 show that some animals were killed the day after they were brought to the shelter.

County Manager Bryan Steen said that the county’s animal-control ordinance requires that animals that are diseased, wounded or rabid be euthanized immediately.

“We are believing that we are in compliance,” Steen said yesterday. “The matter is under review, and if there are things that need to be done, we will do it.

“We are inspected without notice, and our inspections have not said that we’re violating any rules,” Steen said. “If there were some other issues, the state would have told us that.

He said that the county animal shelter holds animals that are healthy and available for adoption for five days.

Steen and the county attorney, Ed Powell, also noted that state law applies only to animals that were picked up for not having rabies tags and does not apply to animals brought to the shelter for other reasons.

Shari Strader, a member of the N.C. Coalition for Humane Euthanasia, which has been pushing for changes at the shelter, said that it is important that animals are held for the state-mandated time period.

She provided the Winston-Salem Journal with a sample of shelter records and said that her review found many examples of animals euthanized before they were there for 72 hours.

“If someone’s pet just happens to get loose, by the time the owner gets off work and looks for the dog for a little while and then gets to the shelter, the animal could already be dead,” Strader said. “Another reason is just to give them a chance to be adopted.”

In 2007, the Stokes shelter took in 3,246 cats and dogs, and about 86 percent of those animals were euthanized, county records show.

Fifty percent of the animals taken in by the shelter cannot be adopted because of health issues or because they do not get along well with humans; 14.6 percent of all animals taken in are returned to owners, records show.

Forsyth County built a $4.3 million shelter in 2006 after animal advocates complained about conditions in its shelter. In 2002-03, Forsyth County euthanized 86 percent of animals in its shelter.

To euthanize animals, Stokes County uses a carbon-monoxide tank attached to a dump truck parked behind the shelter.

North Carolina law requires counties to follow procedures approved either by the Humane Society, the American Veterinary Medical Association or the American Humane Association when euthanizing animals picked up without identification tags.

All three organizations prefer lethal injection as the method for euthanizing animals.

The guidelines from the American Humane Association say that carbon-monoxide euthanasia should not be used for any animals.

The American Veterinary Medical Association and the Humane Society of the United States approve of carbon-monoxide euthanasia under some conditions.

But they both agree that carbon monoxide should not be used for animals that are sick, injured, pregnant or younger than 16 weeks.

According to the shelter logs in Stokes County, in some instances puppies, kittens and sick dogs were put down in the carbon-monoxide chamber.

“I don’t know that there is truly any prohibition against this means of euthanasia. I am not aware of any statutory prohibition of the use of carbon-monoxide euthanasia,” he said. “We have a different viewpoint on this from other entities that have an interest in this matter.”

Kimberly Intino, the director of animal sheltering issues for the Humane Society of the United States, said that old, young, sick, pregnant or nursing animals should not be euthanized by carbon monoxide because they may have poor blood pressure, weak hearts or other systemic issues that could delay the effects of carbon monoxide and cause the animals stress before they become unconscious.

“Those animals may have biological concerns that could make the proper absorption of carbon monoxide difficult,” Intino said. “With animals that are really young, they may not have the lung capacity to inhale the carbon monoxide.

“In pregnant animals, it is likely that the mother will die before the puppies or kittens, so they could die of suffocation.”

State officials are working on revising state law to ban the use of carbon monoxide.

If the rules are approved by the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the state’s Rules Review Commission, all shelters would have to stop using carbon-monoxide euthanasia by Jan. 11, 2012.

Fewer than 40 of the state’s 102 public, licensed animal shelters use carbon-monoxide euthanasia, state officials for the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said.

Steen said that if the new euthanasia rules are approved, the Stokes shelter will do whatever is necessary to heed them.

He said he is working with local veterinarians to create a program to spay and neuter animals to prevent the need for some euthanasia.

Strader said that the coalition is urging Stokes officials to change the way that animals are euthanized in the county.

“We want to make it clear to Mr. Steen and the county that we want to help them,” she said.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Stokes residents object to animal-shelter policy
County commissioners take public comments on issue

By Lisa Boone-Wood
JOURNAL REPORTER

“The homeless animals of Stokes County are suffering,” said Shari Strader, a representative of the N.C. Coalition for Humane Euthanasia.

The shelter, Strader said, is using carbon monoxide to euthanize animals. The shelter should be updated.

Strader said she obtained copies of the county fire marshal’s report that showed levels of carbon monoxide could be endangering employees at the shelter.

Strader donated a digital camera to the county so officials could take photos of animals to start an adoption program and offered assistance to get grant money to renovate the shelter.

Velvet Kitzmiller, who has lived in Stokes for about a year, has worked with animals and wildlife for about 19 years. She and her husband, Ted, care for animals at their business, Noah’s Ark.

Kitzmiller suggested more veterinarian care, spaying and neutering programs to keep the number of stray animals down, adoption Web sites for healthy homeless animals and improving the conditions at the shelter.

Using carbon monoxide to euthanize animals at the shelter is “painful, cruel, and unprofessional,” Ted Kitzmiller said.

He said he was a bit ashamed that a beautiful county such as Stokes has such a policy on euthanizing animals.

Sam Hill, who also lives in Stokes County, was the last to speak. His opinion was different from that of the others.

Hill said he respected the opinions of those who spoke before him but he disagreed with their views on using carbon monoxide to euthanize animals.

Hill said he didn’t hear empirical evidence that suggested that euthanizing animals by lethal injection was better than using carbon monoxide. Hill said if he were going to be euthanized, he would want carbon monoxide because he would “gently fall asleep and never wake up.”

Commissioner Leon Inman, the board’s chairman, said that county officials are investigating the issue.

In other business, the commissioners unanimously approved accepting about $72,000 for an emergency-medical-dispatch grant that could cut about 30 seconds off the county’s emergency medical dispatch time.

Commissioners also voted to replace three county fuel tanks, which were cited for violations by the N.C. Department of Natural Resources last year.

Please read the below and refer to the "red" text for help needed and contact info. Let's pull together and make a difference at the Stokes County Animal Shelter.

I am hoping this msg. finds you well and having had a wonderful holiday season.

I wanted to touch base with you on a couple of things. We are still in the information gathering stage on some of the issues you talked with us about but wanted to bring you up to day on a couple of things.

First I have found out that we are unable to go out of state with the I Care spay/neuter program. It is something that is available to people who are receiving county/state assistance only, the HUD guidelines are used. We would apply and get on board with the program, someone at county level would administer it. There would be several vets that would participate on a contractual basis and they would be paid up front ½ the fee or we may get them to agree to waive the fee until the quarter is up for their payment (that would depend on the vet) and when the fund monies arrive pay them from that. I see it as a way to help a small demographic, perhaps the elderly and the disabled.. because I see it as if people are on state aid they are having a hard time feeding and taking care of themselves much less a pet. At the end of the year the last quarter, there is a chance there will not be any funds left.. which would leave the vets not getting paid.. so it’s something to try I think but something that would need to be planned.

However, to address the overpopulation situation, which is a great start I have a suggestion that may help and it bears more investigation but we are working on that I just wanted to make you aware so you can think about it. Another option to reach more numbers is to raise the adoption fee at the shelter for the animals that are adopted through there. Raise the price to say 75.00 or more and the cost of the spay/neuter and basic shots be included in that fee. What would happen there could be two things (1) give them a voucher that would send them to a participating vet to get the procedure done (which is not effective in some cases according to research) (2) contract with a vet to pick the animals on a schedule that are adopted and they do the procedure and the new owners pick their animals up at the vet clinic. IF because of age for instance they are not taken to the vet as directed, then after 6 months their taxes go up 100.00 or they are fined or something until that animal is altered. There would need to be follow up with the families to ensure that it was done.. the fundamental thing I am trying to get across is without having a mandatory spay/neuter program within the county, make it so there are consequences for not having them done.. and anything received from that would go to a fund set up directly from the shelter, which leads me to my next suggestion.

Would it be possible for the county to set aside a fund where people could make donations directly to the shelter fund and not into a general fund.. people may be more apt to give if they know it’s going to where they are wanting their money to go…

Reference to above paragraphs:

Do you know of any mobile low cost spay and neuter programs that may be able to help?

Do you know how to go about getting vets to participate?

If you can help or have any suggestions please email Mona.

Next, the advisory council. This board is made up of people from all walks of life, citizens at large, a vet, an animal welfare person, a person who owns a fertile hunting animal, a breeder, someone who does not own companion animals and someone who owns an animal other then a dog or cat, someone from the health department and of a municipality receiving animal control services. These people would be appointed by the commissioners for a 2 year term that would meet once every other month to hear issues pertaining to AC, appeals, complaints etc.. and advise the commissioners on what is going on and ways to continually improve shelter situations, ordinances etc. There would be no reason for the commissioners to call these meetings or be part of these meetings, but they would receive a report about what goes on for consideration. A lot of counties have them and they can be very beneficial to AC and the county for information purposes.

Reference above paragraph:

Do you know how to set up an advisory board?

If you can help or have any suggestions please email Mona.

We are working researching some other issues, as we mentioned the parvo issue is huge at our shelter. We pulled 6 dogs from the shelter this week, 3 died from parvo, one was an adult her and her older puppy, they came to the shelter healthy. .they died at he vets office after expensive treatment.. The cement there is not set up for sanitation.. nor is there a quarantine place for the sick animals and puppies and kittens.

We are contacting other shelters to get some information on how they handle this in their facilities and when that information is complete, I will present you with the findings.

Reference above paragraph:

Do you have any ideas how to rid the shelter of parvo inexpensively? There are no funds available.

Do you know any contractors that may be willing to donate time to seal cement floors?

If you can help or have any suggestions please email Mona.

Tim Jennings, from Forsyth is a great resource of information on how he dealt with issues such as we are facing in our shelter and he overcame some of those issues.. would you be willing to meet with him to get some feedback on what he has discovered during his tenure at that facility? I feel he could offer some valuable information.

We are also contacting other counties that have built shelters on grant money to get an idea on where to go and how they did it.

I would also like you to consider inviting HSUS to come to our shelter to do an evaluation. PLEASE keep in mind, this is NOT a venue where they come in and say your doing this wrong or that wrong, they come and evaluate and tell us what we can do to improve what we have its informational purposes only.. they came to Forsyth (at the expense of 20K) BUT I am told they may come here and assist for a lot less, and if its reasonable we would work on fundraiser's to cover the cost. They have tons of information that would be very valuable and I feel it’s worth looking into.. what do you think?

Reference above paragraph:

Do you know where to get grant money for animal shelters?

Do you know how to write grants?

If you can help or have any suggestions please email Mona.

We are also working on comparing some ordinances and would like to discuss with you what we feel might be worth looking when we are done ..tethering and dangerous dogs are some to consider, our dd law is not very good and there is no tethering as well as the way the sheltering laws are read… basically ours needs to be revisited and improved.

I am continuing to research grant opportunities based on our counties need… but we would need someone to do the grants.. do you have access to someone like that?

Basically, this is where we are now, we are researching some short term fixes we can find for the runs at the shelter to help with disease control… we are looking at getting someone to donate a building to separate the smaller animals as well.

Let me know if you think we are on the right track and if there is something else you think we can consider. It’s my goal to have this information ready for your review in a couple of weeks. If you have any thing else you would like us to find out let me know.

THANK you for being such a willing spirit and being open to our suggestions and improvements and taking an interest in making the shelter a better place to be for the animals that come through there.

Talk soon

Mona Singleton

www.animalrescueofstokescounty.com

Donations can be made to:
Blue Flint Animal Hospital
PO Box 4214
Archdale, NC 27263