Response from Garland Councilman Rick Willams on Why Gassing is Great!

[Guest guest]

This is making me sick. I would just LOVE to debate this Neanderthal - apparently, he is under the impression that the AVMA exists to protect animals. WRONG. Also, that the Garland shelter abides by AVMA procedures. I doubt that seriously and who cares? The AVMA is NOT a humane org. If there was no suffering, why would an employee sue? Why would sooo many states outlaw this barbaric practice of murder? Also, I know of wayyy too many vets who participate in animal abuse such as rodeos, etc. Add to that his obvious hatred for pit bull type dogs. Some of the most digusting statements I have bolded in red.

 

Below is Councilman Rick Williams' ridiculous rhetoric. After reading, when you're really pissed, please give him your opinion at RWilliam (AT) ci (DOT) garland.tx. us

 

An open letter from Garland Councilman Rick Williams regarding multiple issues related to animal services in Garland

September 15, 2009

Thank you for your concerns about animals. Like you, I too　love animals and are concerned about their welfare.　 Currently, I own one dog, two cats, 10 koi/goldfish, and I buy about 200 lbs of corn each month from Roach Feed and Seed in downtown Garland　to feed about 50 ducks that live in the pond behind my house.　　

With regard to Garland's animal shelter, I have made numerous trips to the facility over the years, and I have always been impressed by the condition of the　facility and the staff.　 The State inspects the facility annually, and on my September 10, 2009 trip to the facility, I saw the last 3 State inspection documents and not a single deficiency was noted by the State inspector.

Garland has an Animal Services Advisory Committee.　 Advisory committees are required by State law and ours is set forth in Section 22.23 of the Code of Ordinances.　 The members are:　 Dr. Bill Dunn, licensed veterinarian; Ms. Renee Ramey, GPL Customer Service Manager; Mr. Dennis Wooten, Richardson’s Manager of Animal Services: and Yvette Diaz, who works for the rescue group, Operation Kindness.　　This advisory committee meets quarterly with　the manager of　Garland's Animal Services staff and senior management.　 The Council formally approved two additional members to that committee during the September 15 meeting.　　The purpose of this committee is to deal with compliance with State law. Specifically, the State statute reads as follows:

 

Sec. 823.005 ADVISORY COMMITTEE.　　(a)　　The governing body of a county or municipality in which an animal shelter is located shall appoint an advisory committee to assist in complying with the requirements of this chapter.

With regard to euthanasia, below is a link to a lengthy (1 mb) pdf by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Pages 9 – 11 discuss gassing, and two gas techniques are rejected. However, the technique used by Garland is approved by AVMA in this document, and the AVMA concludes "Carbon monoxide induces loss of consciousness without pain and with minimal discernible discomfort." Below the link is a quote from that pdf.

http://www.avma. org/issues/ animal_welfare/ euthanasia. pdf

 

 

"In a study evaluating the physiologic and behavioral characteristics of dogs exposed to 6% CO in air, Chalifoux and Dallaire95 could not determine the precise time of loss of consciousness. Electroencephalogra phic recordings revealed 20 to 25 seconds of abnormal cortical function prior to loss of consciousness. It was during this period that the dogs became agitated and vocalized. It is not known whether animals experience distress; however, humans in this phase reportedly are not distressed."

Anti-gas advocates typically omit that last sentence when quoting the other sentences in this paragraph from this AVMA document, as they prefer to focus on the words "agitated and vocalized." That last sentence is interesting.　 Humans who have tried unsuccessfully to kill themselves via carbon monoxide (and were obviously revived) reported no stress or pain, so there's no reason to believe a dog or cat would be affected otherwise.　 Further, people are sometimes killed in their sleep by carbon monoxide without waking up, so there’s no indication of any stress or pain there either. In fact, carbon monoxide detectors are installed in homes because residents cannot feel the effects of the gas.

More significant than my lay opinion is an article http://www.vetlearn .com/Media/ PublicationsArti cle/PV_29_ 12_708.pdf, "An Education in Euthanasia," by DVM Robert Neunzig. He sees no evidence of stress or pain despite the "agitated and vocalized" noises from the dying and unconscious animal that sound like pain.　 Specifically, the article provides:

 

"Vocalization is not necessarily synonymous with pain.

According to the AVMA guidelines on euthanasia as well as texts on anesthesia, once an animal is unconscious, it feels no pain. This is an important point because with carbon monoxide as well as lethal injection euthanasia, animals often vocalize even though they are unconscious. For the untrained person, this can be very disturbing.

In fact, Dr. Neunzig points out that gas is often a more　humane method than an injection.　 He concludes by saying:

 

"I would encourage my colleagues to learn about their local animal shelter’s euthanasia and general operating procedures. I would further encourage them to review the AVMA guidelines on euthanasia. Finally, as unpleasant as it might be, I would encourage anyone planning to comment on animal shelter euthanasia to actually witness such euthanasia first. I can assure you that it will not be a nice day, but it will be a real education."

Although I am not one of Dr. Neunzig’s "colleagues, " I did take his advice about witnessing a carbon monoxide euthanasia at the Garland animal shelter on September 10, 2009. After the staff showed me all the safety features such as carbon monoxide detectors and their policy on when an animal is euthanized by gas vs. injection, two dogs were brought in and put in a two chambered cage that fits into the gas chamber which I’d estimate is 4’ high, 4’ wide, and 4’ deep with a glass door. One of the dogs was a pit bull and when the cage was rolled into the chamber and the glass door shut, he lay down facing the back of the chamber. The other dog which was a mix-breed weighing about 35 lbs looked to be a real sweet dog and could have made a nice pet. It stood on all 4 feet and faced the front of the chamber when the cage was inserted. Neither dog was distressed as the pit bull

was lying down and the other one just sniffing the bottom front part of the cage as if looking for a morsel of food. Then the carbon monoxide gas was turned on and neither dog reacted. In fact, the dog that had been sniffing the bottom of the cage continued to do so as he had no idea whatsoever that gas was entering the chamber since it is odorless. After about 20 seconds, this dog sat down and leaned against the side of the cage with sort of a blank look on his face. In about 10 more seconds, it fell to the floor, and in a few more seconds was the sound that DVM Neunzig correctly described when he said "For the untrained person, this can be very disturbing." There was a howling sound for about 4 to 5 seconds, and then silence. At no time did either of the dogs kick or writhe in pain. As mentioned, they were oblivious to what was happening to them until the gas made them

unconscious. My primary emotion in witnessing this was a feeling of sadness for the one dog that looked like a nice pet. It was just sad to see an otherwise healthy, friendly dog be killed because he was not adopted.

Adoptions are another area in which Garland received criticism in a December 9 Dallas Morning News "problem solver" story titled "Mystery shrouds animal services board" http://www.dallasne ws.com/sharedcon tent/dws/ dn/localnews/ columnists/ problemsolver/ stories/DN- problemsolver_ 06ent.ART. East.Edition1. 4bfba81.html. Since I don’t like seeing Garland unfairly criticized, I sent a letter to the editor (albeit much edited for brevity by the DMN) dated 09/09/2009 regarding the so called "problems" with Garland’s Animal shelter. Here is a link to the letter as well as many comments from readers. http://dallasmornin gviewsblog. dallasnews. com/archives/ 2009/09/garland- animal.html

Many of those comments characterize gassing as a horrible, inhumane method of euthanasia, and yet none of them are veterinarians such as Robert Neunzig quoted earlier, and I’m willing to bet that the few who have actually seen a gas euthanasia saw a video clip on the Internet depicting a horrible gassing death because correct AVMA procedures were not followed. What they have not seen is an AVMA approved euthanasia at the Garland animal shelter. As mentioned, I have and it was a peaceful, albeit sad death