A former volunteer at the Cabell-Wayne pound in WV says pets are being killed improperly and conditions at the pound are deplorable.
Workers picking up trash from the pound recently heard soft crying coming from one of the bags. They opened it up to find one live and one dead puppy. But the county has an explanation:
County Manager Chris Tatum says veterinarians have told him it’s not uncommon for this to happen.
“You have small animals and to detect respiration or heartbeats is nearly impossible with a stethoscope in that small of an animal. It does happen. There are instances where one has been euthanized and not completely dead,” Tatum said.
See, puppies are small. Stethoscopes don’t work on small beings. I guess we should alert hospitals that care for premature babies and such.
Anyhoo since the stethoscopes the kill techs are so dutifully utilizing appear to be failing them, perhaps they could try an alternative method for verifying death. Maybe do what the sanitation workers did – pick up the bag and if any crying sounds emerge, open it up for a look-see. Or better yet, maybe the pound could stop killing healthy/treatable pets and start releasing them to rescues, fosters and adopters instead.
Or:
The shelter director will hold a news conference early next week. The conference will discuss this issue, as well as, what he calls positive changes at the facility over the past eight months, including a low number of euthanizations.
Wait – is he counting the ones put in the garbage truck while they were still alive in those figures?
I hope he tells what happened to the surviving puppy. I mean – they didn’t kill him again, I hope.
(Thanks Clarice for the link.)
When I’ve fostered tiny kittens and puppies, I use a radical technique to listen for breathing. I pick each one up and I hold them to my ear. That’s right, I place their chest against my ear, and I can hear their lungs inflating and deflating. If the heart’s not working, the lungs aren’t working, either.
My thoughts are that perhaps the workers do not know how to use the stethescopes. Some stethescopes are tricky too – you can turn the bell in different ways and if you turn it to use the smaller end, you will hear nothing from the larger end and vice versa— could have have perhaps listended from the wrong end? And yes there are other ways to note if the animal is still breathing… palpating the chest area, listening closely with your ear… hey best option is STOP THE KILLING and you only need stethescope for evaluation purposes when doing medical check ups.
Abominable – barbaric – lazy – ignorant – inexcusable…ruthrawls is right – a simple holding the baby up to your ear and listening works so well. In 10 years of volunteering and being on staff an AC dept. I’ve never had this happen or heard a story of it happening. Could it? I suppose so. But for a vet to say this is not unusual? And for anyone to accept that this is ok…argh…and the PUBLIC is the irresponsible party…argh…
The director needs to explain why the shelter is killing puppies instead of getting them adopted/rescued/fostered! I hope someone asks that at the news conference.
I imagine there will be some explanation about how the puppy was “sick”. So sick in fact that he survived an injection of Fatal Plus and being tied up in a trash bag and left in the dumpster.
and probably over night in the freezing cold.. must have been one healthy baby.. did they successfully murder it? Or did the worker take it home?
I used the kitten-to-the-ear technique, too. Worked like a charm, even with newborns. Of course, I did have to actually listen, which is what I suspect the real problem here was.
“listen”… “care”… whatevs.
You can even hear fluid in the lungs using the Kitten-to-the-ear method..
I reckon, myself, that part of why it works so well is, not only is the kitten right on the ear, but also against the very sensitive skin of the face. So on top of hearing if the little squirt is breathing, you can feel if there’s any movement and warmth.
It’s disturbing to me that there’s no mention of what happened to the puppy. Was he/she turned back over to the “shelter?” Is there no mention because the pup is dead, again? Doesn’t the reporter think the readers will want to know that a LOT more than the announcement of an upcoming press conference?
The news article linked below says that they “euthanized” the puppy properly – poor wee one wanted to live so badly.
Two known all-cats-in-shelter killings, fir treatable symptoms, and one known dog culling- afraid the rates are still too high to be bragging.
Poor little puppy ended up dying I’m afraid….that is what was told at the last Friends of the Shelter meeting…..
“Officials with the Huntington-Cabell-Wayne Animal Control Shelter addressed growing concerns Wednesday in the wake of a puppy being found alive in a trash bag and the resignations of the shelter’s volunteer coordinator and medical director.”
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/x1819667362/Officials-cite-gains-but-2-leaders-resign
Some so called pet rescue centers are a front for people with eccentric attitudes who often become directors of these so called 501 c 3 organizations and are against what is otherwise legal activiites (use of hunting dogs) to lie, cheat and steal other peoples property (hunting dogs)