The killing apologists in charge of Medina Co, OH were finally publicly shamed into giving up the gas chamber at the pound. Now the county is planning to sell the torture device to the highest bidder.
If I had the money, I would buy this gas chamber myself and send it to the car squashing machine at the junkyard. It’s the only way to be sure this barbaric equipment will never again be used to inflict pain and suffering on animals. The county says someone could possibly buy it for scrap metal. Yeah that’s possible but sorry, I’m not willing to take any chances. The stakes are too high.
Unfortunately I don’t have the money. But if you are part of an animal welfare group with millions in the bank and you want to prevent any animals from ever being killed in the Medina Co gas chamber again, buy this gas chamber and destroy it. Because Medina Co won’t do the right thing. I’m hoping we can find someone to do it for them.
(Thanks Casey for the link.)
UPDATE, added 5pm Eastern: The Plain Dealer reports at Cleveland.com:
An anonymous donor has offered $10,000 to Medina County if officials agree to turn the county animal shelter’s gas chamber over to the Medina County SPCA to be destroyed instead of being offered on an Internet auction.
F-star-dollar sign-percent YEAH. Anonymous Donor, you can be my friend.
Please contact the Commissioners and let them know that you want the thing DESTROYED, not sold to the highest bidder. They simply do not seem to realize how very offensive the gas chamber is. Commissioners’ email addresses –
afriedrick@medinaco.org (Adam Friedrick)
pgeissman@medinaco.org (Patricia Geissman)
shambley@medinaco.org (Stephen Hambley)
Please be polite when contacting them. The goal is to get this thing “off the streets” as it were and prevent it from every being used as a killing machine again.
time for H$U$ to use some of theri $$$ for GOOD to actually HELP animals – let THEM buy and destroy the thing. They have the $$$, they do nothing ELSE for live animals. Let Ol’ Whyne take it out of his $300,000 annual salary. He can afford it.
Where are you NOW H$U$???? <. That’s what I thought…
I think if HSUS were to call up Medina Co and say “We’re prepared to buy this monstrosity and destroy it in front of every reporter within a 100 mile radius”, Medina would see that junking the thing themselves is the right thing to do. I wish HSUS would make that call.
If they’d been SMART about the whole thing from the start, they could have promoted its destruction themselves as “a new dawn for a kinder, gentler Medina County!” The could have dressed up the shelter and done an adoption promotion and maybe a food drive for a pet food pantry (now to be stored where the gas chamber was as a symbol of the new direction) and announced changes that were going to happen procedurally at the shelter to show that they’re gladly stepping into this century with the animal shelter.
Medina County Animal Shelter could have been a leader for shelter models in Ohio. One more missed opportunity in a giant dump truck full of missed opportunities…
This is why I think a good shelter director is someone with marketing experience (or willing to hire someone with marketing experience.) The right marketing can make all the difference. I’m constantly amazed when I look at pound websites and see how they’re basically snubbing their own community, or in the case of my local pound, outright saying the adoption process is going to be drawn-out and frustrating. Why would you do that? Your plan for marketing there is so solid, and could create a turn-around in good will among the community, but such a thing would never cross anyone’s mind at the shelter.
please watch for it to show up on the auction site and post the link when it does
The fact that they are trying to make money off of something that was used to torture and slaughter thousands of innocent and adoptable pets is disgusting, ghoulish and reprehensible. What’s next? Will they sell some item used to torture and kill children? Absolutely disgusting and illustrates why these people should NOT be running a facility with the power over life and death. It is meaningless to them.
A better idea would be to sell tickets to watch the digusting thing being DESTROYED. In fact, give animal lovers a sledge hammer and let them take a swing at it. I would bet that they would make a lot more money from that.
Right on Bett..great idea!
When Macon, GA decommissioned their gas chamber, they publicly destroyed it. People could pay a fee to hit it with a mallet (sledgehammer ruled out for insurance reasons) before it was bulldozed. That one was made out of concrete blocks, so it really wasn’t salable, anyway.
They say that they are obligated to try and get the most money for it as possible because it is county property.
I don’t think they understand the ramifications of what they’re selling?
ridiculous, obviously they STILL do not get it.
Wow…. Is it even legal to sell this kind of device to just any random person with some cash? That just doesn’t seem right, there are some sick people in the world and who knows what they could do with this. I hope this makes its way to the national media so they can get the (very) negative attention they deserve over this. It is just so offensive on so many levels…
I remember some shelter in OH was accused of using a “homemade” gas chamber a few years back. I hope that place isn’t looking to “upgrade”.
I’ve heard of some pet killing facilities putting animals in boxes, cutting a hole and hooking the box to the exhaust of an automobile.
Small gas chambers are readily available on-line, from small sizes designed for rodents, small birds and reptiles, to larger units designed to hold a trap. The latter are sold as ‘wildlife euthanasia chambers.’ Search for ‘euthanasia chambers’ – you’ll find quite a few. So far as I can tell, they’re legal for anyone to buy.
Oh, and the largest appear to usually sell for about $500 new.
I will be contacting them today to request that they Incapacitate this device before putting it up for auction for “scrap.” It’s dangerous to animals and to society. DISGUSTING.
About how much would it take to get a hold of this thing?
I honestly don’t know the value. The county says it’s 20 years old and in working order. They used to gas dogs in it before making it exclusively a cat torture chamber. It would surprise me if they received any offers over 4 digits.
http://www.cleveland.com/medina/index.ssf/2014/01/medina_county_donor_offers_100.html
Woo hoo! Gotta love that “irresponsible public” that always seems to step up.
That thing can’t possible be worth $10k.
Thanks for the update.. I’m hoping they have enough sense and heart to accept this offer.
A member of the Grace’s Law team took one of these devices out of circulation for $50, as nobody challenged his bid.
We live in a sick society and I’m very worried about them selling this torture chamber to just anyone!