YADKINVILLE, N.C.—
In an historic vote that was a decade in the making, Yadkin commissioners Monday night voted to end the practice of euthanizing animals with carbon monoxide, opting to go instead with what they said was a more 'humane' method of lethal injection."This is a good thing for our county. This puts us in a positive light," Austin said. "We were one of the remaining counties that were using gas . . . You guys (commissioners) get the same emails that I get. Well, we're dropping off that short list as of tonight. I think this is a positive thing going forward. It shows to the outsiders looking in that Yadkin County is moving in the right direction. I also believe this will invigorate a lot of people who have become disheartened to become active in animal issues."
Austin praised members of the Yadkin County Humane Society for their involvement and County Manager Aaron Church for putting together a policy that will work for the county, he said.
"I appreciate the help that some of the people in this room did in putting this together," Austin said. "I really appreciate Aaron Church for all the research he did. He showed us the numbers that we needed to make sure we can and will do it."
The vote was 4-0 with Commissioner Brady Wooten abstaining. Wooten said that he didn't have any information to make a decision.
Read the full story in the Yadkin Valley News.
Several members of the county humane society were on hand for Monday night's vote. While many took time to thank Austin for bringing the lethal injection issue back before the board, Alice Singh, a local animal rights activist stood in the parking lot in a state of disbelief.
"I'm stunned," Singh, who was one of the first local residents to advocate lethal injection at the shelter, said. "I had really given up over the years."
Singh, who lobbied hard for a new $450,000 animal shelter on Speaks Road, said that she's elated the county will no longer gas cats and dogs in a metal container.
"This is a much more humane death," she said.
Even after Yadkin County officials built a new animal shelter, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) continued to say that Yadkin's gassing method was inhumane.
"Death by gas poisoning is often show and agonizing for these animals and sometimes it doesn't even work," PETA says on its website. "We regularly receive reports that animals have regained consciousness at landfills and in freezers after being gassed -- even in commercially constructed chambers."
Commissioner Chairman Chad Wagoner said earlier on Monday that Yadkin wanted to transition away from carbon monoxide.
"We want to be proactive. That's why we're doing this," Wagoner said. "We know this is coming down the pike."
Wagoner said that the county now has three animal control officers who are certified to perform lethal injection on site. Previously, the county contracted with local veterinarians to inject an animal with sodium pentobarbital.
It will cost the county about an extra $1,000 a year to perform lethal injection as opposed to carbon monoxide, Wagoner said. Currently, animals at the shelter are placed in a container and gassed once a week. That practice continued despite the construction in 2005 of a new animal shelter that replaced an old shelter at the county landfill where animals were caged in old pens.
Church said in a memo to commissioners that the county has applied to the Drug Enforcement Administration for a drug license for the lethal injection procedure. The purpose of lethal injection, Church says, is to provide "the most painless technique available and administration by certified personnel who demonstrate a caring understanding of animals."
Technicians, Church goes on to say, should handle animals in such a way to prevent "feelings of pain, fear, and stress."
Wagoner said that Yadkin is not completely doing away with carbon monoxide. There are some instances, he said, when lethal injection is not appropriate.
"You could have a rabid animal where it is not practical to use lethal injection," he said.
Austin also echoed Animal Control Officer Jerry Hutchens' statements earlier in the evening that pet owners need to spade and neuter their animals.
"That's a key issue in animal overpopulation," Austin said. "Cats and dogs are really our responsibility because man domesticated them. Dogs and cats are too often put out and they become feral and wild and that's because of man. We got to take that responsibility more seriously."
