SHENANGO VALLEY

Shelter will alter its gas chamber

Tempers flared Wednesday over a proposed change in the way the Shenango Valley Animal Shelter in Hermitage puts down animals.

Despite the objection of about 20 people, the Shenango Valley Animal Control Joint Board voted to modify its euthanasia chamber to include a gas engine to produce carbon monoxide.

Board members William Morocco, mayor of Farrell; Ray Foster, Wheatland councilman; and William Scanlon, Hermitage commissioner, voted yes. The board’s other three members were absent.

The shelter now uses packaged carbon monoxide -- a colorless and odorless toxic gas -- to put down an average of 800 to 1,000 dogs and hundreds more cats a year. The animals are unhealthy, dangerous or can’t be placed in homes.

The packaged gas costs about $3,500 a year, said James A. DeCapua, executive director of the Mercer County Regional Council of Governments, which oversees the shelter. With the engine, DeCapua said, costs could be as low as $50 a year.

Guests argued that lethal injection is a more humane way to put down animals and that it could be cheaper than the packaged gas.

Debbie Shaulis of Pet Solutions said she has spoken with veterinarians who would put down the animals, at a cost of about $50 an hour and $1 for each cubic centimeter of drug used -- or between $8 and $10 for an 80-pound dog. DeCapua said that would cost too much "considering the sheer number of animals the shelter puts down." He cited a study done several years ago that determined it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to pay vets to put down the animals.

Yvonne Ceslak of Animal Appeal said the shelter could train its personnel to deliver in jections. Pittsburgh shelters, which kill more than 17,000 animals a year, train personnel to handle injections. The solution used for the injections costs about $1 for an 80-pound dog, she said. "Do it yourself," she recommended.

"I firmly believe that, in dealing with the situation at the Shenango Valley Animal Shelter, carbon monoxide is the most humane, cost-effective way to go," DeCapua said.

The Humane Society of the United States recommends an injection of sodium pentobarbital as the most effective method to kill dogs, cats and other small animals. But the society says carbon monoxide, "when delivered by a properly manufactured and equipped chamber, may be a conditionally accepted method of euthanasia for some animals."

State law also considers the use of carbon monoxide acceptable. Carbon monoxide gas systems and euthanasia chambers are bound by a series of requirements -- which DeCapua said will be met.

DeCapua said the 6.5 horsepower engine is available to the shelter at no cost.