Alert 2/18/07               Gas Chambers May Be Gone - Maybe

We have some potentially fabulous news.  Gas chambers may be gone.  They could come back, but may be gone for now, soon.   Maybe.

We are forwarding an editorial (below) to which we contributed on this issue and a press release (also below) containing details of the mysterious $75,000 fund used to defeat our gas chamber ban legislation this year.  For those of you following this, last year there was also purported funding for each of the 8 jurisdictions then using gas, which use was to end before the 2007 session began, so we and the Ag Committee were told by Teresa Dockery, and thus, we didn't need legislation last year either.  That wasn't true.

The press release identifies us (not by name of course) as those who would force change, a flattering tribute.  Teresa Dockery, on the other hand, plainly sees herself  as those who deserve (and unashamedly take) credit.  But it's most gratifying to know Teresa Dockery has committed herself again this year (as she did last year) to end gas chamber use in Virginia.  Will it be this year?  Stay tuned.

And will there be any backsliding?  Let's hope not.  With legislation there would not be, but with a fund of $75,000 for staff, training and equipment (a table, medicine cabinet, needles and drugs, all together about $275) and structural changes (you got me on this one), there might be an incentive for some to resume gas use again, or when they need more staff or..... 

Nah, what was I thinking.

Please send e-mails thanking Sandy Lerner for her support (savesky@aol.com), the jurisdictions for changing, and to Teresa Dockery (dockery@naxs.net) for her selfless dedication to this cause.

Don Marro
 

Below is an editorial written by Todd Foster, Managing Editor of the Bristol Herald-Courier which appeared today, 2/18/07.

Virginia should outlaw 'gassing' of unwanted animals

Sunday, Feb 18, 2007 - 12:15 AM

If the euthanasia of unwanted pets offends you, particularly a graphic description, it might be better if you skipped this column. Or you can read on and get some education about the issue, and then ask your state legislator why Virginia still allows stray dogs and cats to be killed in gas chambers.

First, some background: I am no animal-rights, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-shod liberal. I just happened to have witnessed dogs dying in a gas chamber.

It was January 1991 in Pensacola, Fla., at the Escambia County Animal Shelter. And it wasn't pretty.

SEVERAL DOGS of varying size and species were crammed into a desk-sized box and then gassed. Through a window, I watched them gasp for air and then drift into confusion, panic and anger. They defecated and urinated and bit each other. It was a frenzy of fur.

It was disgusting.

I've also seen dogs and cats put to death by lethal injection. It was sad. But it wasn't disgusting. It was rather peaceful, as the animal-control officer hugged the condemned animal and soothed it to sleep before administering a lethal cocktail of sodium pentobarbital.

Thanks to the pairing of an Abingdon animal-welfare advocate and a quirky multi-millionaire computer and cosmetics magnate in Northern Virginia, carbon monoxide is about to fade away from the Commonwealth's animal shelters.

SANDY LERNER, the 1984 co-founder of what is now Cisco Systems and the entrepreneur behind Urban Decay cosmetics, has agreed to donate $75,000 total to three Virginia counties and one city that still use gas chambers to euthanize surplus pets.

Those three counties are in our area: Lee, Scott and Wythe. (The city is Martinsville.)

Lerner's spokeswoman, Diane Griffith, confirmed the donation Thursday and said it was "based on Ms. Lerner's passion and dedication to animal welfare and respect for Teresa Dockery."

Dockery lives in Abingdon and says she has worked for six years to convince jurisdictions to get off the gas. She is a lightning rod for controversy among animal-welfare advocates, but what Dockery has done is commendable.

THERE'S JUST one problem: Her campaign let legislators off the hook.

Even if these four jurisdictions stop using gas chambers as she says they have agreed, the Virginia law allowing those chambers would remain on the books.

"Some have suggested that these localities should be forced to make this conversion," Dockery writes in a press release, "but my experience is that forcing action does not always yield positive results. This is an example of how invaluable public/private partnerships can be when there are problems or concerns and changes in policy need to be made."

But no policy would be changed under this gentlemen's agreement with the four jurisdictions.

A FEW legislators, who obviously have never seen dogs and cats gassed, have stood by the barbaric practice because they didn't want to pass unfunded mandates. They are members of the House Agriculture Subcommittee, which let die a bill that would ban gas in Virginia.

I tried to interview the subcommittee chairman - Delegate Bobby Orrock, a Republican who represents parts of Spotsylvania and Caroline counties. Orrock didn't return my phone calls or an e-mail.

The bill that Orrock and Company let die had 41 co-patrons in the state legislature and was pushed by animal-welfare advocate Don Marro and his wife, Lillian Clancy, of Faquier County. Ironically, they live just a few miles as the crow flies from Lerner's 800-acre estate and organic farm.

Marro and Clancy have been collecting data on Virginia gas chambers since 2004, and have been trying to destroy the mythology that has grown up around carbon monoxide - mainly that it's cheaper to use than lethal injection.

The gas chamber holdouts will tell you that the state requires two animal-control officers to administer lethal injections - or double the staff needed to gas. That's where the added expense comes in.

BUT THE STATE only "recommends" that two officers perform lethal injection. The state also "recommends" that jurisdictions sedate animals - with a needle - before gassing them. And state law also forbids jurisdictions from gassing companion animals under 16 weeks of age or with health problems.

So how are these Southwest Virginia counties euthanizing those animals? (One county says it doesn't accept those animals, so where do they go?)

Marro suspects that these existing gas chambers are never inspected and seldom follow the elaborate state protocol for use of carbon monoxide.

For example, these machines are supposed to be sealed and well ventilated; dogs placed inside are supposed to be of the same species and compatible, and be separated by individual partitions.

IF THE RULES regarding gas chambers are really used in Virginia, then such a practice would be much more onerous than lethal injections.

Ask Buchanan County. Buchanan just went to lethal injection a few months ago.

"It's a much better process - much cleaner and easier to do than gassing the animals," said County Administrator W.J. Caudill. "The cost is a little cheaper. ... You don't have to herd ... I mean, put them ... into a gas chamber and then take them out.

"I would recommend it to anybody."

Bottom line, the unfunded-mandate argument is hogwash. Lethal injections are not only cheaper but more humane and safer for the animals and for the animal-control officers - one of whom died from accidentally gassing himself a few years ago in Tennessee (where carbon monoxide also is allowed).

SO, IF Virginia legislators want to stand behind the gas chamber, they should at least have the gumption to watch the procedure.

Maybe they could take their young children and some popcorn with them to watch. Because it would be quite a dramatic show.

J. Todd Foster is managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier. He may be reached at (276) 645-2513 or jfoster@bristolnews.com

Below is a press release sent to Todd Foster, Managing Editor of the Bristol Herald-

Courier on 2/15/07 by Teresa Dockery.

Animal shelters end use of gas chamber...Thanks to a $75,000 donation

Dogs, cats and other companion animals, totaling over 124,000 were euthanized in Virginia in 2005. Most of these animals were destroyed by lethal injection, but some died in gas chambers.  The chamber is an approved method of euthanasia by the State Veterinarian of Virginia and is also recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association. An Abingdon woman, Teresa Dockery has been working for the past six years to change that. Now, thanks to the generosity of Sandy Lerner, gas chambers in Virginia will be a thing of the past.

Dockery began this effort a number of years ago with a friend and colleague Kate Pullen.  Pullen was then with the Humane Societies of the United States and Dockery was with the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies. Together, they traveled the state, working with localities and organizations in an outreach program to improve facilities, implement training, update equipment and create a better environment for the animals that entered shelters. 

In 2001, they received two grants that made it possible for them to offer funding to shelters for the conversion from gas to injectable euthanasia.  The grant funding has helped purchase equipment, provide training and in some cases improve structures at shelters. When Dockery and Pullen began this project, there were 23 shelters using gas chambers, today there are 4.

Pullen has since moved to Louisiana to help rebuild a shelter that was devastated by Katrina. Dockery, who now works independently, has continued this effort. 

"Shelters must have two staff members to perform injectable euthanasia" says Dockery. "Three of the last four to convert only have one animal control officer".  It is a financial issue for these localities," she adds.  After gathering input from legislators and others, Dockery realized that the only possible solution to the dilemma was to find funding for an additional position at these shelters so she appealed to animal advocate, Sandy Lerner of Upperville, Virginia.  Lerner shares Dockery's desire to end the use of the chambers and provided a donation of $75,000 to make the conversion possible.

The shelters that still use gas include the municipal facilities of Scott, Lee and Wythe Counties and the City of Martinsville. Wythe County has already begun the conversion process, which will be completed soon.

The counties of Scott, Lee and the City of Martinsville need additional staffing to accomplish the conversion.  Scott and Martinsville also need structural changes. Dockery is confidant that the conversion can be made with the allocation of $25,000 for each of the 3 localities.

"I could not be happier that this project is in the final phase of completion.  Ms. Lerner's generous donation allows the conversion to be made in a timely manner and without hardship to the localities" says Dockery.  "Some have suggested that these localities should be forced to make this conversion, but my experience is that forcing action does not always yield positive results. This is an example of how invaluable public/private partnerships can be when there are problems or concerns and changes in policy need to be made," she adds.

Plans are underway with the 4 localities to make the conversion as soon as possible.  "It will be spring before construction can begin at the last two facilities but the conversion should take place shortly after that," says Dockery.