Gas chamber: Malden Animal Control euthanasia method, Malden, Mo.
It is no secret that thousands of domestic pets are euthanized daily in the U.S. It is a sad reality. For open door shelters, excessive pet populations, illness, and sometimes aggression dictate the number of pets on the euthanasia list.
For most animal shelters, euthanasia means euthanasia by lethal injection, by which the animal is simply put to sleep by an injection of Sodium Pentobarbital. Once injected the animal becomes groggy and slowly drifts into their final slumber. Aside from panic caused by the sudden sleepiness, it’s a relatively painless end for these animals.
But lethal injection is not the only form of euthanasia employed in the U.S. to destroy unwanted, aged, homeless, or aggressive animals. There are organizations that employ the use of a gas chamber, one of the most barbaric methods of euthanasia known to modern man.
To use a gas chamber for euthanasia, animals are loaded into a box, room, or small chamber, the door is closed, and noxious gas fills the space occupied. Many times animals are loaded so tightly into the chambers there is barely enough room to stand.
If that is not enough to incite panic in the group, the animals will begin to notice their inability to breathe which causes them to panic. Barking, yelping, and crying will commence within the chamber, sometimes for several minutes while the animals suffocate and die, one by one.
Once the sound inside the chamber has stopped, the gas is shut off and the chamber is opened. Typically all animals having been gassed are dead, smothered to death by gas, in their fit of panic.
How can such a death be deemed as humane and acceptable?
20 states in the U.S. have outlawed and banned the use of gas chambers declaring them barbaric, immoral and inhumane. Unfortunately Missouri is not one of those states. Euthanasia by gas chamber is still in full swing and doing business in the Show Me State.
One such facility currently using a gas chamber to rid itself of its animal population is Malden Humane Shelter, otherwise known as Malden City Pound.
The pound takes in pets from the city of Malden as well as several surrounding communities and counties. Animals are given an estimated 5-7 days on stray hold before they are escorted into the chamber to be put to death.
Some reports indicate that many animals at this location do not actually survive that long.
And what’s worse is that from the time the pound takes possession of the animals until their adoption or end, the facility puts forth no apparent effort to find the animals owners or present the dogs to the public for adoption. They are simply there and waiting to die.
And why would any animal shelter prefer gas chamber euthanasia over lethal injection?
The answer is simple. Money.
Lethal injection can cost anywhere from $5.00 to $12.00 per animal, depen ding on its size and weight. To gas an animal to death the cost is mere pennies. That’s a substantial difference when you consider a facility the size of Malden Humane Shelter will easily destroy a couple of thousand animals per year. You do the math.
Beyond saving money on the euthanasia carried out on animals that come into the shelter, the Malden Humane Shelter gas chamber is also a m oney making machine. Communities like Kennett, Holcomb, Clarkton, Gideon, Dexter, Parma, Risco, and others pay a $15.00 fee per animal to Malden Humane Shelter for euthanasia (gassing) services. That’s an estimated $12,000 in euthanasia revenue for 2010 alone.
To euthanize animals in such a primitive, inhumane way is bad enough but to draw revenue from such a service should tug at anyone’s morality.
Once Malden’s best kept dirty little secret, the proverbial cat is now out of the bag. Several of Malden’s citizens have taken notice and are kicking up quite a fuss. The city has been confronted with no acceptable outcome. Their position is that the gas chamber is a perfectly acceptable form of euthanasia simply because it is legal to use in the state of Missouri. It’s obvious that they will take the cheaper route as long as the law allows.
Letters have been written to local newspapers, statements posted in online social networking sites, letters written to newspapers, senators and representatives, and a petition has even been started through change.org. The petition currently contains over 1000 signatures.
Citizens in Malden have set out to form the Dunklin County Humane board, manned by volunteers throughout the community, to insure humane treatment of animals at the Malden Humane Shelter.
If you would like your voice to be heard on this matter, the City of Malden will be having their City Council meeting on Monday, November 21, at 7:00 p.m. It is open to the public with no restrictions due to residency.
Even if you do not speak up you are encouraged to attend the council meeting to support those who intend to have their voices heard.
If you would like to see gas chambers outlawed in the state of Missouri, speak out!
Call or write to your Missouri State Senate and House of Representatives, and tell them t hat you will not accept or tolerate such barbaric treatment of animals in your state. Take action that will help promote change.
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Article originally published on Examiner.com Nov. 18, 2011.
Author copyright © Gila Todd
