Puppy Survives Euthanasia Attempt, Trip To Dump By Mike Gunning When Jeff and Susan Armsworthy of Mocksville took their trash to the dump Saturday, they never expected to find a treasure in the dumpster. But that’s exactly what they did. “I had backed my truck up, and was just finishing throwing the trash into the dumpster when we heard this noise,” Armsworthy said. “I thought it was a toy at first.” Armsworthy said he looked into the deep dumpster, and saw a load of black garbage bags under the trash he had just deposited. He said a few seconds later, he heard the sound again. “I thought the second time it was a puppy,” Armsworthy said. “I thought, ‘Lord, who could do something like that?’” Armsworthy said he jumped into the dumpster with his wife and a county employee and started digging through the trash searching for the source of the noise. Near the bottom of the dumpster they came across two large plastic bags . Thinking he had found the source, Armsworthy tore one open, only to have the carcass of a deceased female Rottweiler mix fall out. He almost stopped his search until they heard the noise again. “I tore open the second bag, and there they were. Three dead puppies, and one still wiggling,” Armsworthy said. “It was all matted and nasty, but it was alive.”Susan, who works at the Village Way Veterinary Hospital in Hillsdale, brought the animal to her job to be checked out by Dr. Beth Eubanks. With the exception of worms commonly found in puppies, Eubanks gave the puppy a clean bill of health. The puppy found its way into the dump by way of the Davie County Animal Shelter. Animal Control Officer Robert Cook said he was heart broken about the incident. The puppies, which were abandoned at the shelter the week before, were scheduled for euthanasia that morning. Apparently, one of the puppies, while knocked unconscious by the gas, didn’t inhale enough to be fatal. It appears to have become conscious while in the dumpster ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028. This is an on-line publication of The Davie County Enterprise-Record 171 So. Main St. P.O. Box 99 Mocksville, NC 27028
This is why it is AGAINST THE LAW to gas puppies, kittens, injured, pregnant, and elderly animals. They do not breathe in the gas as quickly. They take longer to die, and can wake up in the plastic bags at the landfill, or in the FREEZER at the shelter. Is this HUMANE? There is a nearby county shelter which does not use plastic bags, and animals have been witnessed waking up at the dump. I read an article about "Quincy the Miracle Dog" who survived the gas chamber another state. His publicity helped in passing the law to ban gas chambers there.
Actually, the name was Quentin. Here is his picture and his story... Cast into a city gas chamber to be euthanized with other unwanted or unclaimed dogs, it appeared the roughly year-old Basenji mix had simply run out of luck - and time. But this canine had other ideas. When the death chamber's door swung open Monday, the dog now dubbed Quentin - for California's forbidding San Quentin State Prison - stood very much alive, his tail and tongue wagging. Animal-control supervisor Rosemary Ficken had never seen such a survivor, and she didn't have the nerve to slam the door shut again. This 30-pound animal, she believed, beat the odds and should live on. "She told me, 'Please, take him. I don't have the heart to put him back in there and re-gas him,'" said Randy Grim, founder and head of Stray Rescue of St Louis, the charitable shelter that took in the dog before taking the animal's story public. Quentin's ordeal was played and replayed Wednesday on local TV stations, drawing people looking to adopt him. "To me, it's a miracle or divine intervention," Grim said. "I can't help but think he's here to serve a higher purpose. This case blew me away. This is amazing." On Wednesday, Quentin was a little malnourished but "in very good condition," Grim said. He was being checked for heartworm and other maladies by a veterinarian. "You can tell he's really digging it," Grim said. "He has a bed, love, food and water." Source: www.sacbee.com Thursday 7 August 2003 Associated Press photo credit Teak Phillips St Louis Post-Dispatch
Here is a link to some pics of this CUTE little puppy. http://www.petstv.com/misc/Puppy Survives Gas Chamber.pdf
For anyone who is interested in the gas chamber situation in North Carolina, here is a list of counties and their methods of euthanasia. The second list includes many rural counties that have much less money in their budget for animal control. If they can provide humane euthanasia, then why can't Johnston County? This county spends $336,000 per year on animal control. Only $91,000 actually goes to operating the shelter. The rest is SALARIES! N.C. County Shelters Using Gas Chambers for Euthanasia: Alamance (Burlington) Beaufort (Washington) Bladen (Elizabethtown) Catawba (Newton) Chatham (Pittsboro) Chowan/Gates/Perquimans (combined) Edenton Cleveland (Shelby) Columbus (Whiteville) Craven (New Bern) Davidson (Lexington) Davie (Mocksville) Franklin (Louisburg) Gaston (Gastonia) Granville (Oxford) Henderson (Hendersonville) Iredell (Statesville) Johnston (Smithfield) Lee (Sanford) Lincoln (Lincolnton) Martin (Williamston) Mitchell (Bakersville) Montgomery (Troy) Nash (Nashville) Person (Roxboro) Randolph (Asheboro) Rockingham (Reidsville) Sampson (Clinton) Stanley (Albemarle) Stokes (Danbury) Surry (Dobson) Union (Monroe) Washington (Plymouth) Watauga (Boone) Wayne (Goldsboro) Wilkes (Wilkesboro) Yadkin (Yadkinville) N.C. Counties Using Lethal Injection: Alleghany (Sparta) Avery (Newland) Brunswick (Bolivia) Buncombe (Asheville) Burke (Morganton) Camden (Camden) Carteret (Beaufort) Caswell (Yanceyville) Cherokee/Clay/Graham/Swain (combined) Cumberland (Fayetteville) Dare (Manteo) Duplin (Kenansville) Edgecombe (Tarboro) Forsyth (Winston-Salem) Greene (Snow Hill) Guilford (Greensboro) Halifax (Halifax) Harnett (Lillington) Haywood (Waynesville) Hoke (Raeford) Jackson (Sylva) Lenoir (Kinston) Macon (Franklin) Mecklenburg (Charlotte) Moore (Carthage) New Hanover (Wilmington) Orange (Hillsborough) Pender (Burgaw) Pitt (Greenville) Richmond (Rockingham) Robeson (Lumberton) Scotland (Laurinburg) Wake (GAS aggressive animals- large number) Raleigh Warren (Warrenton) Yancey (Burnsville)
What exactly does that mean? They use gas for large numbers of aggressive animals? - OR - If there is a large number of animals to be euthanized, they use gas AND they gas all aggressive animals??? :?
Actually more of the poorer counties are in the first list as using gas. And I'm actually shocked by this. According to all that has been posted in these forums, I thought that Johnston Co was one of the very very few that was still gassing. I see now that they are basically in the majority.
Looks like someone can't count. Both lists have exactly 38 counties. The list is not quite complete. A few counties have not responded yet. There are a few counties that do not have shelters. But guess what? They don't have gas chambers either! And Tangerine, how exactly do you figure that there are more poor counties that gas? That is not what I see at all. Please tell us how you came to this conclusion. I figure at our current property tax rate, the owner of one of these new $500,000 homes will pay about $6000 per year in property tax. This county is certainly not POOR by any means!
By the way, it is the NATIONWIDE figure that puts us in the 1 or 2 percent of shelters that still gas. Statewide, this change is being considered by many. And in Virginia too. There are only about 20 shelters in VA that still gas. Many people are working for change.
I work with most of these counties. I see numbers too. Granted there are poor counties in both the list. Beaufort, Davidson, Columbus, Sampson, and Washington are all poor counties and they still gas, so saying that if the poor counties can do away with gas why can't Johnston just doesn't fly. and just exactly how did you come to your conclusion??
The first list is just as large as the second, and notice Wake has a reference to gas as well. The reasons are probably varied and revolve around when and how the operations were established. Given there are probably quite a few of the counties with no shelter at all this seems to be a fast and loose use of figures. How many are employed in the animal control department? My payroll for 6 people exceeds that of the animal control office and that does not include the benefits that would also have to be paid by the county. You are aware of the additional cost of an employee above and beyond that actually paid in salary, correct?
What are the costs to provide the infrastucture to those new $500,000 homes? You do know that water, sewage, police, fire, schools, road maintainance and even the operation of Animal Control will increase with these new houses and the initial costs are very very expensive.
Sorry for the re-run, but there are many poor counties included on this list. They all found a way to provide humane treatment of their shelter animals. Why can't Johnston county do the same? N.C. Counties Using Lethal Injection: Alleghany (Sparta) Avery (Newland) Brunswick (Bolivia) Buncombe (Asheville) Burke (Morganton) Camden (Camden) Carteret (Beaufort) Caswell (Yanceyville) Cherokee/Clay/Graham/Swain (combined) Cumberland (Fayetteville) Dare (Manteo) Duplin (Kenansville) Edgecombe (Tarboro) Forsyth (Winston-Salem) Greene (Snow Hill) Guilford (Greensboro) Halifax (Halifax) Harnett (Lillington) Haywood (Waynesville) Hoke (Raeford) Jackson (Sylva) Lenoir (Kinston) Macon (Franklin) Mecklenburg (Charlotte) Moore (Carthage) New Hanover (Wilmington) Orange (Hillsborough) Pender (Burgaw) Pitt (Greenville) Richmond (Rockingham) Robeson (Lumberton) Scotland (Laurinburg) Transylvania (Brevard) Wake (GAS aggressive animals- large number) Raleigh Warren (Warrenton) Yancey (Burnsville)
It appears from the data provided there are more shelters who use gas than do not in North Carolina. This assumes Wake uses both from the reference. The county aspect is not applicable since there are several counties who do not even have a shelter or who have combined their effeorts with one or more other county. The only real way to determine would be by the number of shelters and the budgets for those shelters. The basic cost figures for both methods would be different due to the variables but it would geve a better comparison than what has been presented as a "county? comparison.
