The former volunteer director of the Huntington Cabell County Animal Control Shelter has filed a complaint against its director, James Cumm, regarding a live puppy found in a trash bag. Beverly O'Dell filed the 15 page complaint with the West Virginia Board of Veterinary Medicine in Cross Lanes, Friday, Dec. 7.
"If you would like to file a formal complaint in regard to euthanasia techniques at the shelter (the LIVE BLOODY puppy in the trash bag on November 16, 2012), then you can call 304-776-8032 and they will type up the cover page and can e-mail you the paperwork that is needed. Your official complaint must be notarized," O'Dell wrote in a posting.
Huntington and Cabell County officials have stood behind the director who is a Certified Animal Euthanasia Technician citing shelter improvements, increased adoptions, and a sharp decrease in putting homeless animals to sleep.
HNN has requested a copy of the complaint.
Huntington City Council faces the dauntless decision Monday night to give the shelter $30,000 so it can winterize. Councilman Jim Insco noted that the shelter owes the city approximately $50,000 in back fees. However, Finance Director Deron Runyon assured council members at a Thursday work session that the county manager had guaranteed payment. Runyon indicated that the delinquencies were as a result of previous management.
YesBiscuit! WV Pound Accused of Putting a Live Puppy in the Trash
November 23, 2012
A former volunteer at the Cabell-Wayne pound in WV says pets are being killed improperly and conditions at the pound are deplorable.
Workers picking up trash from the pound recently heard soft crying coming from one of the bags. They opened it up to find one live and one dead puppy. But the county has an explanation:
County Manager Chris Tatum says veterinarians have told him it’s not uncommon for this to happen.
“You have small animals and to detect respiration or heartbeats is nearly impossible with a stethoscope in that small of an animal. It does happen. There are instances where one has been euthanized and not completely dead,” Tatum said.
See, puppies are small. Stethoscopes don’t work on small beings. I guess we should alert hospitals that care for premature babies and such.
Anyhoo since the stethoscopes the kill techs are so dutifully utilizing appear to be failing them, perhaps they could try an alternative method for verifying death. Maybe do what the sanitation workers did – pick up the bag and if any crying sounds emerge, open it up for a look-see. Or better yet, maybe the pound could stop killing healthy/treatable pets and start releasing them to rescues, fosters and adopters instead.
Cumm acknowledged the shelter is still working through operational challenges with electronic record keeping and has suffered a few setbacks that caught the public's attention.
One of those setbacks occurred about two weeks ago when Cumm thought he had euthanized a puppy that had parvo but discovered later in the day that the animal had lived through the procedure. The puppy was found alive in a garbage bag by city sanitation workers picking up trash at the shelter. It was properly euthanized that same day.
"No one likes that it happened," Tatum said. "I've personally talked to local veterinarians about it and they said it's not uncommon."
Tatum added that Cumm is a certified euthanasia technician by the Board of Veterinary Medicine and is one of only two animal control officers who have been certified by the National Animal Control Association. The other certified control officer also works at the shelter, Tatum said.