By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
N.C. Sen. Andrew Brock said he’s always been an animal lover.
People have been dropping off unwanted cats and dogs at his family’s farm in Davie County for years, and Brock and his family have tried to find them homes.
Once, he said, they even offered to have some neighbors’ cat which kept having kittens on their farm spayed, but the neighbors refused the offer, saying they would do it, and the cat ended up having kittens there a third time.
Unfortunately, a rabid raccoon attacked the cat and her kittens that time, killing most of them, and the others had to be euthanized per state law for animals not current on their rabies vaccinations.
Brock said it was his concern about North Carolina’s rabies epidemic that led him to vote against legislation offering spay and neuter services to low-income families because it would pull funds designated for rabies prevention.
“I supported the bill,” he said. “I just didn’t like the funding mechanism.”
Afterward, Brock said, an animal rights group posted photographs of him and Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who is now in prison on dog-fighting charges, side by side on its Web site with a caption reading, “Dog’s Worst Friends.”
Fortunately, Sen. Doug Berger, D-Youngsville, and other colleagues rallied to his defense and explained why Brock voted the way he did. “They never apologized to me,” he said of the group’s members, but they did remove the posting from the Web site.
Brock, a Republican who represents Rowan and Davie in the state Senate, eventually voted for the legislation once the funding source was changed.
The senator received much kinder treatment from almost 20 Rowan Countians who turned out for a Thursday afternoon meeting with him on proposed legislation requiring all counties to euthanize abandoned or unwanted animals by lethal injection. Rowan is among 32 counties which use gas chambers as their primary means of euthanasia.
Beth Bowman, who led the discussion, thanked Brock for agreeing to meet with them and urged him to vote for and even consider being a sponsor of the legislation, which is expected to be introduced when the N.C. General Assembly goes into session later this month.
Brock said he would support the proposed legislation and offered suggestions on how to help get it passed.
Bowman said the group hopes to meet with Rowan’s representatives in the state House, Fred Steen, R-Landis, and Lorene Coates, D-Salisbury, over the next couple of weeks.
Michele King of the N.C. Coalition for Humane Euthanasia distributed a draft of the bill titled, “An Act to Provide for Humane Euthanasia of Animals in Shelters.” As proposed, the bill would require licensed veterinarians or certified euthanasia technicians to administer the lethal doses of sodium pentobarbital or an approved derivative.
The drug would be administered by injection resulting in rapid unconsciousness and immediate death or by oral ingestion of powdered sodium pentobarbital in capsules mixed with food, with the animal remaining separated from other animals until death.
Rowan animal advocates contended that euthanizing animals by gas chamber is inhumane.
Nancy Stanback, who with her husband, Bill, recently donated $100,000 toward the Faithful Friends no-kill animal shelter, said she had seen a poster of pets euthanized in a gas chamber. “It showed a huge pile of dogs,” she said, “probably 20, some with collars, a black Lab, all piled up …”
King said another concern with gas chambers is the danger the carbon monoxide used to euthanize the animals poses to employees.
A letter written by the Animal Law Coalition ó an organization committed to helping communities find humane solutions to animal-related issues ó to the N.C. General Assembly alleges that animal shelter workers “are at risk from carbon monoxide poisoning when they load and unload or clean the gas chamber, breathing in low levels of the gas on a regular basis.”
According to a 1993 American Veterinary Medical Association Report, the letter states, as the concentration of carbon monoxide increases in the body, humans may experience decreased visual acuity, tinnitus, nausea, progressive depression, confusion and collapse along with convulsions and muscular spasms. “Long-term effects may include cancer and cardiovascular diseases,” the letter states.
So it’s not just the fact that animal advocates think there should be a more humane form of euthanasia, Bowman said, “it’s also the fact that the carbon monoxide is not good for humans.”
King and others at the meeting alleged that the Rowan County Animal Shelter was not following the law requiring that dogs and cats under the age of 16 weeks and with respiratory diseases be euthanized by lethal injection.
Tina Hall, who represented the Rowan County Board of Commissioners at the meeting, said she could not imagine the health department was breaking the law and would check with Director Leonard Wood as soon as the meeting was over.
Both Wood and Clai Martin, the department’s Animal Control officer, said there is no such state law. Martin said the shelter follows the guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and sedates kittens and puppies under 16 weeks old so that they are unconscious when placed into the gas chamber.
Wood said the gas chamber is inspected regularly by a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector and that they had not had any problems with it.
If the proposed legislation requiring animals to be euthanized by lethal injection is passed, Martin said, “we’ll do it exactly as they say, and we’ll do it correctly.”
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249.