OTTAWA -- Stray animals picked up in rural LaSalle County may be destroyed before ever having the chance of being reunited with their owners, a county official studying the issue said Wednesday.
The County Board’s animal control committee heard a complaint this week from Animal Control Officer Gary Wind of Streator about having to euthanize some animals immediately because they have no place to go. The committee discussed the matter but took no action.The county has no animal pound, so it relies on a single veterinarian’s office that is willing to accept a stray at the county fee of $75. The county payment covers keeping the animal for three days and then euthanizing it. If that facility, Novak-Brainard Veterinary Clinic, Ottawa, is full, a stray is euthanized as soon as it is picked up.Al Piecha of Oglesby, a member of the committee, said he regrets that has to be done “but if there’s no place to take them, what are you going to do?”
State law does not allow an animal to be destroyed unless there is no other option, Piecha said. Piecha said publicity about how strays sometimes are handled may bring protests from animal activists, but the county has little choice and cannot afford a facility for maintaining strays.
“That’s just signs of the economy,” he said.
“If you can’t afford to feed an animal, you get rid of it.” Wind told the committee he tried to save a beautiful dog recently but gave up after trying to contact 15 shelters.
At that point, “they get the needle,” said Glenn Garretson, a committee member from Streator. He agreed with Piecha that the county is short on ways to handle strays but said the committee will check with the legal department about the county’s policy of bypassing the three-day holding requirement. Garretson said
he hoped the county would consider building its own pound, “but that’s going to cost money we don’t have.”
Pantagraph.com by Greg Stanmar
This is no Amore solution, only bad Karma!
2 comments:
How sad! Think if they would start going out and kill homeless people?
They smell, dirty and eat garbage.
Yes, bad karma!
Good job you are doing together with your team.
Zandra in Hamburg
If they can afford the equipment and meds to euthanize them, why can't they afford to look for another option?
Jenn
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