Utah law allows shelter pets to be shot by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
Animal advocates condemn as inhumane a Utah state law that allows public shelters to shoot animals after the 72-hour mandatory hold period.
Focus has centered recently on Hinckley, Utah where the website for the Animal Advocacy Alliance of Utah (AAAU) charges that “dogs and cats are taken to a fenced-in sewage pond on the outskirts of town, shot, and their bodies left in an open pit.”
The AAAU quotes a local resident whose property neighbors the site as saying that “cats wounded from bullets have crossed through her property, only to die a slow and painful death,” and that the dogs “in the “massive grave had collars on them. They were people's pets."
“We’re still trying to wrap our heads around this,” said Helen Woodward Animal Center (HWAC) spokesman John Van Zante, in Rancho Santa Fe, California. “How does an animal control facility call itself a ‘shelter’ then take such inhumane actions to deal with orphaned pets? The mayor of the community that does this says it’s efficient and cost-effective. But neighbors say the pets are not always dead when they’re thrown in the pit.”
The AAAU further alleges that when the Hinckley shelter runs out of bullets, personnel run over animals with a truck.
