Anyone who knows me knows how strongly I feel about animal welfare.

While I am delighted to hear Cass County will finally be getting rid of it’s gas chamber by the end of the year, I am appalled that the Dowagiac Daily News chose to tiptoe around the issue with inane euphemisms A “euthanasia machine?” Come. On.

It’s like referring to killing wildlife as “harvesting.” Please. You cannot make it less brutal by using benign terms.

There is nothing humane about shoving dogs into a dark box, flipping a switch and walking away while they cry out in fear and despair. They often react to such undue stress by fighting as they try desperately to get out. Don’t you believe for one second the dogs calmly “fall asleep in seconds.” That’s nothing but balderdash and an effort to excuse taking the easy way out.

“Grice and his staff….continue to support the use of euthanasia machines.” Sure they do. They have never cared about the suffering of the animals. They remain complacent about animal welfare in general. After all, the department is called “Animal Control,” not “Animal Welfare.” He says (in light of public pressure and pending legislation), “There’s no reason for us to be the last ones standing.” At the moment, they are the next-to-the-last one standing. CCAC was offered a substantial amount of money along with personnel training by a non-profit organization in Ingham if they would end the use of the gas chamber earlier this year. They refused.

The trouble is, A.C. would rather kill them than find them good homes. Those of you good citizens who believe A.C. is a beneficent arm of county government that looks out for the best interests of the animals need to wake up and smell the coffee.

There are more and more municipal facilities across the country going “no kill,” but don’t hold your breath that Cass County will ever take this route. They refuse to work with rescues. They refuse to create a foster network. They unfairly punish pet caretakers for the most minor ordinance infraction…if there actually was an infraction at all. And they fail to enforce actual infractions, especially those to do with neglect.

As usual, the Daily News makes animal welfare supporters (mis-labeled animal “rights activists”) sound like the villain and poor CCAC sound like the misunderstood victim. They are actually one of the most hypocritical departments in county government, and most citizens, not wishing to believe otherwise, believe all their propaganda.

For instance, “It’s not family pets we’re doing it (gassing) to,” says Grice. Don’t let him fool you. If you release your animal to CCAC, they can immediately kill that animal.

“It’s the animals we couldn’t handle; the ones who will bite your face off just for looking at them.” I’m not going to try to convince anyone that there are not animals who are difficult to handle. But then how have all the other agencies across the state and country been handling these cases all these years? They obviously can do it, so why can’t CCAC? I’ll let you figure that out.

 

Lois Karasek

Dowagiac