Ohio Representative Chris Redfern is introducing legislation banning the use of gas boxes and guns as methods of euthanasia in Ohio shelters. According to Redfern, a former Ottawa County commissioner who used to be on the board of the Ottawa Humane Society, he had no idea that such barbaric practices were being used in his state.

    Cleveland's Channel 19 WOIO Action News series by Scott Taylor brought this all to light, generating a tremendous response from all over the country. "I'm glad they are not only from across the state, but the nation. Gov. Taft should also be a strong voice in this, and I'm hoping he'll come out and support my legislation," Redfern said.

    The bill will be filed the week of August 5th, 2002. In September, it will be introduced to lawmakers on the House floor. Hopefully by this time next year, it will be against the law to shoot or gas companion animals in Ohio.

    If you want to end the practice of shooting and gassing your pets, you need to contact your state representative and/or state senator and tell them to pass the proposed law.

    Until being exposed in 1997, the Dark County animal shelter was using kill boxes to gas unwanted pets. They also stopped only after being exposed.

    Please be sure to send your thanks to Scott Taylor and WOIO for bringing these stories to light!

Channel 19 WOIO in Cleveland
staylor@WOIO.com - Scott Taylor
jsmith@raycommedia.com - Station Manager
ldillon@raycommedia.com - News Director

Phone #: (216) 771-1943 or (800) 929-0132
Fax #: (216) 515-7152

To put pressure on Adams county to end their inhumane practices, please contact:
(Information regarding Sandusky and Richland counties is not yet available.)

Adams County Courthouse
110 West Main Street
West Union , OH 45693-1395

County Commissioners:
Bill Seaman - President
John Cluxton
Roger Rhonemus
Phone: (937) 544-3286
Fax: (937) 544-5992

Senator Doug White
Senate Building
Room #220, Second Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Phone: (614) 466-8082
FAX: (614) 466-7018

Representative Dennis Stapleton
77 South High Street
13th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6111
Telephone: (614) 466-3506
Fax: (614) 644-9494

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Akron keeps cats down but gets people riled up.
06/22/03
Michael Sangiacomo
Plain Dealer Reporter
One year ago, City Council passed a controversial law to allow trapping and killing of any unleashed cat off its owner's property.

The result: 1,685 cats caught and 1,279 killed through April 30. The numbers are a point of pride or a source of shame, depending on who's talking.

The Summit County Animal Shelter staff, which handles the trapped animals, said the 1,279 cats killed were either sick or too wild to be domesticated. Four hundred and six were adopted.

The program is a success, said John Hoffman, Akron's director of customer service.

Hoffman said he gets a lot of hate mail from "a small, vocal minority," but believes the "silent majority" of Akron residents favor the effort to control the cat population.

Akron residents willing to post a refundable $25 deposit can ask the city to place a cat trap on their property. When a cat is trapped, the city takes the trapped animal to the shelter. Residents can also buy their own traps, catch the animals and turn them over to the shelter.

"We have 50 traps available to catch the cats," said Hoffman, who noted that all were in constant use. "We are getting so many that we have slowed down the capture process ourselves because there is nowhere to house them."

Deanne Christman-Resch, of the volunteer group Citizens for Humane Animal Practices, is one of the strongest voices of opposition. The group has sued the city to end the program.

A trial is scheduled for September. She views the city's response to complaints about feral cats as a "simplistic and emotional" reaction that will make things worse.

"Scientific studies have shown that trapping feral cats does nothing to solve the problem," she said. "Other cats will simply move in to fill the vacuum left by the missing cat."

A pair of cats and their offspring can produce 50 cats in 18 months and a staggering 300,000 in seven years, humane society sources said.

"That's why removing one or two cats from a colony is a waste of time, besides being cruel," Christman-Resch said.

One alternative she suggested is a trap-neuter-release program like those in many cities, including Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo. Under the program, feral cats are trapped, spayed or neutered, and then returned to the colony.

The colonies grow smaller as older cats die and kittens are prevented, proponents say.

Susan Ross, of the Animal Protective League in Cleveland, said the league's program has handled about 1,000 cats in target areas in Cleveland, Parma Heights and Oakwood.

"It's too early to see a drop-off in population, but that will be obvious in a few years," she said. "Meanwhile, the colonies are being managed."

Hoffman says he doubts the effectiveness of the trap-neuter-release program and has seen no scientific evidence that it works. Christman-Resch said her group gave the city a great deal of scientific evidence, which was either not read or ignored.

"Feral cats lead short, miserable lives," Hoffman said. "We considered [trap-neuter-release] but it does not deal with the specific complaint of the citizens. All this starts with someone complaining that a cat is using a flower bed as a litter box, or getting after garbage, or making noise in the night. [A trap-neuter-release program] does not solve that problem; the cats are still there. If we remove the cat, we remove the problem."

One Akron woman, who requested anonymity, asked the city to trap a cat that had been urinating in her flower garden.

"It stunk, and I was tired of it," she said. "The last straw came when it wet on my newspaper. I had the trap for two or three weeks [in January] and we caught the cat."

Glen James, executive director of the Summit County Animal Shelter, said that of all the 1,685 cats trapped since last June, only one had a collar with identification.

"It's very possible that people who trap the cats remove the collars to prevent the cats from being returned," he said. "Perhaps they don't want the cats to go back to their owners. Anyone who does that should know that it is a crime."

James said trapped cats are observed long enough for shelter workers to determine if they are feral. The cat is left alone in a cage for a time to allow it to calm down from the trauma of being trapped.

A cat is killed if it is deemed feral, looks sick or has a lot of fleas. If the cat is friendly and healthy, it will be held three days to give the owner a chance to claim it. The cat is then put up for adoption for two days. If it is not adopted, it's euthanized.

A cat could be kept longer if space permits.

The shelter has no veterinarian on staff to diagnose or treat sick animals. Unlike many shelters, the Summit County shelter does not require animals to be spayed or neutered for adoption. "It's up to you," a shelter employee said.

James said employees are to encourage spaying or neutering and hand out discount coupons.

Dan Knapp, executive director of the Capital Area Humane Society in Columbus, handles the city's cat program. He said Akron's methods were doomed to failure.

"I was surprised to hear what Akron was doing," he said. "They are welcome to see our program. We spay and release strays but also put many of them up for adoption.

"Frankly, if I would be a taxpayer in Akron, I would be concerned," Knapp continued. "Trapping and euthanizing is cruel and wasteful. They are using tax money to worsen a problem they are trying to solve."

Hoffman said he was not bothered by thousands of letters and e-mails from around the world by people angry at the city's feral cat solution. Recently, the city closed the part of its Web site that allowed people to leave messages because so many were angry diatribes.

One was from Dorit Girash of Windsor, Ontario, who canceled a planned trip to Akron last August to protest the ordinance.

"I would have spent thousands of tourist dollars on that trip," she said. "But I will never set foot in that barbaric city."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

msangiacomo@plaind.com, 216-999-4890

© 2003 The Plain Dealer

ORIGINAL STORY: AKRON CAT SLAUGHTER
SOURCE: The Associated Press, 7/26/02
A lawsuit filed on behalf of cat owners asks Summit County Common Pleas Judge James Williams to block an Akron ordinance restricting cats. The suit filed Thursday also seeks damages for a woman whose cat was allegedly captured and destroyed. The suit claims the city's new cat law is unconstitutionally overbroad and vague, and deprives cat owners due
process of law. But Akron Law Director Max Rothal said he thinks the city will prevail. The Akron City Council passed a law last month that includes fines against cat owners who fail to clean up after their cat
and gives the city animal wardens the authority to capture roaming cats.

Since June 25, 2002, 243 cats and kittens have been killed.

"I'll sleep fine," was councilman Mike Williams's response to the fact that a new ordinance pushed through Akron City Council will kill 10,000 to 20,000 cats each year. In what animal advocates have called a secretive fashion, the ordinance was passed on 3/25/02, and since that date, council has ignored all attempts from local animal welfare organizations to intervene on behalf of the cats.

C.H.A.P. (Citizens for Humane Animal Practice) has presented strong evidence against this method of dealing with feral cat poplulations, and has offered their assistance in setting up and administering a trap/neuter/release program. They have provided well documented information regarding the economic benefits of trap/neuter/release. It's all fallen on deaf ears. So far, 118 cats and kittens have been killed in the city. Many have not been kept for the five day waiting period before being killed.

And they're being killed with the "Heart Stick" method. A lethal injection of barbituates is injected directly into the cat's heart. This practice is exactly as cruel as it sounds.

Linda Bean's (Summit County Coordinator for the Ohio Humane Education Association) account of Council's reaction to suggestions for humane alternatives states that Council members, "who were well aware they were being taped, [were heard] having loud and hearty laughs at the prospect of large numbers of cats dying as a result of their new ordinance. This meeting was dotted with cruel and adolescent comments including one member who meowed several times in succession, another joked about "sleeping fine" if 10,000-20,000 cats were killed due to this law and yet another drew merry laughter at the prospect of actually walking a cat on a leash which this law does indeed require. These are the people Akron citizens elected to represent them, to behave in a responsible manner, and take seriously the duties and obligations of their offices." A transcript of a tape recording of a meeting held in February concerning the cat ordinance can be read at the CHAP website.

Ironically, in the July 13 Akron Beacon Journal, there is an article recounting major efforts being made to save a 150 year old White Ash tree located in West Akron. Mayor Don Plusquellic took time out from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, in Barcelona, Spain, to make a statement defending the tree. The June 25th Journal features a story about "pranksters" strapping an M-80 type explosive to a cat and then blowing him up. Police are investigating.

Regarding the tree, Mike Williamson said ``This is our community, and we want to listen to what people tell us.''

These are email address for city and state officials as provided by C.H.A.P. Please write these officials to speak out against Akron's feral cat ordinance:

CityCouncil@ci.akron.oh.us,
Atlarge1@ci.akron.oh.us,
Atlarge2@ci.akron.oh.us,
Atlarge3@ci.akron.oh.us,
Ward1@ci.akron.oh.us,
Ward10@ci.akron.oh.us,
Ward2@ci.akron.oh.us,
Ward3@ci.akron.oh.us,
Ward4@ci.akron.oh.us,
Ward5@ci.akron.oh.us,
Ward6@ci.akron.oh.us,
Ward7@ci.akron.oh.us,
Ward8@ci.akron.oh.us,
Ward9@ci.akron.oh.us,
mayor@ci.akron.oh.us,
Governor.Taft@das.state.oh.us,
watsoca@ci.akron.oh.us,
kiddejo@ci.akron.oh.us,
customerservice@ci.akron.oh.us

This is the email sent by snips:
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am glad to see your community pull together on behalf of the tree, but am dumbfounded that this same community is standing by while animal control officers slaughter your feral cats. How can you justify these conflicting values? I am ashamed of this state's record with animal welfare issues in general, but I never thought that Akron would rank with Morgan, Pike and Mercer counties in their lack of regard for animal life. The fact that public awareness and support of animal welfare issues is becoming a very strong force around the world, I would imagine that Akron would at least be concerned with its own image, if not the welfare of the cats.

How can you wonder why your young people feel that it is their prerogative to commit an act of ferocious cruelty against a cat? (6/25/02, East Lodge Street) The link between animal cruelty and crimes against humans is no secret. Your actions against the cats in your city in effect condone both types of crimes.

Why can't you follow the leads of Cleveland and Columbus? Trap/neuter/release programs are proven to be a solution to feral cat overpopulation. Akron has received offers from humane organizations to work with your officials to solve the problem, yet prefers to kill the cats. I understand that the animals are often not even kept until the five day waiting period is up.

Great humans such as Gandhi, Sweitzer, Lincoln, and Einstein have all been supporters of animal welfare. They tell us that our progress as humans, our "moral greatness," is determined by our treatment of non-human animals. I believe them.

And yes, I do practice what I preach. I am a long time vegetarian, now vegan, and I devote much of my life to advancing animal rights and welfare causes.

Please stop this needless slaughter.
The Spay/Neuter Incentive Project and Sanctuary
Columbus, Ohio
www.snips.8m.com
The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.
~ Charles Darwin (1809-1878)
Our task must be to free ourselves...by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. ~~Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
I care not for a man's religion if his dog and cat are not the better for it. ~~Abraham Lincoln
My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt. ~~Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

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