Harris County euthanasia missteps rile animal activists

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Animal rights activists called for the firing of the Harris County Veterinary Public Health director at Commissioners Court Tuesday, citing a recent report from the county attorney that documented violations of state law in the shelter's euthanasia practices.

Prior to last fall, the report states, dogs and cats were put down within view of other animals, in some cases with used needles. Both practices violate state law, according to the report, which says shelter staff referred to the euthanasia process as an "assembly line."

The report says the shelter's procedures have been brought into compliance with state law, but that did not calm "no-kill" activists, who called for Veterinary Public Health Director Dawn Blackmar to be fired and indicted. Some also called for the ouster of Public Health Services Executive Director Dr. Herminia Palacio, Blackmar's supervisor.

"This facility is a slaughterhouse in every sense of the word," said Bett Sundermeyer, president of No Kill Houston. "The people running this house of horrors need to be removed and VPH needs to be overhauled."

Palacio and Blackmar said the euthanasia room only occasionally was visible to animals, adding that staff immediately installed curtains and began a procedural review when the problem surfaced last summer. Shelter staff also were retrained on 2009 changes to state law, including the visibility rule and the requirement not to re-use needles.

"We are certainly sensitive to wanting to make sure that the animals we take in have their best chance at adoption, but that is not our primary mission," Palacio said. "Our primary mission is protecting human health. We simply don't have the luxury of space and staff to be able to keep animals for long periods of time. That is the sad reality of our situation."

Activists' emails

The speakers' comments were particularly distressing, Palacio said, because she has received emails from activists bragging about the firings of shelter directors elsewhere and saying Blackmar would follow.

"The people who have worked with me over the years, they know the kind of work I do, they know how I feel about animals, they know how I feel about protecting our community, and that's what's important," Blackmar said, adding she has only briefly met one of Tuesday's speakers.

The county attorney's report showed the shelter is underfunded when compared to others in Texas that take in a similar number of strays. The shelter, at 15,000 square feet, also is less than half the size of Austin's shelter and less than a third the size of Houston and Dallas facilities.

The shelter's lack of capacity contributes to a kill rate higher than its peers. In 2010, Harris County put down 20,450 animals, or 83 percent of the total number of animals it took in, according to the report; that compares to 75 percent in Dallas, 68 percent in San Antonio, 53 percent in Houston, 50 percent in Fort Worth and 7.5 percent in Austin.

'In a perfect world … '

Blackmar said some of those other shelters have different missions than hers, adding that the data are not uniform and may slightly inflate Harris County's kill rate.

Court members sidestepped calls for heads to roll, noting the shelter has improved its practices.

"There's virtually no place that you can have a completely no-kill policy," County Judge Ed Emmett said. "We just need to make sure it's done humanely and in compliance with the law. The county attorney said they're now in compliance."

Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle, noting that he owns a rescue dog, called on members of animal welfare groups to ease the shelter's burden.

"In a perfect world would I increase the size of our facilities? Absolutely," Cagle said. "Will I do so at the expense of fire protection or children's protective services or at the expense of law enforcement? That's a much more difficult question. I think we've achieved the best balance we can with the scarce resources we have."

mike.morris@chron.com