West Valley City installed a new gas chamber this month to kill unwanted pets, reigniting the debate over how Utah shelters should euthanize dogs and cats.

Many tax-funded shelters place animals in chambers that fill with carbon monoxide gas, while in Salt Lake County, the public shelter follows Humane Society suggestions to the letter, killing them only through injections of sodium pentobarbital.

The Deseret News obtained special permission to observe both methods in an effort to shed light on the debate. The newspaper agreed not to identify shelter employees involved in the euthanasia and not to take photographs.

by Jamie Belnap

Dec 01, 2009

Practice of donating animals for research has been suspended for nearly a year

Despite recent media coverage naming the Tooele City Animal Shelter as a government-run facility that donates animals slated for euthanasia to the University of Utah for animal research projects, local officials say it’s a practice they haven’t participated in for almost a year.

“I was contacted by the U of U sometime in January of this year about the program,” said Debra Bush, director of the Tooele City Animal Shelter. “They told me that there would be testing and that they had a volunteer program to find the animals homes after the testing.”

Realizing the animals may have a better chance at survival if donated to the university, she immediately called the program to ensure that the claims of adopting out the animals after testing was completed were legitimate.