Classified Sign In
Tooele shelter no longer sends animals to U of U labs
Dec 01, 2009 | 3056 views | 6 
| 36 
| 
| 
| 36 | |
Tooele City Animal Shelter Director Debra Bush stands at the counter with Muggins, the cat that has lived at the shelter for 13 years. The city’s animal shelter has not donated animals for University of Utah animal research projects for almost a year.
- photography / Maegan Burr
- photography / Maegan Burr
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.
“They said ‘Yes, that’s what we do,’ so we went ahead and approved [the donation],” Bush said, adding that 10 dogs and two cats were sent to the university over a period of three months.
Though a little-known Utah law says government-run animal shelters are required to provide animals to authorized institutions upon request, Capt. Steve Newkirk of the Tooele City Police Department, which oversees operations at the shelter, said the shelter was never forced to make the donations.
“They were making a request and we were following that request,” he said. “Our thought was here are these animals, we don’t have room to keep them. They aren’t being adopted out. It’s a win-win situation for us and the animals.”
Bush said she agreed at first and was actually excited about the program because it meant fewer animals that she would have to put down and a potential future for the animals donated.
“I hate putting animals down,” she said.
But following the initial donations between January and March, Bush caught word that some of the animals did not survive the testing and called the university to confirm the rumor. When the university confirmed that some of the animals did not survive, Bush immediately stopped donating animals.
“I suspended the program at that point and we have not participated since,” Bush said.
Roughly 250 animals come through the doors of the small shelter every month, according to Bush. Of those, about 45 are returned to their owners, and between 80 and 100 are adopted.
“Euthanasia is our last option,” Bush said.
Bush said approximately eight to 10 dogs are euthanized per month. While more cats are euthanized — ranging between 60 and 70 per month — about 50 of those are feral cats, which the shelter can’t adopt out.
“As long as we’ve got space we’ll keep animals as long as we can,” Bush said.
Though the shelter could be compelled to donate animals on the euthanasia list in the future, Bush said she doesn’t expect the university to force compliance. In the event that another request is made, however, the decision on whether to donate would ultimately be up to the Tooele City Police chief.
“It wouldn’t be my decision, it would be forwarded on to the chief and I’m sure he would investigate to make sure it would be OK,” Bush said. “I care about the animals very deeply. We are doing what we can to help each one of them. This may be a small town, but [the shelter] is one hopping place. The volunteers here move mountains. I could start weeping because of what they do.”
Dr. Joe Roundy, whose veterinary clinic in Tooele serves as the Tooele County Animal Shelter, said he has never been contacted by the university about donating animals in a similar fashion, but it’s not something he’s completely against.
“Everybody’s got this idea that animal research is cruel and inhumane,” Roundy said. “How do we know that the animals are not just getting a shampoo or getting a drug to help improve liver function. If the drug doesn’t work chances are there won’t be any side effects.”
He said making the decision to donate if asked would come down to the type of testing the animals would be used for.
“If it is something that is going to make an animal suffer, then no,” Roundy said. “These animals are basically on death row. Sometimes testing may mean giving them a better chance. Not all research is cutting something off or putting electrodes into something. Maybe the animals are there for food research. In that case, they are probably being fed really good.”
Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com
Comments will be posted after review. Please allow up to 24 hours for comment approval.
Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post here. Comments do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin. Abusive comments and users are subject to rejection or removal without notification.
We will reject and remove comments that contain any of the following: Potentially libelous statements; personal attacks, insults or threats; profanity or obscene references; copyrighted articles or information used without permission; promotional messages of a commercial nature; links to other Web sites; comments unrelated to the topic of the article.
By posting a comment, you are agreeing to abide by these guidelines. Violation of these guidelines may result in a user being barred from posting on the Web site.
Your logic offends me, I hope you don't own animals. If you do go home look at them in eye's and repeat after me "you are nothing more then a tool for my benefit, your life doesn't matter, I am human and your life is nothing compared to mine."
The facts are that if testing isn't done on animals it will need to be done on humans. Would you feel better if a certain number of human subjects died during testing?