Animal Shelter
Dear Editor: Whenever an event occurs “out of the blue” and without any precedent, and without any available facts, the natural human reaction is to “fill in the void” with conjecture based on the available and pertinent facts that can be gleaned in hindsight. This process has been the foundation for the plot of murder, mayhem, and other mystery stories. In this regard, let us look at the following mystery:
A small rural community, rather isolated by mountains and lack of roads found their local animal shelter was mysteriously closed, and that the animal control officer has been out sick for some time, and all the volunteers who continued to help with care and feeding of the animals in the absence of the ACO were locked out of the shelter building.
Then, it turns out that during this period of time almost a dozen cats and dogs were summarily and inexplicitly “euthanized.” This situation does bear investigation since it is entirely unprecedented in the community with a very long history of caring for and protecting animals in the community and sheltering them until they could be adopted to a good home with euthanasia only as a last resort.
So where to begin the investigation? First, there are two or three veterinarians in town who would have the records of such euthanasia. So, the DVM’s in town should be contacted to see if any of them had been called on to perform euthanasia on all those animals and when and at what cost? Next, if they had not been so involved, the next questions would be to find out who, when, and how were the animals “euthanized,” and by what authority, statute, or precedent.
This mystery can, of course, be solved by our local law enforcement officers led by the Chief of Police, backed by the City Administrator, and by members of the Assembly who are in all instances bound by a moral obligation to act in the best interest of the community, even including those with four legs and fur. And I for one would be very interested in an open and honest report of the results of such an investigation.
Dr. Robert Parker, Sitka
