City animal shelter dumps carcasses at landfill while incinerator is broken
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HOW OTHERS DISCARD ANIMAL CARCASSES
Comal County (population, 108,472): County delivers the carcasses to a landfill, said Gene Szakacsy, superintendent of the county's road department.
Kaufman, Kaufman County (population, 103,350): A contractor picks carcasses up from trash bin, said Joel Norris, animal control officer.
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HOW OTHERS DISCARD ANIMAL CARCASSES
Comal County (population, 108,472): County delivers the carcasses to a landfill, said Gene Szakacsy, superintendent of the county's road department.
Kaufman, Kaufman County (population, 103,350): A contractor picks carcasses up from trash bin, said Joel Norris, animal control officer.
Angelina County (population, 86,771): Smaller animals taken to city of Lufkin's incinerator and livestock taken to a dump, said Melanie Wade, animal control officer.
Greenville, in Hunt County (population, 86,129): City uses an incinerator, according to John Jones, animal control officer.
Orange, in Orange County (population, 81,837): A contractor picks carcasses up from a trash bin, said Jerry Ziller, deputy fire chief.
Bowie, Montague County (population, 19,719): Pet cemetery picks up carcasses and buries them in mass grave, said Willy Conway, animal warden.
NOTE: Population numbers are from the counties and 2010 census data.
With its incinerator broken, animal control had to find another way to dispose of euthtanized animals.
Since the incinerator broke in August, the Victoria City/ County Animal Control Shelter workers have taken the carcasses to the landfill near Bloomington for disposal.
The shelter cremated about 100 animal carcasses, usually cats and dogs, each week, said Dr. Bain Cate, city-county health department director.
However, the shelter's incinerator broke on Aug. 16 and won't be fixed for another four to eight weeks, wrote Cate in an email.
Cremation is the best way to discard of animal carcasses, said Inga Fricke, director of sheltering and pet-care issues for the Humane Society of the United States. Yet she noted that process could get expensive.
Sending the carcasses to a landfill is another option, Fricke said, but the shelters must make sure to handle them with respect.
"We certainly wouldn't advocate throwing animals out like garbage," Fricke said.
When dumping carcasses, animal shelters need to ensure that other, live animals that feed on carcasses don't get sick from the euthanization chemicals used, Fricke said. She recommended the animals be bagged or boxed, then covered with dirt.
Republic Waste Services, which contracts with the city to manage the landfill, follows the recommendations set forth by Fricke.
The city-county animal shelter trucks the carcasses to the landfill and dumps them into an area where other trash is being dumped, said Dennis Delesandri, landfill manager. The carcasses are then mixed with the other waste and covered with soil.
Smaller animal carcasses are boxed or bag, Delesandri said. However, larger ones, like a horse, are not.
Dumping animals in a landfill is common in Texas, Cate wrote. A look at similar-sized counties and their cities correspond with that assessment.
The city of Orange's animal shelter freezes the carcasses and puts them in a trash bin for a contractor to pick up, said Jerry Ziller, the city's deputy fire chief.
The city of Kaufman does the same thing, and Comal County delivers its carcasses to a local dump.
Angelina County takes its small animal carcasses to an incinerator at one of its cities, said Melanie Wade, the county's animal control officer. Livestock carcasses are taken to a dump.
Bowie, in Montague County, takes its animal carcasses to a pet cemetery where they are buried in a mass grave, said Willy Conway, the city's animal warden.
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Why not mix the remains of the incenerated animals with the output of the city compost pile and sell it as a plant food. Remember to spay and nuter your animals so this problem of killing helpless animals will one day go away. Also it is actually the people of Victoria that are responsible for the killings. Because they can not control their animals.
October 6, 2011 at 7:07 a.m.To the city dwellers in the area.........Stop dropping off your unwanted animals in country. We don't want them either!!! They will starve to death, get eaten by a wild animal or get run over by a vehicle. Their chances are better at the city pound. We in the country will reciprocate the action.
Southtexas- They gas the animals because using the needle would prove to be too expensive.
southtexas must have read a different article than the one above which mentions how other cities landfill their euthanized animals. I do have a bone to pick with Mr. Cuaran and VicAd about this story. When dead animals are cremated they do not evaporate into the atmosphere. Cremated animals leave substantial amounts of ash. This ash has to be disposed of. It would have been nice to find out how Victoria City/ County Animal Control Shelter disposes of the ash when their incinerator is working. My best guess? The ash is taken to the landfill.
October 6, 2011 at 6:34 a.m.It's not bad enough that we gas our animals in the shelter instead of humanly using drugs to euthanize them....and now we are dumping the bodies in with the garbage??? And blondie42 It IS a big deal....a very big deal. It is wrong. Bain Cate is inhuman and the procedures at the local animal shelter are cruel and out of line with the standard practice in other cities. Dr. Cate and Victoria should hang their heads in shame.
October 5, 2011 at 10:43 p.m.This is nothing new. Before they bought the incinerator, the carcasses were always taken to the dump. Not a big deal at all...
October 5, 2011 at 9:18 p.m.