WEST VALLEY CITY — Residents and animal-rescue groups are asking city leaders to step in and correct what they say are regular problems with the carbon monoxide gas chamber at the West Valley City animal shelter.

Janita Coombs, director of the nonprofit Community Animal Welfare Society, said she became concerned about euthanasia practices at the shelter in October, when a black, long-haired cat named Andrea survived two cycles in the gas chamber.

Shelter employees thought the animal was dead following the second procedure, and it was placed in a plastic bag and in the shelter's cooler. About 30 minutes later, an employee entered the refrigerated room, heard meowing and saw movement in the plastic bag.

Andrea had survived — again.

Today, Andrea appears happy and healthy with her new family, fellow felines Jake and Leo and owner Karilyn Brown. Andrea shows no signs of the trauma she went through just three months earlier.

"She's a normal cat, which is amazing after all she's been through," said Brown, who lives in Cottonwood Heights.

City and shelter officials said Andrea is "an anomaly," but Coombs wasn't so sure.

She took Andrea in following the ordeal and spent two months nursing her back to health. Coombs also started looking into euthanasia operations at the shelter.

"I was disappointed to discover the shelter had not been documenting how many times a gas cycle was run or how long it takes to complete the cycle," Coombs told the West Valley City Council earlier this week.

Through a public records request, she was able to obtain emails and a few written notes that indicated problems with the gas chamber or its operation on at least seven occasions prior to the incident involving Andrea.

• Feb. 25, 2010 — A shelter employee sent an email stating that five cats had been placed in the chamber. Three of the five did not die after the first cycle. A lethal injection was used to put down the three cats.
• March 1, 2010 — Employee notes show that the gas chamber was not completing its cycle and that the problem needed to be reported to shelter operations director Kelly Davis.
• July 7, 2011 — A written note by an employee indicated there was a "possible chamber issue," along with the advice: "do not use."
• Aug. 8, 2011 — An email reported to shelter officials that it took two cycles of the gas chamber to euthanize the animals inside.
• Aug. 9, 2011 — According to an email, the first cycle of the gas chamber did not work. It does not say whether a second cycle took place.
• Aug. 10, 2011 — An email indicates the gas chamber did not euthanize animals inside the chamber after one cycle. The process was started a second time, though the email doesn't say whether it was successful.
• Aug. 15, 2011 — An email states an employee ran the gas chamber twice with "zero effect." It does not indicate whether animals were gassed a third time or euthanized by lethal injection.

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Animal shelter under fire for use of gas chamber to euthanize

Nearly 100 people packed the City Council chambers at West Valley City Hall on Tuesday night, many of them there to encourage city leaders to abandon the practice of carbon monoxide euthanasia at shelter.

Shelter officials also confirmed that two large dogs survived one cycle in the gas chamber on Oct. 27 — two weeks after Andrea's ordeal — and had to be gassed a second time.

"It's a concern to us that they're continuing to use a gas chamber that has proven not to be running the way it was intended to run," Coombs said.

Attempts to work with shelter officials for about two months to correct the problem were not successful, Coombs said, so she decided to make public the findings of her Government Records Access and Management Act request.

"We felt it was important that the truth at least be told and everyone was aware that there had been other cats and dogs that had survived that chamber," Coombs said.

Taylorsville Mayor Russ Wall said he's requested the documents obtained through the GRAMA request. The shelter serves both West Valley City and Taylorsville, and if there's a problem with the gas chamber, the mayor said he wants to know.

"We are looking into it," Wall said. "We take these issues and claims seriously and always investigate when our (residents) say there's a problem with any of our services."

But West Valley City officials say there's nothing wrong with the gas chamber. Layne Morris, director of the city's Community Preservation Department, says any problems have occurred because employees were still learning how to use the gas chamber.

"We needed some training, and I think there were some training issues there that have been overcome," he said.

Morris also says animals that have had to undergo more than one cycle in the gas chamber are not being subjected to pain or suffering.

Despite differing views in the shelter and animal rescue communities, he says both methods of euthanasia employed at the shelter — the gas chamber and lethal injection — result in a humane death to the animal.

"I understand that people get emotional about these things," he said, "and there's kind of a knee-jerk response when you say the words 'gas chamber.' But we're not talking about Zyklon B in a gas chamber like the Nazis used in World War II. And I think that's the perception that's out there."

Morris cited studies by the American Veterinarian Medical Association that say carbon monoxide delivered by properly trained personnel in a properly constructed and operated chamber results in a humane death.

"And that's what we strive for every day, whether it's the chamber or whether it's injection," he said.

Allegations that the gas chamber has malfunctioned in recent months has rekindled debate in the community about whether the chamber should be used at all. It's a war of words that has been waged off and on since the shelter opened its doors in 2009.

Kay Brown, a veterinarian for the past 39 years, was among those who expressed their opposition to the chamber's use during a West Valley City Council meeting Tuesday.

"(Carbon monoxide) poisoning in humans may cause convulsions or muscular spasms prior to the loss of consciousness," Brown said. "There's no reason to believe that dogs, cats and other animals commonly euthanized cannot suffer these same symptoms — but worsened by their inability to understand what was happening."

She and others at the meeting said their concerns are backed by several national organizations, including the National Animal Control Association, Association of Shelter Veterinarians and American Humane Association.

"Our goal is that the council will put some pressure on the shelter to become more progressive, to make more innovative changes, to try more new things to reduce their intake and to increase their save rate," Coombs said.

City and shelter officials say they have no plans to discontinue use of the gas chamber. They also said only a small percentage of adoptable animals, meaning they're healthy and ready for a new home, are euthanized.

Since the shelter opened in 2009, the number or adoptable dogs euthanized has ranged between 2 percent and 4 percent, and the number of adoptable cats put down has been consistent at 8 percent.

"We're very proactive in trying to save as many animals as possible, and that's really how we determine whether the animal shelter staff has been successful," Morris said. "We want that number, obviously, as low as possible."

Email:jpage@ksl.com

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