Local leaders to plan how to fight animal overpopulation

In Ohio, few counties still gas their companion animals. What mark of distinction will it be if we are the last county using a gas chamber when it's universally acknowledged as inhumane?

The buck stops not with the warden, but with our commissioners who appear, so far, to lack the dynamism to take the long view regarding animal welfare in our county. Ignorance is not a fault or lack of virtue or will. It just means you don't know yet.

But is it not the responsibility of leaders to make ethically, legally, financially and politically sound changes when they are made aware?

Since gassing is only one end result of a larger problem, I urge Mark Sullivan and all contenders for the commissioner's seat next spring and future elections to consider that giving campaign time to the serious countywide problem of dog and cat overpopulation would be to their advantage.

This is a personal problem for many compassionate people in the rural part of the county. As one Athens NEWS letter writer, Sarah, expressed it a few years ago, "The country is full." I volunteer for a spay/neuter clinic, and frequently someone will come in and say, "Help me – I am overrun with cats…. Someone dropped off a pregnant cat (she wasn't mine so I didn't fix her)..." (One cat, with litters unfixed: 12 million in 10 years, many blind and crippled but still breeding.)

Add to this the mounting costs of the pound. Add to that the moral cost of doing nothing.

What is the solution to this? In my opinion, better legislation, accountability and transparency at the governmental level, with imagination and compassion on the personal level. There is no need to re-invent the wheel. County commissioners and concerned citizens, together, could look at what other communities do right and what good thinkers recommend. (This is what I call the "government of the people by the people" model.)

For instance, 25 years ago I was fined $100 for adopting a dog from the city pound and not getting him neutered within 30 days as stipulated in my contract. A deputy sheriff, marvelously scary and stern, came to my door to enforce the law. I also lost $45 of my adoption fee that would have paid $45 of the surgery. I then had to pay $100 to get my dog neutered or face another, heftier fine. I was a single student mother, no longer ignorant and for the bargain price of $250! I'm still grateful.

Dogs aren't commodities or home or ego accessories. Consider that 25 percent of dogs in pounds are pure breeds. If you breed for profit or shop at Petland or an auction, you participate. Greed trumps morality; isn't that the American way? Even many Amish in our region are availing themselves of the new growth industry – puppy mills, a spiritually wicked way to make a living, in my opinion.

We need civic-minded thinkers in Athens to brainstorm a comprehensive plan to address animal overpopulation, to offer education and ideas to the commissioners and campaigners. My ideas: K-12 humane animal education in every county school, a plan to fund a goal of 70 percent spay/neuter countywide and reigning in unscrupulous breeders. We have to help Commissioner Lenny Eliason make his recently reported dream of a no-kill shelter (if it was in the news, it must be true) a reality. Email me with your commitment or ideas.

From this will spring a citizens oversight committee to dismantle the gas chamber (ceremonially, symbolizing the evolution of human morality), implement positive changes at the pound and oversee progress.

By the way, for a dog entering the Athens County pound, all hope is not lost. In Athens, an overworked core of volunteers rescues hundreds upon hundreds of dogs from our pound, vet and transport them weekly on a volunteer relay of hope all over the U.S. and Canada to be adopted. So, when you read an article in which the commissioners and wardens take credit for reducing the kill rate to justify their continued use of the gas chamber, know that they didn't give credit where credit was due.

But consider: a 2-year-old named Spike, cute, healthy, loving and loveable, was gassed recently because the rescue group didn't get to the pound quickly enough that morning — death must be on schedule. Or consider the litters of pit bull puppies… born in the wrong county and state ("Welcome to Ohio where you can keep 50 tigers in your backyard but pit bulls must die"). In the pound log, every subjectively labeled "pit mix" are D – destroyed – and listed as MEAN. No ages or names need be listed. This is our county – is this what we want?

Recently we watched "Hoarders." I hollered out, "That is like our county! We are overrun! They should do a show on counties that hoard cats!" I thought I was so funny. But I was unable to actually laugh.

Lily Reeves lives outside of Athens. Her email address is underhoundrailroad12@yahoo.com