ANDERSON — Two Anderson animal control officers attended euthanasia by injection training in Huntsville, Ala., last week as part of the city shelter’s effort to better deal with unadoptable animals.
“We’ve had animals that were hurt in accidents and we needed to have a person on staff that could take care of the ones that were really bad hurt,” senior humane officer Joe McClain said. “It only made sense to have somebody on board to take care of the ones that are suffering.”
The shelter’s policy is to euthanize sick, hurt or aggressive animals that can’t be returned to the public. Animals that have been in accidents or neglected or those who bite people or other animals or act aggressively when given food are some that are considered unadoptable.
“You never want to leave an unadoptable animal in a cage where you can bring in an adoptable one,” McClain said.
McClain and animal control officer Kris Weaver attended the training, where they learned how to inject animals with the euthanizing agent sodium pentobarbital and keep data on the agent, which is a controlled substance.
Before the two were certified, the shelter had to rely on veterinarians who volunteered their time in euthanizing the animals, a problem in emergency situations.
“Sometimes it can’t wait,” McClain said. “It’s something we didn’t want to do but felt it was the next step to keep trying to make it a little bit better.”
Animal shelters are under strict regulations when euthanizing animals, McClain said.
“There’s a right way and a wrong way, and you want to know the right way to do it that’s the most humane,” he said. “Literally they just fall asleep. You can’t let them suffer.”
The two Anderson officers took the training through American Humane, a national organization that offers training for humane societies and shelters. The two-day workshop covered anesthetics, legend drugs, anatomy, verification of death, worker safety and stress felt by those performing euthanizations, according to americanhumane.org.
McClain and Weaver were taught hands-on how to do three types of injections and use humane restraint methods.
Although euthanization training is performed in state, the only one left the Anderson officers could go to this year was in Huntsville, McClain said. After talking with the Animal Control Commission, Public Safety Board and Mayor Kris Ockomon, it was decided that it was important to get the officers trained as quickly as possible.
It cost the officers $187 each to attend the conference, along with $174.94 in food costs and $276.59 in hotel charges, according to city-provided records. The city did not provide receipts for about 900 miles worth of fuel to get to and from the workshop, but McClain said they spent about half of the $526.50 the city estimated the fuel cost to be.
The city’s mileage rate for workers using their own vehicles for city business is 58.5 cents.
Animal shelter workers also just received training from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on disaster planning for the shelter, a topic that had not been addressed there before, McClain said.
“We’re trying to educate and bring our standards up a little higher,” he said.
Indiana Code requires all animal control agencies and shelters to received a limited permit for the use of sodium pentobarbital to euthanize animals. To receive a permit, the shelter must:
• Apply to the Indiana State Board of Pharmacy
• Pay a set fee annually to the board
• Submit proof that employees who will handle the sodium pentobarbital are sufficiently trained to administer the substance.
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