COLUMBIANA COUNTY Commissioners near decision on gassings at the dog pound

Commissioners said they don't like for dogs to be killed, but they consider gassing humane.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- After nearly a month of weighing whether to continue gassing stray and unwanted dogs at the Columbiana County pound, commissioners say they're nearing a decision on the controversial matter.
To help them choose, commissioners have spent the last month gathering information and witnessing for themselves the grim chore of killing dogs by both gassing and lethal injections.
Columbiana County, like many counties statewide, uses a gas chamber, a method that some animal lovers have insisted is inhumane, though it is legal. Many believe that lethal injection, also used by many pounds, including Mahoning County's, is more merciful.
Reviewed method
Commissioners opted to review the gassing method after a Vindicator story early last month depicted a gassing at the county pound. The story sparked protest letters and calls to commissioners and dog Warden Barb Derringer.
The elected officials traveled to Angels for Animals, a Mahoning County-based animal welfare agency, to observe lethal injection.
More recently, they watched a gassing at the Columbiana County pound.
"It was quicker and more humane than what I anticipated," Commissioner Sean Logan said.
Last month, Logan proposed that the county convert to lethal injection, which he believed was more humane than gassing.
Changed his mind
But after studying the issue, Logan said he changed his mind.
"I'm leaning toward staying with what we have," he said.
Logan said he was impressed with the professionalism and compassion with which county pound employees handle the gassings, which are done once a week.
"My comfort level is higher with what we're doing than what it was initially," Logan said.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel originally said lethal injection might be more humane and that the county probably would eventually switch to it.
But, like Logan, further research has Hoppel reconsidering.
Keeping in mind that unwanted and stray dogs must be destroyed somehow, Hoppel said, gassing is a humane choice.
"It's a quick process," Commissioner Gary Williams said of the gassing, which he watched with his fellow commissioners.
"It seemed humane to me. I didn't observe any undue stress, any more than what I saw with lethal injection," he added.
Sometimes dogs panic
Dogs that are gassed sometimes go through several seconds of panic when pure carbon monoxide is pumped into the stainless steel chamber, dog Warden Barb Derringer has said.
The pound handles only dogs.