Thankfully, gassing was banned in Georgia, effective Jan. 1 2011, when Grace’s Law was passed thru the lGA House and Senate and signed into law by Gov. Perdue. The last 11 gassing facilities in the state had to switch to another method. unfortunately, the original bill outlawed heartsticking too, but a Senate committee insisted on reinstating intracardial injection as a legal method of shelter killing. Change only comes in baby steps in ultra-conservative Southern states, where companion animals are still seen by the majority as agricultural products, and people believe spay/neuter is unnatural and “ain’t according to scripture.”
Georgia certainly does need more private, nonprofit shelters and adoption facilities to handle the overflow from the government (county and municipal) pounds. There are many good licensed, nonprofit rescues with foster systems in GA, but still not nearly enough to handle all the unwanted throwaway animals.
According to Georgia Voters for Animal Welfare, some 250,000 dogs and cats were killed in GA shelters in 2009. Research by Beau Grant and members of Southeast Pet Rescue Railroad over that year, suggests the number was closer to 600,000. Georgia’s government pounds aren’t required by the Ag Department to keep or publish euth statistics, making accurate data-gathering difficult (many pounds do keep these stats per their county or city’s requirements, but may not make them public). If you accept the low end of national annual shelter killing stats–4 million pets killed in the U.S. each year–and GVAW’s lower Georgia number, that still means Georgia was responsible for 6.25% of the nation’s total pound killing. And as one of 50 states, GA is 2% of “state total.” So viewed unscientifically, Georgia is killing over 3 time as many animals as it “should be” (of course, we don’t think they should be killing ANY!) I don’t have much data on any states other than GA, since I live here and figured I ought to “think globally, act locally,” but this is pretty shameful. As advocates, we need to “get to preachin'” for change! We need to “convert more believers” to the cause of animal welfare before we can get much done.
Printed with permission from Ellen Graben
Helene Scharf
Charlie to the Rescue! 