On March 4, 2011, the bodies of two dogs were pulled out of a landfill in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. The dogs had been shot in the head at close range prior to burial. These dogs were from the Chesterfield County Animal Shelter. They had been taken from the shelter to the landfill and then shot to death by county shelter employees, an illegal and heinous act that was neither necessary nor humane. Investigators suspected that up to fifty animals from this shelter may have been brutally killed and dumped in the same murderous manner.

It has been one year since the tragic shootings of that day, and there has still been no justice for the animals whose lives were wrongfully taken and whose bodies were discarded in a landfill like trash. Sadly, because of the questionable handling of the initial investigation, the State Attorney General chose not to prosecute the case. The men who committed these evil acts of violence went unpunished, much to the outrage of many people around our State and nation.

We, the Compassionate Citizens of South Carolina, desire to honor the memory of those animals murdered in Chesterfield County on that tragic day in March, to call attention to the plight of all animals who face death every day in our animal shelters, and to extend compassion to these animals by petitioning that the forth day of March of each year be proclaimed as a

STATEWIDE DAY OF REPRIEVE FOR SHELTER ANIMALS FACING EUTHANASIA,

and to press for the passage of a law requiring animal shelters to make available to the public each year the number of animals impounded and the number of animals killed each year.

By creating a Statewide Day of Reprieve for Shelter Animals Facing Euthanasia, we can honor the memory of the Chesterfield animals that were brutally murdered on March 4, 2011. By pressing for a law to make kill stats available to the public, we can call attention to animals in our shelters who face death by euthanasia every day, and save lives by demanding shelter accountability and transparency.

CONSIDER THESE THREE FACTS:

FIRST, IT IS ESTIMATED THAT OVER 100,000 HEALTHY AND ADOPTABLE ANIMALS ARE NEEDLESSLY KILLED IN SOUTH CAROLINA ANIMAL SHELTERS EACH YEAR. They are killed for cage space, or because they are the wrong color, or the wrong breed, or because they are too old or too young, or because they have an easily treatable illness or injury. They are killed, not because there is no alternative to killing, but because killing is easier than working with rescue groups, or posting the animals on the internet, or holding adoption events. They are killed because killing an animal generates a billable expense that each county must pay, increasing the amount a shelter can charge for housing an animal, and therefore producing income for that shelter. Money, not saving lives, is the driving force behind many shelter decisions. The Chesterfield County Shootings was a horrific example of money as a motive to kill.

SECOND, THERE ARE NO ROADBLOCKS TO KILLING IN ANY OF OUR SHELTERS IN THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. There are no laws requiring shelters to engage in life-saving programs like granting other rescue groups access to the animals, making it illegal to kill if cage space is available, posting pictures of the animals of the internet, holding off-site adoptions, and other such common sense efforts that could increase adoptions and save lives.

THIRD, THERE ARE ALSO NO LAWS REQUIRING SHELTERS TO REPORT TO THE PUBLIC THE NUMBER OF ANIMALS TAKEN IN AND THE NUMBER OF ANIMALS KILLED. This means that our citizens who support these shelters have no way of knowing if the shelter is saving lives or taking lives. The numbers are well guarded because shelters do not want the public to know the truth, and as a result of this secrecy and lack of transparency, animals die needlessly.

Therefore, we, the undersigned Citizens of South Carolina and other concerned animal advocates seek to right these these wrongs by respectfully petitioning Governor Nikki Haley to proclaim March 4th of each year as a Statewide Day of Reprieve for Shelter Animals Facing Euthanasia, and to issue such orders as needed to grant all animals in our animal shelters who are not irredeemably sick, vicious, or injured on that day a 24-hour reprieve from being euthanized.

In addition we respectfully ask the Governor to please press for a law that will require all private and county-run shelters in our State to compile, publish, and make available to the general public a record of the numbers of animals that were impounded and the number of animals that were killed in the previous year, beginning in 2014, and to make any such information they may have for the previous five years available to the public beginning in 2013.

By giving our animals impounded on March 4 of each year one extra day to live, and by making our shelters accountable to save the animals they impound and to report their save/kill rates to the citizens who support them through tax dollars or private donations, we can help save the lives of thousands of animals each year and honor the memory of those animals who died on March 4, 2011 at Chesterfield County.