Erie County Dog Warden is the only facility in Ohio who still has and operates a gas chamber to euthanize pets. When animals in a shelter need to be euthanized it should be done humanely and with compassion. Lethal injections successfully sedate an animal and kill them quickly whereas it can take 40 minutes for a dog to pass in a gas chamber. Erie county has previously claimed they use the gas chamber for vicious dogs to help protect their staff. However they are the ONLY facility in Ohio who can not or will not participate in a more humane way of euthanizing animals. Recently the Erie County Dog Warden used the gas chamber to wrongly euthanize upwards of 10 FRIENDLY house cats. 

On Monday June 7th, the Erie County Dog Warden seized cats from a mobile home located on Venice Road. (Baywater Estates)

A concerned neighbor called, who fosters cats, because she feared these cats would be euthanized. The neighbor stated that the warden took the cats that could easily be picked up, as well as a friendly cat that was just left a few days prior when another neighbor moved. Both the neighbor who was present as well as the homeowner stated approximately 20 cats were seized. Although the dog warden claims they pulled only 10 sick cats. All the cats pulled from the property were destroyed. The dog warden admitted to gassing at least some of the cats but would not release whether the gas chamber had been employed to destroy them all.

The homeowner was told that the dog warden would try to find homes for the cats. She was not made aware that they would all be euthanized and was very visibly upset.

Several rescues took the remaining (approximately 20) cats and kittens. All of the cats and kittens appear to be in good health, with a few having mild cases of worms.

The Erie County pound is the home to the only gas chamber in the State of Ohio and has come under fire from such agencies as the HSUS of Ohio and the Ohio SPCA in the past of it’s use of it.

Please help us end the use of this barbaric method of euthanasia.