
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 5, 1993                   TAG: 9308050284
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SUFFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

MOVING `DEAD' DOG JOLTS POUND POLICY

An 85-pound Rottweiler among a pile of euthanized dogs and cats at a landfill surprised Michael G. Smith when it began to move.

"The dog was panting with his tongue hanging out, and there were other dogs on top of him," said Smith, a building business owner who was dumping construction debris at the regional landfill Tuesday.

Officials with the Southeastern Public Service Authority, which runs the landfill, confirmed that the dog was still moving when it was discovered in a pile of 34 supposedly dead animals from the Suffolk Animal Center. The dog now is definitely dead, officials said.

"I tend to believe it was a reflex after talking to another vet this morning," said Police Maj. William Dunning, who oversees operations at the shelter. "He showed no signs of life when he left the shelter."

Dunning said pound workers twice injected the dog with sodium pentobarbital and thought it was dead.

But Assistant State Veterinarian Paul Friedman said it's hard to believe the dog would still be moving if it were dead when it left the pound.

"Sodium pentobarbital is instantaneous if it's administered properly," Friedman said. "We'll certainly look into it."

Workers are trained to listen for a heartbeat with a stethoscope, check for panting and test for reflex responses before determining an animal is dead, officials said.

The problem is that employees have no place to euthanize animals out of sight of the cage area where people come to adopt a pet, Dunning said. So workers routinely euthanize animals in the morning and truck them away almost immediately.

Workers now will euthanize animals in the afternoon, keep them on hand longer to make sure they are dead and that reflex reactions have ceased, and then take them to the landfill after 4 p.m., the time it closes to the public.

At the request of public service authority officials, the city also will bag the corpses. Suffolk is the only city that regularly dumps euthanized animals at the landfill, said Irvin Gentry, director of field operations for authorities.

by CNB