Pet Massacre In Puerto Rico
I just read this story and it's making me physically sick. How horrific!! :( :( :( :( :(
Pet Massacre in Puerto Rico
Published: 10/12/07, 9:05 PM EDT
By OMAR MARRERO
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Animal control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing projects in the town of Barceloneta and hurled them from a bridge to their deaths, authorities and witnesses said Friday.
Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter.
"This is an irresponsible, inhumane and shameful act," he told The Associated Press.
Fontanez said the city hired Animal Control Solution to clear three housing projects of pets after warning residents about a no-pet policy. He said the city paid $60 for every animal recovered and another $100 for each trip to a shelter in the San Juan suburb of Carolina.
Raids were conducted on Monday and Wednesday, and residents told TV reporters they saw the animal control workers inject the animals. When they asked what they were giving them, they said they were told it was a sedative for the drive to the shelter.
"They came as if it were a drug raid," said Alma Febus, an animal welfare activist. "They took away dogs, cats and whatever animal they could find. Some pets were taken away in front of children."
But instead of being taken to a shelter, the pets and strays were thrown 50 feet from a bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja, according to Fontanez, witnesses and activists, apparently before dawn Tuesday.
"Many were already dead when they threw them, but others were alive," said Jose Manuel Rivera, who lives next to the bridge. "Some of the animals managed to climb to the highway even though they were all battered, but about 50 animals remained there, dead."
Rivera said he alerted officials, who spread lime over the animals' corpses to control the stench.
Animal Control Solution owner Julio Diaz said he went to the bridge when he heard of the allegations, but remains unconvinced that the dead animals are the same ones his company collected.
"We have never thrown animals off any place. We always take them to our local shelter and euthanize them," he said. "They can't prove that they are the same dogs that we picked up."
Fontanez said he would cancel the city's contract with Animal Control Solution and said city lawyers were considering a lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has a rule allowing locally owned and operated housing authorities to set pet rules, but it does not grant authority for a blanket ban or mass confiscation, said Brian Sullivan, an HUD spokesman in Washington.
Asked to comment on the reported pet massacre, Sullivan said: "This sickens me if true."
Animal rights activists have long criticized the treatment of pets in Puerto Rico, where there is no pet registration law and little spaying or neutering. Animal shelters are overwhelmed and must kill many of the dogs they receive, according to Victor Collazo, president of the island's Association of Medical Veterinarians.
One organization recruits volunteers to take dogs home with them on commercial flights, and sends between 1,500 and 2,000 dogs a year from Puerto Rico to American shelters.
At least 175 dogs have been rescued in the last couple of years from Yabucoa Beach, which activists nicknamed "Dead Dog Beach" because of the strays that roam the coast and are sometimes found dead of disease, starvation or gunshots. Similar rescue efforts have been undertaken in the Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
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Associated Press writer Ben Fox contributed to this story from San Juan.
Oct 19 - Investigation into Puerto Rico pet massacre zeros in on Animal Control
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/...t-Massacre.php
Investigation into Puerto Rico pet massacre zeros in on Animal Control Solutions
The Associated Press
Published: October 19, 2007
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: An investigation into the mass killing of dogs and cats seized from Puerto Rican housing projects and thrown off a bridge has confirmed the involvement of an animal control company whose owner has denied any role in the massacre, police said Friday.
Several people from the town of Barceloneta identified their dogs from among animals found dead or injured beneath the highway bridge, Sgt. Wilbert Miranda told The Associated Press.
Miranda also said local veterinarians confirmed some of the animals were from the housing projects, where local authorities hired the contractor, Animal Control Services, to pick up dogs and cats to enforce a rule banning them from the projects.
"Below the bridge they found animals .... that were taken in Barceloneta," Miranda said in a telephone interview.
Julio Diaz, the owner of Animal Control Solutions, denied his workers disposed of the dogs and cats by hurling them off the bridge.
The animal cruelty investigation is ongoing and no arrests been made, Miranda said. Asked if the evidence points to Animal Control Solutions, he said: "That's the way it is, I can assure you."
Dozens of dead and wounded dogs and cats were found last week beneath the bridge a day after a mass round up of pets and strays at the housing complexes, prompting international outrage.
Pet owners say they were told their dogs and cats were to be taken by the company — which has animal control contracts throughout Puerto Rico — to a shelter. Edwin Arroyo, a special assistant to the mayor of Barceloneta, also said the Animal Control Services was supposed to deliver them to shelters.
But in an interview with reporters earlier this week, Diaz said the animals were taken to his offices in the San Juan area, killed and placed in refrigerators. He did not explain why the animals were euthanized so quickly.
Miranda said he went to the offices of Animal Control Solutions on Thursday as part of his investigation, couldn't find Diaz and instead encountered "an unbearable stench."
The company owner told AP late Thursday that after police visited, he removed the bodies of animals from the refrigerators and took them to a location he would not disclose to be cremated. Although animals seized at Barceloneta are the subject of a police investigation, Diaz told AP he got rid of the ones in his refrigerators because of the smell.
"The refrigerators fail overnight and they defrost," he told AP.
But Miranda said an employee of Animal Control Solutions had told him Diaz ordered the refrigerators turned off.
Puerto Rico's Environmental Quality Board said it is also investigating the company after Diaz said it routinely places animal carcasses in garbage dumps.
Board manager Julio Ivan Rodriguez told AP that a person must present a certificate showing the carcass is free of contagious diseases before the remains can be put in a garbage dump. Rodriguez said Animal Control Solutions has never presented such certificates.
"I cannot give more details because we are conducting an investigation," Rodriguez said.
Global anger grew at the animal deaths. The number of signatures on an online petition calling on Puerto Rico's governor to ensure those responsible for the pet massacre are brought to justice climbed to 10,000 on Friday.
Puerto Rico police chief Pedro Toledo has said those responsible could face cruelty charges that carry six-month to three-year prison terms.
New Yorker Launches Petition - PETITION LINK - all countries can sign!
http://www.hardbeatnews.com/editor/R...=Top%20Stories
New Yorker Urges Puerto Rico Governor To Investigate Pet Massacre
Hardbeatnews, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Oct. 18, 2007: Reports of the horrific massacre of family pets in Puerto Rico last week has spurred a New York resident to launch a web-based petition to urge the island’s governor to launch a serious investigation.
“We are absolutely outraged to hear of the news about the horrific massacre of family pets in Puerto Rico as reported by the Associated Press on October 12, 2007,” writes Nadia Donato.
The site is a big hit already, registering over 6,000 signatures to the petition and showing up in independent search engine Alexa at a rank of 24,211.
“We call on The Honorable Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá, Governor of Puerto Rico to do everything in his power to see to it that this atrocity is not taken lightly,” states Donato on the site. “We demand a thorough investigation, vigorous prosecution and seek the maximum penalties of jail time and fines to those responsible for this most cruel and inhumane act of felony animal abuse offense as per Puerto Rico's statute cruelty law 439.”
According to the AP report of October 12th, animal control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing projects in the town of Barceloneta and hurled them from a bridge to their deaths. Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter. The issue has outraged not just pet owners but also rights advocates globally.
On Donato’s site, Alba Solis of California, wrote, “It breaks my heart, to read that people can be so cruel.” Her comment encapsulates the views of the hundreds signing on to the site. – Hardbeatnews.com
PETITION LINK: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/pue...o-pet-massacre
