http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...ck=2&cset=true
(This makes me sick)
Sale of euthanized pets troubles DuPage official
Shelter sells remains for class dissections
Dog and cat owners who drop their pets off to be euthanized at the DuPage Animal Care and Control Center should be told the animal's body could be sold for classroom dissection, a key DuPage County Board member said Tuesday, adding that he learned only last week that the county has been selling carcasses since 1987.
The issue was raised by animal-rights activists who say the county is euthanizing too many animals. They say a tip led them to take a photo of a van picking up a "cartload of dead cats" from the center in Wheaton. The van had markings from a Wisconsin biological-supply company that sells animal cadavers for use in science classes.
Pat O'Shea, chairman of the County Board's Judicial and Public Safety Committee, which oversees the Animal Control Department, said the department's budget reports did not explain the practice.
O'Shea said that although he has no problem with the concept, pet owners should be alerted--they are not now--if their pets' bodies are not going to be cremated or buried. Then they could decide whether they want to donate the bodies to science.
"We're not required by law to disclose the disposition of an animal once it's euthanized," said county spokeswoman Diana Paluch.
But O'Shea said the policy should be examined.
"There's an emotional attachment, and that's different from strays," he said.
County pet owners would be aghast to find out "that their cat was soaked up by formaldehyde and chopped up by 14-year-olds," said Cherie Travis, head of a Downers Grove non-profit animal shelter and a frequent critic of the county animal control center. "I think it's a breach of the public trust. We're talking about people's cats and dogs."
"A government place like that, out of respect for the animal and the owner, they really ought to make that known," said Darlene Larson, the Midwest region shelter outreach manager for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which regulates animal-control centers, called the practice of selling carcasses "certainly unusual," but department attorneys had not found any law prohibiting such sales. The state has licensed the company, NASCO, to render dead animals, said Agriculture Department spokesman Jeff Squibb.
"Our animal-welfare bureau is not aware of any other county doing it," Squibb said.
Animal-rights activists have criticized animal control in recent months for euthanizing too many cats and dogs--the number of cats killed in the facility jumped 40 percent last year--and now question whether selling the bodies has become a revenue source and a disincentive to place the animals with shelters where they can be adopted.
"I have grave concerns over the conflict of interest that they actually stand to benefit financially [from euthanizing animals]," Travis said.
But Paluch says the county, which has sold animal bodies to NASCO since 1987, averages about $2,000 a year from the sales in a department budget of about $800,000. In the first three months of 2005, the county has sold 249 cat bodies and 16 dog bodies to NASCO, generating $880, she said.
"It's clearly not a revenue generator by any stretch of the imagination," she said.
Travis and Susan Norris of Champaign also have filed complaints with the attorney general, the state's attorney's office and the state Department of Agriculture because they say the county was not forthcoming with information about the cadaver sales in repeated Freedom of Information Act requests about county euthanasia policies.
Sarah Klaper, an attorney with Citizen Advocacy Center, an Elmhurst-based government watchdog, said the county was trying to circumvent the law by omitting controversial documents.
"The county is perpetuating a culture that closes the door of access in the face of the residents of DuPage County," she said.
But Paluch says the county has had to deal with 23 Freedom of Information Act requests from Norris and sometimes must ask for a clarification of what she is seeking.
"I think we make every effort to comply, and there is certainly not any intention to provide any misinformation," she said.
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, as I graduated from high school 25 years ago, this year). We learned, and we learned a lot. And it was in the advanced classes that we were doing these particular dissections.
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